Venetia Stanley-Smith Kajiyama, or Venetia to her many fans, personifies natural, country living in her popular NHK program "Neko no Shippo, Kaeru no Te," but her first two months in Tokyo exemplified neon lights and city swing as a go-go dancer at a Shinjuku disco.

It was 1971, and Venetia admits cash motivated her unlikely occupation. "I was looking for a singing job, but the owner told me if I wore a T-shirt and shorts and danced for three sets, he would give me ¥5,000."

Newly arrived, Venetia desperately needed to eat and find a place to stay, but the memory clearly pleases her now. "I stood on a little platform in the middle of the disco, and every time I did anything, everyone on the floor copied me. If I moved right, the whole dance floor moved right. There was some kind of innocence there."