The Japanese are great at inventing complex systems of rules, and not so great at explaining those rules to foreign visitors.

Japanese maps tend to come in two varieties: small, schematic, and bewildering; and large, fantastically detailed, and bewildering.

Japanese maps tend to come in two varieties: small, schematic, and bewildering; and large, fantastically detailed, and bewildering.

I was to Japanese visitors to Washington what the Mona Lisa is to Americans visiting Paris.

Compared with U.S. cities, Japanese cities bend over backward to help foreigners. The countryside is another matter.

It is always easier to destroy a complex system than to selectively alter it.