The Uncanny Valley

The crows flap and complain as Lucie steps outside. As she does, she experiences the small daily shock of reentry that every foreigner in Tokyo knows. A sudden, pulse-quickening awareness of the obvious: Here I am, in Japan. Every morning it takes her by surprise- the sudden consciousness of the profound difference. Is it something unfamiliar about the angle of the light, or the way the sounds register in the summer air? Or is it the demeanor of the people on the street and in the cars and the trains- unobtrusive but purposeful; neat, courteous, and self-contained but intent, as if following secret orders? Even after years and decades have passed, you never forget the excitement, the unique daily thrill, of living as a foreigner in Japan.