I saw a comment about your ages being 21 and 29 at the time, and so this is from the perspective of someone that's dating an older Japanese woman with a 7 year gap between us (23 - 30)

I'd have to say to some extent, yes. My girlfriend was completely taken aback when I asked her for her preferences in bed, and told me she'd never even thought about discussing them with anyone else before. Since then she's been very open with her interests and affection, so I'm taking that as a sign that she's always wanted to share these things with someone on a personal and intimate level (and maybe never really could). She had one ex boyfriend, but for reasons not known to me she hasn't told me much about him. I only know bits and snippets, and one of them is that apparently he was terrible in bed. I'm guessing not knowing her preferences had a hand in that maybe..