Mutsukoh

Arigato (thanks) for this fun crossword! The crossword theme bears an uncanny likeness to a well known Japanese wordplay: There are ten ants. = Ari ga to. ARI is Japanese for ant and TO is a way to say ten.

The term OTAKU has been used in Japan since the early 1980’s and describes people with consuming interests. It may be used as a pejorative, but recently has become less negative.

Maybe SUMOS (43A) is a word used colloquially by some English speakers for sumo wrestlers, but the generally accepted word is RIKISHI, from the Japanese.

A "shoji" (9D) is indeed a sliding room divider or window covering. However, a tearoom typically has a "byobu", a folding screen used as a room divider or decorative art piece.

I love to see Japanese words in a puzzle! Wow, three in this one. There is even another punnier word making it four with the "Good Morning!" state flag.

Did you know that there are no plural nouns in the Japanese language? Nouns are made plural by adding certain suffixes, but in general, one understands it's a plural through context. So even when Japanese words are used in English a plural "s" or "es" is not added. For example, you do not say Ninjas or Pokemons. In this regard, 33A should be considered an error in my opinion.