Oh, I can't wait. It's so beautiful, the people, the culture, and we all love the food. It's going to be spectacular.

It bothered me a lot. I was really, really bothered by it. I grew up around Asian culture. I'm just an athlete. I was trying to finish the race. A lot of it was built up by certain people (whom he declined to identify) using me. I have a lot of friends in Korea who have nothing against me at all.

I love to share this moment with him. He's the best. It is unbelievable what he has done.

I think part of it was hyped up quite a bit. There were certain people within the organization who were manifesting this image of me as an anti-American sentiment, trying to mend them together. I play no role. I'm just competing. I was really happy with the crowd's reaction. Short track is very big in Korea.

It's hard to change with a sport that's always getting faster, people getting stronger, new guys are coming up, especially in my sport. I felt like I needed something to help me to be able to compete at the top level.

Japan, not only a mega-busy city that thrives on electronics and efficiency, actually has an almost sacred appreciation of nature. One must travel outside of Tokyo to truly experience the 'old Japan' and more importantly feel these aspects of Japanese culture.