The Cast

Originally there were nine of us Ryugakusei (�exchange students,� in Japanese) from all over the United States and the Phillipines. Three boys�Bob Barz, John Stolen, and me�and 6 girls�Natasha Delf, Melissa Jackson, Marissa Colby, Sharon Greenland, Patty Hester, and, from the Phillipines, Judy Ann (I have forgotten her last name. Gomen nasai!)

The three guys were put up in a rented house in Nakmao-Cho, a residential neighborhood about a mile or so from school. Nagasaki Wesleyan Junior College, NWJC, had only just started accepting male students, and had not built a boys� dorm. The handful of Japanese boys had taken apartments around town. The girls, naturally, were in the girls� dorm.

John Stolen, from Iowa, was the oldest. He was 29, I believe. I was 24, so I didn�t think he was that old. Tall and lean, John constanly walked with a stoop to avoid the low doorjambs in Japan. He approached his time in Japan as kind of a grand adventure. He was eager to experience something different that life back home. But after a couple of months, he found Japan too familiar and often mentioned trying Egypt next.

Bob Barz, from New York, was the youngest. Athletic and energetic, Bob embraced Japan. He quickly picked up the language, and soon had surrounded himself with a circle of friends who helped him explore the country. I am ashamed to admit that Bob and I didn�t quite get along. The only reason I can think of was that we were too wrapped up in our US stereotypes. When Bob arrived, a couple of days after I did, he spotted my cowboy boots, and had a bad reaction. I guess I thought of Bob as a Yankee. While we didn�t hate each other, like oil and water, we didn�t mix well.

Judy Ann was short and energetic. She had a voice that always sounded excited. Being from the Phillipines, she had the advantage of being only a couple of thousand miles from home, and even went home for a visit once. Judy Ann became a frequent visitor at the house while she and John dated. Like a lot of relationships, it ended badly, and Judy Ann didn�t take it well. The rest of the year she stayed angry at John.

Natasha Delf, from Oregon, was the person I knew the least of our group. She seemed shy and quiet. She never had anything bad to say about anyone, at least that I heard.

Marissa Colby had arrived with Bob. I think they were from the same school, and I know they were both from New York. Marissa was Italian, and proud of it. When she arrived, she discovered Culture Shock. For the first few weeks she was on the verge of going home. Before long, though, she adjusted, though I don�t think she ever enjoyed Japan as much as the rest of us. Marissa had a wonderful singing voice that she showed off in a couple of school talent shows.

Melissa Jackson was from Shreiner College, like me. She was married to a photographer named Micheal. Most of the girls in the dorm were astounded that she could spend a whole year away from her husband. Frankly, so was I. She was blond and fair skinned, and down to earth.

Patricia, or Patty, and Sharon Greenland were from Tennessee. They arrived together, and were good friends. Patty, Sharon and I formed a little clique, and we did a lot of things together. Patty was a typical Southern belle, and never appeared in public without her makeup perfectly applied. Laughter bubbled from her constantly.

Patty was, for lack of a better term, accident-prone. She was forever locking herself in one bathroom after another�the Nagasaki McDonalds, and a train lavatory are the ones I remember best. Once, Patty and I went to Fukuoka to their huge shopping arcade. After getting to the station, we made a quick pit stop. I waited for Patty outside the restrooms. Suddenly, and sharp, blaring alarm sounded throughout the station. Several men in railroad uniforms raced up as Patty scurried from the bathroom, eyes fixed firmly on her feet. She had washed her hands and was looking for a hand dryer, and pushed a red button, setting off a fire alarm.

Sharon was a tomboy who could do anything well. She had a wide silly streak running through her that complimented mine exactly. Putting the two of us together guaranteed giggles before too long. Whenever I needed to be cheered up, or talk about my Japanese girlfriend, Sharon was always there to laugh or to listen. What a pal.

When it came time to write this, I created five exchange students: Ray Harper, Lydia Ontiveroz, Natalie Pagano, Laurie Babineaux, and Will Farley. Ray was me, mostly. Lydia was a combination of Melissa, Judy Ann and Natasha. Natalie was a combination of Marissa, and everyone else. She was going to be the character who can't understand Japan. Laurie was part Sharon, Patty and Melissa. And Will was part John and Bob, with a huge helping of asshole thrown in. He and Ray were going to conflict throughout the series, and maybe even come to blows.

But when I started writing the outline for the story, I spent a lot of time getting Natalie and Will offstage so I could play with Ray, Laurie and Lydia. So I wrote Will and Natalie out, and changed Laurie's name to Natalie Parker.

Then I went back to my outline and discovered that I had written an account of my time there. In the third draft of the outline, I found the story, and I lost a lot of the elements about my visit. Suddenly, the characters sprang to life and started telling me what their visit was like.

