This was not written by me.

A portrait of living in rural Japan- by Indian-American-British travel writer Pico Iyer: (I edited it a little, it's from Powells.com, the bookseller)

I don't think it's the same for me, but I see from where the dude's coming.

Iyer: In Japan, I live in a little neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. I don't have a bicycle or a car or anything, so my only movement is within the boundaries of my feet. I feel there's a need for that kind of conscientious objection to the momentum of the world.

Dave: You almost achieve the Walden-like state Thoreau wrote about - that degree of simplicity - but you've clearly made a conscious effort not to assimilate yourself more thoroughly into Japanese culture.

Iyer: It's a way of filtering. Because I speak only rudimentary Japanese, I can't watch TV, I can't read the newspaper, I can't engage in chit chat. Cut away all those externals and distractions.