The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

I always had a sense that I would fall in love with Tokyo. In retrospect I guess it's not that surprising. I was of the generation that had grown up in the '80s when Japan was ascendant (born aloft by a bubble whose burst crippled its economy for decades), and I'd fed on a steady diet of anime and samurai films.

The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.