Replying to #14
What have to read up or learned about their 'culture'. Because by the questions you're asking; I assume none at all. History is ripe throughout Asia, so limiting yourself to Japan is rather silly.
Also, saying it's the same as people wanting to go to Paris... Not really. I didn't go to eat French Bread (I can do that here), or to try Frogs legs (I ate those in a small restaurant in Lyon.. I think it was in Écully? Not to sure, quite a while back.) I think your view on Japan is pretty distorted. Anything you listed as reasons to going to Japan for, were things you can physically do and see, right wherever you are. Having Anime or Manga on your lists of reasons to go is just so wrong. Go because you've read up, looked at every detail for reasons you would not want to go, and if you find yourself still compelled to go; then do it.
Anime and Manga is what a lot of it boils down to (I believe), and a person on a forum that now evades me, who works out there because he married a Japanese women from his home country, said it perfectly. It was on the lines of: "You see all these White Americans coming over here (Wow, I'm starting to sound like them!), expecting it to look like it does in an anime, with cute little Japanese women loving them because they're from America. I speak to some of them, and they can't wait to get home.
Oh and work in Japan is beyond different. If the boss says you're working overtime, thank him for it, and thank him for no extra pay. Expect no time off, ever, because you will rarely get it.
I read up on Japan quite a while ago, because I am planning a backpack photography tour of Asia: Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan, S.Korea etc, so my friend and I read up a fair amount about each country. I might be bias in how I see this, but I've seen many people ask the same questions, and it always came down to the same things, of reading some anime or manga or playing a JRPG, rarely does it ever to amount to 'culture' or 'history'.
Don't go there with the distorted view of it being a land of anime characters and love for foreigners, because it really is not. You can live there all your life, and you will still be a foreigner.
You can take what I said, however you want. I still believe you're going there for the things you've read in a manga and the like, though.
Plus, this isn't E-bullying. People are just being honest with you, because, as I've read it, they're thinking the same as I am about your reasons for going, and I am just trying to put through to you, that it isn't as you might first think; do more research, read up lots and lots about the culture as it is today, read personal accounts of people similar to you. Or just take a holiday there and act the tourist, speak as you would in any foreign country, as that is all it is, another country.