...
Frankly, Yves King's only good impression of the island nation was its booming animation and adult industries, such as the various works related to female actors' performance art—audiovisual products, newspapers, books, and so on. In addition to that, in Japan, probably only dining establishments outnumbered places like hotels.
He remembered someone once described Tokyo culture as an "onion." What is an onion? An onion with its layered rings looks quite attractive, peeling off one layer to reveal another, but in the end, there's no core; it's hollow—and that means Tokyo itself lacks its own culture. The culture it boasts now has all been absorbed and blended from various places.
He thought this description was very accurate, hence his disdain for it, which was also one of the reasons for the generational gap between him and Tengen Riichi.
