Even with a US passport?
It is not a passport thing... It is hard to explain. You can have problems in Japan if you are a foreigner. Some restaurants don´t allow foreigners inside or only with a japanese friend. non japanese asians get treated not very well sometimes. But thats not the topic here. ^^
what nation is your heritage? Also it depends. You could enter Japan for sure but you would do better with a local japanese friend. Otehrwise it could be you get denied acess to restaurants, shops and so on. But it really depends on city and area.
I wonder what it was like getting the whale shark to/inside the aquarium
oh i'm considered a lower class heritage, i'm pretty sure
I could physically go, but I mean I won't go because I won't bother going knowing how it is