There have been many observations about nostalgia. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, There's no "stalgia" like nostalgia -- but nostalgia is where I am today. I have just returned from three weeks in California, and it is a nostalgia mix, what I have left behind, what I have gained, from living so many years in Japan. During my drive from Narita to Tokyo, and seeing everywhere the changes that have occurred, I remembered 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics, the year I began writing this column. The games were a showplace for the world to see what Japan had accomplished in the short span of time since World War II ended catastrophically in complete surrender.

The evidence of Japan's recovery was everywhere: the shinkansen, a speed train unmatched in the world linking Tokyo and Osaka. The "Shuto," the expressway encircling Tokyo with turnoffs that in time would link the capital to all major cities. The Hotel Okura which, along with the long-established Imperial, could truly claim to be at the international level, a standard often exceeded by the dedicated personnel. It was a heady time. Foreigners were welcomed and everyone seemed to speak English. I remember talking with a distinguished-looking elderly gentleman in the first-class car of the Yokosuka line. He wore a huge badge that said, I speak English. I asked why he wore it. For the Olympic guests, he said. He also told me he was president of one of Japan's leading banks. Even bank presidents spoke English and talked with strangers so that all visitors would experience the hospitality of the Japanese people.

Next came Expo '70 in Osaka. By then the world was well aware of Japan's recovery and soon experts would be arriving to learn how the miracle could be duplicated. The Japanese pavilion featured a spectacular film show on a gigantic screen, a travel adventure with two children and a talking crane. There were a lot of exciting swoops and sudden turns as the crane flew the children around the world to see famous historic and scenic places, but often there was poverty, decaying cities and unhappy people in the countries they visited, and the children wondered at this disparity between their happiness and the unfortunate conditions they saw elsewhere. The hopeful message seemed to be that someday, in a better world, everyone would be able to enjoy a more pleasant way of life, something, one might assume, that the children were already experiencing.

Well, there is evidence that the "someday" is now. I thought of the crane teacher during my trip as I saw endless examples of Japanese culture being absorbed into the United States. Sushi is an obvious example. Now it even appears on schools' lunch menus, and at Santa Monica's famous outdoor food market, American students from Andy Matsuda's California Sushi Academy make the latest in sushi at a busy outdoor counter. The newest innovation, following the California roll with maguro and avocado, is the tempura roll: A tempura shrimp served inside seaweed-wrapped rice. (And you should know that the popular name "California roll" has been taken over by the traffic department to describe drivers who never come to a full stop at intersections.) At the same market you can buy a bonsai, its tiny branches properly shaped in the Japanese way. The obvious difference was the price. I visited a bonsai class and while some were scraggly little things in need of a trained hand, most were rightfully admired, even if they were in a coffee tin.

What else? A popular, wood-frame couch with a comfortable cushion and a matching coffee table can be combined to make an American futon-bed, an ingenious combination that makes any room a guest room. Toto is marketing washlet toilets but sales are slow. The available unit lacks the high-class look of Japanese models. Americans prefer heat vents under the washbowl cabinet to heated toilet seats, but Toto's experts have come to study market preferences so it may be only a matter of time. And how about "mochi" ice-cream balls, the mochi covering made of sugar, rice flour, egg white, corn syrup and wheat flour instead of pounded rice, or tongue scrapers, now recommended for use along with tooth brushing. It is indeed a wonderful mix.