>>26
When I was younger and more of a Western "watashi wa kawaii baka" otaku, there was a time when I had three Japanese pen-pals at once. All female, of course. I probably still have their email addressed somewhere, but it's been about 5 or so years, so I wonder what they would say if I suddenly emailed them?

Later though, I got out of that. I learned more about Japanese culture, actually learned enough Japanese to barely survive in Japan (heck, I was the kind of guy who actually bought decent "learn Japanese" books and Japanese dictionaries) as well as learned about ancient and and modern Japanese culture... yeah that's right, I was so much of an otaku I actually went out and learned.

...Or then again, maybe I never was an otaku in the Western sense. I did use stupid, simple Japanese sentences, and at most non-anime forums I visited I was "The resident anime fan," but that was usually only because I'm better at comprehension and writing than actually thinking of sentences, and because most of the Japanese I knew I couldn't easily bring it into online/forum conversations.

But I digress. The point is that since then, I've drifted further away from that (so far that now I can point and laugh at people who what to build a "kotatsu" in their room.) and closer to someone who realizes the various flaws Japan has (yet still wants to visit), someone who realizes his biases, someone who looks at the world and society bitterly, and someone, who's most likely, drifted closer to the Japanese meaning of "Otaku."

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of that, I developed a love of Japanese women, and to a lesser extent, to Asian women in general. I consider this one of the negative effects left over from my days of otaku-hood.

Everyday (okay, not *every*day... or even every week. often, though) I've questioned myself on wheather this is racist or wrong. My conclusion? Not really. I wouldn't reject anyone based on race, nor would I ignore girls I think are smart and/or cute if they aren't Asian.

However, I do, for some reason, seem to find more attractive Asians than women of any other race. So when I'm ou looking, I look for Asians... but I don't ignore everyone else.