"Trade Ship"

While I was writing, I decided Richard would be a Star Trek fan. But, rather than run afoul of Paramount Pictures' legal department, I changed it to a different series. No, you are not forgetful. "Trade Ship" existed only in the mind of my best friend in junior high school, Scott Poehlmann. We had each created our versions of Star Trek. Mine was called "Warship," and was quite military. His was not military, and was, in fact, capitalistic.

"Trade Ship" focused on the adventures of Jamez Dalth Cissona, master of the SS High Sky, a Veneran trade ship. His crew were all Venerans, I think.

Scott spent a lot of time creating the backdrop of his series. He figured out how the economics of the series worked, who built the ship, and where. What the culture on Venera was like, and even created a language for the Venerans. But I don't recall him mentioning a single story about the crew. I don't know if I have forgotten them, or if he was to busy worrying about the details to bother with stories.

Just after getting into high school, I wrote a couple of issues of a comic book that would cross over our two series. The first issue went well. The two ships were assigned to transport supplies to a colony on the other side of Sirian space. The Sirians were the main villains of my universe, a renegade Earth Colony bent on galactic domination. The Sirians attacked the two ships at the border, and Cissona dumped the cargo to escape.

In part two, I was going to have Cissona be arrested by my hero and brought to the warship. There would be a dramatic confrontation and Cissona would win, and be released, and the two ships would set out on a recovery mission. When I told Scott about the arrest scene, he calmly informed me that Cissona would not allow himself to be arrested. He would, in fact, use his superior mental abilities to make the weapons of the guards disappear. "Huh?" I asked. "I knew Venerans were telepathic, but when did they become telekinetic?" Scott explained that it was a dormant ability that only Cissona had mastered. Long story short, his character could not lose.

Faced with a character that could not lose, I didn't know how to finish the story, so I abandoned it. The series in Chasing the Sun is essentially Scott's series. But I have made Cissona a human, and made Venera an Earth Colony. Oh yeah, Scott created the catch phrase "By the ring-ed sun of Venera." Later on in the series, we'll see Richard dressed as Cissonaa. And he's going to look a lot like Scott, too.

I had written a couple of stories about Venera and other Venerans, and when we went our separate ways, I changed them to Sabukans.

At any rate, Scott created "Trade Ship." I hope he enjoys what I'm doing with it. I promise to put his toys back in the box when I am finished.

Texas Boy

Despite what it says in the dislogue, Ray is from San Angelo! I pasted up the page, scanned it, and posted it before I caught hte mistake. I have decided to leave it as is.and explain it aways as a goof by Nakamori-sensei.

Atsuko

Repeat after me: There is no Atsuko. There is no Atsuko.

The character of Atsuko is based of three different people; only two have ever been to Japan. There was a lady who lived down the street from our house who would stop by our house at random hours and steal our cigarettes. Her husband was a pharmaceutical sales rep, and they had an adorable little girl of two, named Maa-chan. If we learned her real name, I have since forgotten it.

In Japan, the doors are often kept unlocked. If you went to someone’s house, you would open the door and shout, “Hello!” The front door of a Japanese house opens into a little entry area that hides the rest of the house from the public. A very civilized approach to a front door, if you ask me.

Directly across the street from us was a beauty salon. We called the man who ran it Barber-san. He would laugh and say he wasn’t a barber. Barber-san got us drunk a lot.

After I returned to the US, I met a gal and for a while we had a gratifying, seamy (in a good way) physical relationship. I don’t think there is anything more flattering than being someone’s booty call. (“What are you doing?” “Nothing.” “Wanna stop by the store for a can of whipped cream on your way over?”)

Actually, Atsuko was going to be a lot mousier when I first created her. She just came to life when I wrote the outline, and wound up being these three people.

This chapter really sucks.

Sorry.

I re-read the last few pages tonight and found them stiff and dull, with non-sequiters on almost every page. All I can say is please bear with me. I wrote the first two chapters in a page by page outline, and I was still trying to force things into this outline. This is a casualty of my "No Editing" policy.

By the third chapter, I was using a different appraoch to writing: drawing qauarter-sized thumbnails fo each page, which allowed me to pay more attention to dialogue and emotions. Just get through this, and I will not embarrass myself again. I am looking forward to drawing the next few chapters, 'cause there's so much fun stuff going to happen.

The Party

Everyone keeps asking if the exchange students have tried sushi. That happened to all of us all the time. Cabbies would ask. Junior high students would ask. Cute girls would ask. The Japanese seemed almost proud of the fact that they would eat raw fish, and most Americans considered it bait.

I did try sushi, but didn't like wasabi, Japanese horseradish. I developed a taste for the more expensive sashimi. I even tried beef sashimi at a steak house in Omura. Certainly are some good eats in Japan.

