In anticipation of his trip, I began to search for an elegant ryokan where we might stay, since I was still living with Tomiko and Yasu. The famous traditional Japanese inns, like Tawara-ya, host to such luminaries as Marlon Brando, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the two-hundred-year-old Kinmata, known for its sublime restaurant kaiseki meals, were considerably beyond our budget. So my focus switched to more modest options.That was until an American friend named Betsy called to ask if I wanted to join her on a three-day modeling assignment in Osaka. I had met Betsy shortly after I arrived, having looked her up at the suggestion of a good friend who had gone to college with her. Betsy had been studying fabric design in Kyoto for the past two years and occasionally took on modeling jobs to earn some money, since she had the requisite blond hair, slim figure, and wholesome American smile desired in Japanese print and television ads.“All they told me is that they needed two Americans to model eyeglasses for this new store,”
