RANSVESTIA

country first and then went to Osaka where the World's Fair was in progress. It was the Fair which had gotten me onto this trip in the first place because three years before in Montreal at that Fair I had seen an announcement of the 1970 Fair being in Japan and resolved to go there.

I should have mentioned when talking about the Montreal Fair that someone, before I went to it, suggested that as a publisher I might get a press pass. I had written for it, got it and thus gotten into many buildings that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. So the first day at the Osaka Fair I remembered this and left my roommate sitting on a bench while I went over to the press building which was some distance away. I went in and told them that I was the editor of Chevalier Publications in the States and that I and one of my "re- porters" were at the Fair and would like a press card. They gave me some forms to fill out and asked a few questions which I fielded dextrously enough and they gave me the pass which had to be countersigned by the Chief of the American staff at the U.S. building. So I went back, picked up my roommate and took her to the back entrance of the U.S. building to wait while I got the guard to take me in to the Chief's office, which he did. In there I had a nice visit, talked a bit, and he signed the pass. He said, "I suppose you would like to see the U.S. building." I said certainly, but that my assistant was waiting at the back entrance. He picked up the phone and called the guard and told him to bring her in, which he did. The Chief then took us both out into the body of the building and up to the line and "inserted" us in it. The line extended three blocks outside of the building but we started at the top as it were. That pass enabled us to get into the "VIP" entrance to every building in the Fair and thus in the three days we were there we saw everything worth seeing while others members of our group had to wait in long lines at the popular buildings like the U.S., Russian, French, British, etc.

My roommate had much earlier on the trip found me to be a some- what unfathomable mystery woman because I was very active, in- quisitive and knowledgeable beyond what would be expected of a 57-year-old lady. But this business at the Fair really capped it. She couldn't figure out what kind of drag (oops, I mean pull) I had to be able to get that card. Naturally I couldn't tell her about what Chevalier published but made up some story about how a friend back in the States had furnished me with the necessary ID to get the press

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