Love and Romance Products from Accent Touch

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Saturday finally arrived and Tamura-san and I found ourselves back at the now familiar teahouse and before long we left for Nara. Time was rapidly slipping away and I tried not to think about the fact that I would be returning to the United States in about a week. I noticed that Yuko seemed preoccupied by those thoughts as well. Nevertheless, we had another delightful weekend and Nara turned out to be equally as beautiful as Kyoto.

Yuko had also become more open with her own thoughts about Japan and she explained that she was concerned about Japan's growing consumerism and the abandonment of its ancient traditions. I realized that Yuko had been showing me, right from the beginning, the difference between Japan's old ways: at the teahouse in Tsuyama — in Kyoto's Zen monasteries and gardens — in Nara's parks feeding the deer and by contrast, the commercialism of the downtown sections — the endless electronics stores — the stress experienced by young professionals in their devoted corporate careers — and the excessive drinking. It was obvious that Japan was in many ways just like America. I sympathized with Yuko and silently wondered how I would be able to accept, or even cope with, similar cultural changes in American society as well. Yuko turned out to be a good teacher and I learned a lot about the value of the simplicity and attention to detail that was so prevalent in Japan's older culture.

When we arrived in Kyoto we went directly to Kyoto's cultural community where the Zen Buddhist monasteries and the Shogun's palace are located. The city of Kyoto is in the distance. Kyoto was once the home of Japan's rulers and it is breathtakingly beautiful.

The old ways had a calm beauty and appeal that was definitely lacking in Japan's current efforts to become more like the West. Yuko was an ambassador for Japan's ancient heritage and she possessed a poise and grace that I had never before encountered in any other person. But I felt that she had not yet allowed me into her life. Our friendship had been more like that of a brother and sister than a boyfriend and girlfriend. My fantasizes were mostly focused on the second possibility. However, I knew that my friendship with Yuko could never become a long-term relationship. Our worlds were separated by thousands of miles of ocean and centuries of cultural differences. In spite of those differences, I secretly wished that I could have learned more about her. I knew that there was another side to Yuko that I might never get to know.

I was becoming increasingly apprehensive about my upcoming trip back to the United States and I wondered if this was going to be the last time that I would be with this totally captivating girl. As had been the case so often during the previous weeks, Yuko asked if it might be possible to visit her in Tsuyama one more time on the following weekend. I was scheduled to leave Osaka for the United States the following Sunday but I said I could meet with her on Saturday and I would need to leave for Osaka early on Sunday. Yuko suggested that this time I come alone and just the two of us could spend the day together. I suddenly felt the same excitement that I had experienced when Yuko and I first met . . .