The Big Mac Quest

This chapter is based on reality. Our second or third weekend in country, someone decided we were tired of Japanese food. It could have been Marissa. Her culture shock might have required a dose of something like American culture. At any rate, the nine of use trooped down to the train station and found ourselves in Nagasaki, hot on the trail of a Big Mac.

I had originally conceived of "Chasing the Sun" as kind of a travelogue, hence the bit about how to buy tickets in a train station. However, it has been 20 years since I have had to buy a ticket, so my well-intentioned plans were shot to hell. Besides, it would have been really boring!

Epicentre Park

The sequence at the Epicentre Park and the scene after leaving the museum happened twodifferent times. We discovered Epicentre Park our first trip to Nagasaki. We agreed to save the museum for another time. I went in the winter, and Lydia's comments about wanting to jump through the windows is mine.

At the time, the museum did narrow their focus as they went upstairs. The first floor was about world conditions during WWII. The next floor was about Japan, the next about Nagasaki, and the top floor had displays honoring two people, one a soldier, and one a school boy. The school boy's notebook struck me hard. I wish I could have remembered his name, and could have honored him here.

Trolley Adventure

Our first time in Nagasaki, we stopped two salarymen on the street and asked where the McDonald's was. They tried to to tell us, but all we got out of it was "Take the trolley." So we got on the first trolley that came along and sure enough, there it was. The next time, John, Judy Ann and I went, and we got on the wrong trolly.and wound up at the other end of town. We finally figured out that we needed to ride the number one car. From the station it would take us past Dejima, the only place Westerners could live in 18th century Japan. The fan shaped island has long since been reclaimed, and the only evidence of its existence is the Western-style buildings there. I want to go back to Nagasaki someday and explore Dejima in more detail.

One Big Vat

Steve Martin did an album with the "one big vat" bit. After eating at McDonald's in Nagasaki, I went away sharing his opinion. Whenever I needed a bit of America, off I would go to McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The menus were essentially the same, but there were some local additions. The Chicken McNuggets, for example, had agreen tea dipping sauce that wasn't too bad. Otherwise, it was just like the Mickey D's in Kerrville.

This chapter is a late addition. By the time I had finished drawing Chapter Three, I was writing chapter six and starting Chapter Seven, when I realized I needed a "Day in the life" chapter to introduce Hiro as a friend that Ray hung around with, and to kind of start the Ray Karoi relationship that had developed as I had gone along.

Kaori

I suppose that I should talk about Kaori now. She is a combination of four girls I have known. She is mainly based on a student I dated who took the nickname "Wendy," because she didn't want to grow up. You know. Like in Peter Pan. I fell for Wendy in a bad way. The relationship ended when I returned to the States, as all long distance relationships will, but it hurt for a long time.

Another source of inspiration was a girl I dated who shall forever be known as "The Bitch in Austin (Do I Sound Bitter?)." Once again I fell hard. In a typical tale of stupidity (on my part) and deceit (on hers), while I was dating her for four years (every other 4 month period) she was dating other guys. When I finally caught on (Hey! I'm slow. Not Stupid.), it destroyed me and screwed up my life.

The third source of inspiration was someone else I dated in Japan. Yoshi was a former student who was working in the office of the school. At night, while we taught our English classes, Yoshi was in the office. Yoshi and I went out several times before I met Wendy. After I met Wendy, well, I just stopped dating her. Doesn't reflect well on me. When I orginally wrote the outline for this, Ray was going to dump Kaori pretty much the same way and go out with Aiko. But because of the nature of the plot, Aiko and Ray's relationship would have been only a couple of months long, and I wanted Ray a bit more emotionally invested when the time came for things to end. So I kept Aiko for conflict, but made Kaori the principal love interest.

When I put all of this together, I gave Kaori the job of Taki, who was the receptionist at the school. Taki was a hoot, and would hang out with the nine of us a lot. Of everyone, I corresponded with Taki the longest.

Natalie and Tatsuro

I outlined this story in only the vaguest sense. I knew that Tatsuro was going to ask Natalie out, only because Hiro was afraid he would ask Lydia. In the outline, Natalie said "No." When I actually wrote the story, to my surprise, Natalie said "Yes." I had pegged Natalie as having culture shock, and being a bit put off by the male centered society of Japan.

Tatsuro, FYI, is named for Tatsuro Yamashita, who was described to me as Japan's Billy Joel. I really liked his songs "Marie," "Your Eyes," and "Ride on Time." Since this story takes place about the time Billy Joel was doing his 50s homage, I gave Tatsuro a more 50s look that was pretty common in the 80s. on Sunday afternoon, I made a trip to Nagasaki and visited the Peace Park. In the Park I saw folks dressed up in 50s style clothes and playing 50s music. I saw dozens of Elvii.

Taco Party

Shortly after the nine of us arrived in Isahaya, Doc and Sue Brubaker invited us over for a taco party. Sue had a friend on the US Navy base in Sasebo who got her the fixings. Kaori's puzzlement over the word "taco" is based on one of Sue's students, a girl of perhaps 10.

