Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?
Perhaps, if you never venture into a convenience store, where half the magazine racks are filled with manga magazines (including the many whose stock-in-trade is sex), or onto a train platform, where the newsstands do brisk business selling Big Comic, Shukan Morning and other popular manga titles to commuters for that long ride home. Then there are the thousands of general bookstores that stock manga -- and are being driven to the wall by the growing number of bookshops, led by the Book-Off chain, that sell barely used manga paperbacks at cut prices. And every dentist's office, ramen joint and massage parlor in the land seems to have manga lying about for their patrons as well.
In short, Japan is so awash with manga that visitors would have to spend their entire time here in a bubble of temple tours or taxi rides to avoid them -- and even then their driver would likely have one on his seat, with a pixie-faced, big-bosomed nymphette gazing sweetly from the cover.