Next time I say let's go to Bolivia...

Chris and I traded quotes from Butch Cassidy and other movies constantly.  Looking for that line that matched our situation.  After the flight into Narita, the next line was "All of Bolivia can't look like this."  After many years surrounded by high sierra, this was a surreal trip into industrial wasteland.  We stayed in Tokyo for a few days and then headed to Kyoto where we hoped to find work in Osaka, the largest city in western Japan.

Our days in the Kyoto Guest House were filled with ex-pat characters from the road.  There was the Japanese-Australian, Mark, ("what do ya do when you're offered a virgin?  Ya, reach fer your wallet.")  Tony, the karate black belt, who after getting drunk would try to fight whoever he was around.  Noriko, the Japanese girl who stayed in the house to learn English.  An american couple who had some bizarre sex life (I don't remember their names but she wanted to know why the Japanese girls and the public bath wouldn't wash her back).  Tony, who ran an "English club" where Japanese businessmen could come to speak English and play chess or checkers had one job and he hired the woman.  It seemed that there were more games at the English club than chess and checkers.

Anyway, not to make this blog too much about working in Japan, I'll simplify.  Kyoto, the former capitol of Japan had it's share of "japanese settings" such as Kinkakuji, the golden pavillion, which looked much like the Japan of my mind.  It was not difficult to get a good picture of these places.  The old town was similar.  I saw Geisha on their way to work.  It was a fleeting glimpse at my mind's romantic version of Japan.  The rest of Japan, the modern country was constantly in the way and it was for the most part gray and depressing.  I wanted to live in the Japan of James Clavell.

Chris and I ended up going to Nagoya, which had very little to offer in the way of culture.  We got jobs at Berlitz School of Languages and though Nagoya was not a good experience over all, we were actually living and working in a foreign country and that mattered.