The first time I went to Kyoto, in the mid-1970s, I thought I was in the middle of the biggest school excursion in the country. Thousands of kids from all over Japan were milling about in shopping districts and on temple grounds, and a foreigner such as I was still a sight rare enough for dozens of them to ask for my autograph and venture a few words of English.
I also spotted maiko (apprentice geisha) in the Pontocho teahouse district, looking forbiddingly remote in their white makeup and colorful kimonos. I had the thrilling (and mistaken) impression I that was getting a rare glimpse of Old Japan.
As Tatsuo Kobayashi's debut feature "Kantori Garu (Country Girl)" makes clear from the beginning, I was simply one in a never-ending procession of foreign visitors stumbling on or seeking out their maiko moment. Taking advantage of such ignorance in the film, four local high school boys instruct the tourists on this wonder — until they can distract them long enough to make off with their wallets.