One question I see from Americans sometimes is: “How can Japanese people be so close to America after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?” I don’t think there’s one simple answer. Japan remembers what happened. But remembering something and choosing to hate someone forever are two very different things. After 1945, generations of Japanese people grew up in a country that was rebuilding, changing, and eventually working alongside the very country that had once been its enemy. At some point, the relationship stopped being about what America and Japan had been to each other, and became about what they could be to each other. That doesn’t erase history. It just means history doesn’t have to be the only thing we inherit from it. Former enemies became allies. And I think that is one of the most remarkable parts of the modern history of Japan and America.

In Japan, you can finish all the noodles in your ramen and still not be done eating. You look at the bowl. There’s still plenty of soup left. Then you say: “Kaedama, please.” And they bring you another serving of noodles. Not another bowl. Just noodles. You drop them straight into the soup you already have. Same soup. Fresh noodles. Round two. It’s basically a ramen refill, except somehow Japan decided you only needed to refill half of it. Very Japanese.

Every cat owner knows this position. Once the cat settles here, you are legally forbidden to move.