> sitting in traffic for hours Have you bothered to actually look at the statistics? Americans have some of the shortest commute times in the OECD, while the J

> sitting in traffic for hours Have you bothered to actually look at the statistics? Americans have some of the shortest commute times in the OECD, while the Japanese have some of the longest: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/world-of-commuters/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/world-of-commut... > being very un-social This is entirely subjective, but I've found that Americans are much more sociable, particularly with strangers, than the Japanese (or most Europeans) are. > breathing in smog Again, have you looked at the statistics? According to recent OECD data, America is less polluted than Japan: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/environment/ http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/environment/