I reflected some more on why am I taking an interest in this question myself. Questioning of today's Japanophilia might be coming from a place of American nationalism, a sense of dismay that Americans are forsaking their own culture for a foreign one. I am not coming from that place, since I myself have spent much of my life living my fascination for another Asian culture. So I could never pass for a jingoistic American patriot.
In age I'm like a kid sister of the hippies, my formative years were the 1960s, and I grew up like so many others of that time with my mind bent by the sounds of George Harrison's sitar. Like so many other hippies, I felt inspired to listen to the source, Indian music like Ravi Shankar. From there I developed a lifelong absorption in Indian culture-- I mainly cook Indian cuisine, my home always scented with the aroma of spices and nag champa incense, I've worn Indian clothes for many years, I taught myself Hindi and Tamil and translated poetry from those languages, I even took a class in Sanskrit, I became a fan of both Hindustani and Carnatic music, I'm mad about Bharata Natyam and attend performance of it at a local Hindu temple, I taught myself to play tabla and other Indian instruments, and I've practiced various types of Hindu and Buddhist meditation and yoga over the years, most of all Tantric yoga which has permeated my breath and my body's energy through years of practice. I've watched more Bollywood in my life than any of you have seen anime, I bet.
I assimilated into the Indian diaspora community here and became accepted among them as someone who understands the culture. I even went and got married in India (though I later came to regret that). I often considered moving to India to live. I really loved my stay over there and hated to return to America afterwards.
So I can definitely relate to people's fascination with an Asian culture; I've largely patterned my life after one. (Though in recent years my radical Indianization has somewhat worn off me as I've become more re-integrated with the West.) I can easily imagine other Americans looking at me funny and asking what makes me such an India freak wannabe.
One of the earliest gender-crossing experiences I can remember is when I was 4 years old, an Indian woman visited my preschool classroom and demonstrated to the girls how to wrap a sari. I looked on, feeling myself to be one of the girls, and when I came out as trans the very first thing I did was apply that lesson by wearing a sari. I got the sari-wrapping technique right on the first try. Seeing me, Hindus might say memsahib was Indian in a former lifetime...
