would formerly have patronized houses of prostitution. And so the Gay Bars multiplied. They can stay open all night if they wish, whereas the bars where B-girls congregate must close at eleven. The other, or Boy-style bars, are more like American Gay Bars, except for the ubiquitous "Business Boys" who flock there in such coldly calculating numbers.

How young some of them are, too, for the age of consent for both boys and girls is twelve in Japan. Speaking of girls, I did not see any Lesbian bars in Japan, though some of them frequented the boys' gay bars. Japanese men tend to believe that Lesbians are much more numerous than male homosexuals.

I have spoken of the houses of prostitution being closed. This referred only to those with girls, for there are a number of houses of male prostitution running quite openly. They are usually referred to as "Clubs," but "houses" is what they are.

Curiosity led me to seek out one of them, but once again I became lost. This time I appealed to a policeman for assistance. He very politely offered to take me to my destination himself. I had phoned ahead that I was coming, so that when we arrived the master greeted us cordially and invited us in. My Good Samaritan stayed on for forty minutes or so chatting and sipping tea, then politely bowed his way

out.

The master of the house then had succession of attractive boys of various types serve me and converse with me; then he showed me to a sumptuously furnished bedroom upstairs where one might retire, but I found the whole thing too repellant to be in any way seductive, and took my leave. afterward I received a passionate letter from a fifteen year old Japanese boy who evidently must have heard about me through my host of the evening.

One thing that struck me about so

one

many of these boys is that they found me too young. The fetish-worship of youth, so common in Gay circles in the United States, is something the Japanese evidently do not share, for the sight of a very young boy with an older man is there completely commonplace.

As my year at the University drew to a close I came more and more to realize that the older Japan I had so idealized was fast fading away; that the younger generation were, while being largely ignorant of their own literary tradition, acquiring from the movies and from their reading of Western literature the guilt feelings about homosexuality which we in America know so well. They were becoming, many of them, ashamed of their homophile feelings. How then could I expect them to want to raise such love to a higher plane?

I saw, too, that, try as I might, I was still a Westerner. The more I learned of the language, the more deeply I penetrated into the culture, the wider the gulf became. It had not been so apparent when I was but a tourist, or a visiting student, but, as I strove to be one of them, they expected more of me. This I could see, and I began even to wonder if all their adopting and understanding of American ways might not be dangerously superficial. The possibility was most disturbing.

Now that I am back again in the United States, I look upon it as an experience that can never be forgotten. Perhaps it could never be repeated. I do not know. I wish it might all have turned out differently than it did, but in way I am adjusting myself to being back in my native land, and to the realization that the tradition of the samurai and bushido and of knightly Oriental pederasty is gone forever.

This is 1960. I know that, even though I don't exactly like it. Still, there are many delightful Oriental boys scattered across this broad land of ours. Perhaps, one day I ...