What?
Never heard of that.
As a german that speaks japanese i have no probs. 
You could be right, my Japanese is terrible. I studied on and off for a few years, and took a class and studied regularly for about six months before I went. I think learning new languages isn't my strong point.
Most Japanese were friendly and tolerant of my broken efforts with their language and people were very sociable and easygoing in general (after business hours anyway). However, a couple of places in Tokyo refused me service immediately with a wave of the hand and a scowling beramme "nai" (no tats, clean shaven, smart casual semi-trendy clothes
). I admit I might be off base with my assumption of racism tho.
Three white long term residents who were fluent (met independently, they weren't in the same group) had similar tales of dissatisfaction (similar to eachother, not to me). The 15 yrs Canadian guy was the most bitter, insisting he was "outta there, had enough, blah blah." He said that "yes often mean no, no often means yes, and maybe means NEVER". I'm pretty sure I heard that in a movie somewhere tho, so he might have been full of shit. He griped about incompetent Japanese at work being promoted over him all the time, the vexing problem of some women liking white guys but being subtly shunned by the woman's family, etc.
To balance this out, I also met some perfectly satisfied whites who said that moving to Japan was the best thing they had ever done. I'm sure there are plenty of racists in Japan just like anywhere else, but perhaps the tales of prevalent racism are exaggerated. Maybe I just happened to run into a few (or maybe I misread the whole exchange) and came away with an inaccurate view. I was only there for a month.
As for bb, even if you are a piss-poor bodybuilder (like me), you'll be like a monster over there and very popular with girls after hours. Haha, too bad you're married!
