American Want

Driving down the highway my eyes are filled with so many things that I had no idea I needed.  Pulling into a shopping center I see so many stores and services that suggest that I need to loose weight, change my hair, get a tan, eat better (healthier, more fit, more local), wear better clothes.  American marketing seems to fill every moment with needs I had never considered.  Am I so unhappy with myself, with the things I own, with the food I eat?   I miss living in a world of blissful ignorance of consumptive suggestions being pushed upon me.  Do they exist in Japan and I don't see them or understand them?  It seems like a different way here, a constant wanting for better, for more.  In lieu of acceptance of something second rate, there is an anxiety to find the perfect thing, to live the perfect way.  I suppose it is its own way of living with its own happiness and suffering.