Keep in mind that California is very good at PR. Or bragging. Depends on how you look at it. Other places are similar, of course. Paris, and France in general, comes to mind, but so does Berlin. London can't decide if it's awesome or rubbish, but it knows it's important. California is convinced it's the center of the universe.

The the logic I can draw from your statement is that Norway is a very humble place :)

Well, yes, that's half of it. The other half is that social status is more implicit here.

I'm down in Holland, thinking about visiting Norway soon, it's just across the little pond, after all. Maybe some of that implicit status will rub off on my during my visit. You have a recommendation for a good place for a Norway-newbie to visit?

As a tourist? Go to the north west: Møre og Romsdal and further up north, Lofoten. If you want to visit the national parks, go east from Møre (the mid parts of Norway). I'm Norwegian, and if you want to see postcard nature, you have to go to the norhern coastal parts. Don't go just to Oslo or Stavanger and think that's all there is (although both are beautiful in their own ways). Go in late July or August. Best wishes!

They just like to make copious amounts of money and stay quiet.

Because the thing Norway brought to Japan already had a name (it's a fish!).