So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

-- Jon Krakauer

I opened the door to the guest house in Osaka and looked up the steep, dark stairwell. There was a shadowed shape of a woman looking down at me. And then I heard a London-accented female voice call from another room: “Is he normal?”

“I don’t know,” said the shadow. “He looks alright.”

I climbed up those steps to my new life. That was my first day living in Japan, 23 years ago on Valentine’s Day, 1995.