I think this was written around the late nineties.
Bruce Sterling - Shinkansen (Literary Freeware)
...I was in Japan twice in 1989--two weeks in all. Big deal. This jaunting hardly makes me an "Old Japan Hand." But I really wanted to mimic one...So I strongly considered beginning with the traditional Westerner's declaration that I Understand Nothing About Japan or the Japanese: boy are they ever mystical, spiritual and inscrutable; why I've been a-livin' here nigh twenty year with my Japanese wife, Japanese job, Japanese kids and I'm just now a-scratchin' the surface of the baffling Yamato kokutai...more...