downgrades my opinion of an author when i see it used :/
Because of anecdotal evidence you collected in NW Bumblefuck, USA? Yeah, I'm sure that's an accurate assessment of how 300 million people behave and justifies judging an author's writing when you yourself can't even manage proper capitalization. Grow up.
Now now, no need to judge a person's personal experiences. They are the epitome of what shapes their view of the world after all.
lol yes, i read/write and expect all posts on a website forum to be college thesis quality. good job. lol. anyways, in general, NOT to say that the US is the be all of america (i in fact quite detest a great deal of things in this country), but when someone says i grew up in america, they usually mean the US. if it was in brazil, or canada, or fucking hell, they usually specify. and that's just from what i've seen and heard so forgive me for not talking to every single person in the world. add on to the fact that a lot of stories that do say this, have something else specifying it to the US. OR, the fact that people in US call themselves americans, while those from other countries on this continent call themselves what have you, so that when someone says america it again means more specifically the US. and i know some areas do do it, but speaking in a broader sense of the country as a whole. if it was really a US culture thing, i think it'd be part of our media, like you see in brittish shows on bbc doing it all the time, or in any number of their movies i've also watched, yet it's rare i see it on anything made and shown here. if it's a cultural thing, you can't help but put it in your media, because for you, that's simply the way things are done.
the author COULD HAVE (enjoy those caps) happened to visit a town (if she even did) when in the US that actually did kiss on the cheek but, i find that doubtful. if it was for business, then chances are they visited a big city, to have been brought here all the way from japan for it. if it was for pleasure, then it would have been a tourist trap, which again, small chance of it being a big kissy town considering those are all about sucking as much money out of any tourists as they can. before anyone frills up or puffs out, these are just assumptions off of educated guesses based on my own personal experiences, but i think they come close to the truth.
just out of curiosity, for those of you who are not in america wherever, when you DO hear the name america what pops first in your mind? the united states? or the continent as a whole? and for those of you in the US that DO kiss on cheek, do you live in a big city or small town? is it just your family that does it, or everyone you know?
but to be more on topic i just still have not seen a lot from this series that makes it unique.