When I went to Japan for nostrasia last year it was a horribly lonely place; luckily the conference was full of friendly people, but outside it I felt extremely isolated. I had meaningful interactions with only 2 Japanese people while I was there. There felt like a deep isolation due to language barrier, culture, and race. I'm curious about your take on this.

I'm from rural America where you can talk to almost anyone and it's not weird.