Beginning with this chapter, I have started using a new technique to letter the comic. I used to type all the dialog into auto shapes in Microsoft Word. But I came across a way to do it in Photoshop. I still haven't found a way to do thought balloons, so I won't be writing anymore of those.

I am also in the process of rescanning the first 5 chapters to save them in a better resolution for collection in a PDF file that my readers (both of you) can purchase. Get your credit cards out, and I'll let you know when they are available.

Coffee shop

On the outskirts of Isahaya was a coffee shop called Kamifuusen. It was perched atop a bluff that overlooked the ocean. I went there at least twice.

The first time, I think I went with Yoshi. I remember seeing dozens of oil tankers riding at anchor out in the bay. Yoshi told me they were there for storage. The second time I remember going was when with Taki, when I returned to Japan to try to get Wendy back. I remember that the tankers were gone and Taki told me that there had been some protests to move them.

This scene is based on that second visit to Kamifuusen. The walk along the beach is based on a different event.

In the early summer, Wendy and Naomi took the three guys (John, Bob, and me) to a beach. Wendy and I wandered off into the night and we took a dip. I can still see Wendy in that soaked T-shirt.

*sigh*

Anyway, that same moonlit beach romp is the source for a later beach romp. Stay tuned.

Generally speaking, I try to draw the ages for each chapter first, then I try to come up with a chapter illustration. This time, though, I drew Ray and Hiro coming to blows first, which helped inspire my opening scene.

I thought I would try to do a "Day in the Life" type story that would hopefully move several plots forward.

Teasing

While I was in Japan, the subject of student teasing was a big thing on the network news. Every day, it seemed, there was a story about a boy or a girl who either killed themself or killed someone else as a result of severe teasing.

Girls would be teased if there was any other color besides black in their hair, but the schools would not let the girls dye their hair to avoid it.

The pressure to fit in as one of the group was very strong.

A Gentleman doesn't kiss and tell

One year, my newly divorced cousin volunteered to help out at Fredericksburg's Oktoberfest. He volunteered for two shifts, and spent most of his time chatting up a blonde girl. At then end of the night, we had lost track of him.

He returned about 8 am the next morning -- just in time for breakfast. When we asked him where he was, he replied, "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell." It seemed appropriate here.

The Run

This is based on an actual event, though I did make some changes.

One night, the three guys were entertaining Seiji at the house when there was a knock on the door. Sharon, Patty, and Melissa stood there in running clothes, out of breath and sweaty. They told us they were out on an evening jog, and had stopped by for water. I watched Sharon sweat a bit, and Seiji took the girls for a quick motorcycle ride around the block. Then the girls jogged off into the night.

I still have pictures of that.

For this chapter, I drew page 18 first. I couldn't wait to draw the hotties. I even took the page and colored it in Photoshop. maybe one day I'll post it here.

It took about three months to do this chapter. After I finished page 18, I took a few weeks off. Then I drew the first ten pages, and took a few more weeks off. I drew the last 13 pages in about a week. And it shows.

One of the reasons that I took so long to draw chapter seven is that I was daunted by the prospect of drawing chapter eight. This was a piece that would visit the famous Okunchi Festival in Japan, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off.

Except for a panel or two here and there, I am proud of this chapter.

Lydia's Family

One of the things I did before starting to write this story was to create a backstory for each character. I intended to cleverly work the story into the dialog, but, let's face it, my dialog sucks. I did manage to get a bit of Natalie’s backstory worked in, but Ray and Lydia never really had the chance to talk about themselves.

The opening scene is an attempt to rectify that.
I don't know how much of it comes through, but Lydia is the youngest of five kids, and the only girl. Her mom died when she was younger, and her dad became very overprotective. Unlike her brothers, she was good in school, so her dad wouldn't let her work. He wanted her to study. He wouldn't let her date. She pretty much stayed home and studied. When she got to Japan, it was her first time away from her father, and she cut loose.

In my orginal outline, her dad was going to travel to Japan to prevent Lydia from marrying a Japanese guy. When I decided that Natalie would be the better one to marry Tatsuro, since she had already gone out with him, dad's appearance was written out. But I felt that I needed to show where Lydia came from, so he got written back in.

Okunchi

The Okunchi festival was exciting. We arrived about 8 am and made our way from the eki to the arena. Along the way, we stopped at a little stand selling sake. I had a glass, and had my photo taken in one of the guys' happi coat.

After Okunchi, we returned to Isahaya where we participated in their festival by doing the sara odori, or plate dance. I carried a sign that advertised the upcoming school festival. In my other hand, I carried a box of alcohol of some kind. My mind is unclear on whether it was wine or sake.

After the dance, the school treated all of the students to a meal where we had a beer drinking contest.