Feb. 6, 2006: Japan has long been cast by outsiders as unique and alien. But Westerners are finding that there is no longer anything particularly challenging about Japan--and that its image as a profoundly inward-looking place no longer applies. Indeed, writes NEWSWEEK's Tokyo Bureau Chief, Christian Caryl, the country now has all the familiar landmarks of urban Western life: the same suicidal bike messengers, the same credit cards and the same seasonal sales at stores like Chanel, pictured here.

"America is addicted to oil."
—President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union Message, on reducing America's dependence on oil through the use of alternative energy sources
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