Chapter 18

At 7:00 I was up and on the phone to the embassy. I told Kari that we were safe and the transaction had gone well and that he wanted fifty more guns. I also told her that I was going to drop a few breadcrumbs next time to see if he picked them up. She wanted me to explain but I just told her to get the guns. She asked about the pot and I told her that I had just dropped the breadcrumb and he hadn’t picked it up yet.

At 8:30, Bill and I were on a train to Osaka. At noon we were having lunch in Osaka. Again it was a small stall like restaurant with six tables. I had the address of the place I wanted to go. After lunch we got in a cab and I gave the driver the address. We pulled up in front of an auto dealership a few miles out of town. I was expecting high-end cars, but it was all kinds of cars. The first three cars I saw were VW bugs, yellow, white and black.

Turning around and back to the train station was my first thought but since we’d come all this way we might as well look around. Bill said, “They sell cars in Tokyo.”

There was no reply so I said, “Come on,” as I paid the driver.

We walked onto the lot and saw that there were some American cars and even some that were in good shape. A man came out to meet us. He spoke English very well. “Hello. Welcome. How may I help you today?”

“I was sent down here by a friend and he said that you have some nice cars.”

His hand went in a sweeping motion to indicate that all the cars on the lot were for sale. “We have many cars to choose from.”

“These are all nice if I need to go somewhere but not what I was looking for. I want a car that goes fast and people stop to look at it. Do you have any Mustangs, Camaros or similar cars?”

He didn’t say anything but his head was slightly nodding. “Who sent you here?”

“A friend that works at the US embassy in Tokyo. He said that you deal with many of our servicemen.”

“You don’t want anything off of this lot. You want to see what we have in the warehouse. Follow me.”

Behind the office was a shop where cars were being fixed and beyond that was another building. Inside were the cars that we’d come to see. There were about ten of them.

“We get them from different people and places but most we buy from GIs that are shipping out. They bring them in when they’re stationed here but when they deploy to other parts of the world or are shipped home, they sometimes want to sell them.”

There was a red ‘68 SS Camaro that looked good. It was a convertible and I didn’t really want that in the wintertime or if I was leaving things locked in the car. My eyes kept being drawn back to a Mustang. I walked over to look at it. It was a black, 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 fastback.

As I circled the car the man said, “You have a good eye. A sergeant in the Army owned this. He was killed in a training accident and I bought this from his wife so she could go back to the states. I gave her a little more than I should but she needed the money.”

I took it for a test drive and when I came back he was talking to Bill and they were looking at the Camaro. When I got out he asked, “What do you think?”

“I like her. How much are you asking?”

“Three million Yen.”

“They made a lot of these cars.”

“And not many made it to Japan. If you were in the states, you might pay a few dollars less.”

“It’s probably only worth two million.”

I saw him smile knowing that he had less than two million in it. Now it was all about how much profit he could get. We ended up splitting the difference and we settled on two and a half million yen. Bill had some newfound money in his pocket and wanted to pick up the Camaro. I asked him where he was going to park it.

“I’ll find a place.”

“Bill, I came down without knowing what they had. They have four cars here that I’d be happy to drive. Why don’t you wait a bit and figure out the permits and parking. We can do another road trip and see what else they may have in stock. If the Camaro is still here, they will be more willing to come down in price to get rid of it.”

He did ask the salesman what kind of inventory they normally had on hand and was told that this was average. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. He took the man’s card so we could call next time. We did all the paperwork and when it came time for us to pay, I reached in the backpack and pulled out three packs of cash. I broke the last one open and counted out fifty 10,000 yen bills. There were some other fees but I just left the money there until the extra fees went away and they altered the numbers to make it work. I knew we wouldn’t be driving home that night and wasn’t in any hurry.

We dropped our bags in the trunk and I said, “Thanks for coming with me. I thought that this thing would cost me three million and I came in well under that. I guess that means we have some money for a nice hotel and a nice dinner.”

“The hotel that you’re in now isn’t too bad. Where are you going to park her back in Tokyo?”

“I have a parking spot with my apartment and can park there for free. What do you want for dinner?”

“We are in a part of Japan known for beef. Kobe is right down the road and they raise beef that will melt in your mouth.”

“Then let’s find a hotel and then a great place for steak.” We found a really nice hotel and then a great place for steak where it was cooked on a hibachi built into the table. Our waitress stayed to cook and serve us. The meal was amazing.

After dinner we found a club called Maharaja. It was a disco and the place was busy. After finding our way to the bar, we found a table we could set our drinks on. It was still early at just before 8pm but it gave us a chance to check out what was going on and a place to set our drinks.

Bill is a few years older than me. He is right at six foot so I’m about three inches taller. He has black curly or wavy hair. Mine goes from blonde if I’m out in the sun too much to a lighter brown if I’m indoors. Bill is in shape but my shoulders, stomach and chest are more defined from working out and rowing. Both being taller and American made us stand out in the crowd. Some girls like that and a few stopped by to share our table, dance and have some fun conversation.

Some of the girls moved on or were dismissed but there were two that were together and Bill and I were into. We were drinking and I was glad that I’d left the car at the hotel and we’d been using taxis to get around. Both girls were students and Bill mentioned the University of Tokyo. I didn’t say what I did but we all seemed to be having a lot of fun.

One of the girls said, “Do you want to come back to our dorm?”

I said, “If you want to come to our hotel, we can have room service or drinks delivered to the room.”

They looked at each other and one nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”

When we pulled up in front of the Hilton. It was very upscale, modern and catered to westerners. The girls smiled and we all walked to the elevator and then rode up to the seventeenth floor. We had nice rooms that connected and had both sitting areas and beds. It wasn’t a two-bedroom suite like back in Tokyo but it met our needs. We ordered some snacks and drinks. The delivery person went and filled our ice buckets. He was tipped well and after a drink, I took the girl next to me by the hand and led her to my room. We didn’t close the door between the rooms but we couldn’t see them.

We started out kissing and then slowly stripped each other. Exploring as we went until I had her naked and eating that pussy. She was a noisy one and didn’t hold back when she came. She came twice before I entered her and once more as we had sex. She liked my big cock and told me over and over to fuck her harder and faster. When we finished and cleaned up, I nodded off. I woke up a few hours later when I felt the lips on my cock. Looking down, I could see that the girls had traded places.

I let her get me hard and then rolled over and pinned her hands over her head and sucked on her nipples as we had sex. She squirmed but the moaning sounds she was making let me know that she was enjoying it. She was still in my arms when I woke up in the morning.

I rubbed her breasts as she woke up and rolled over to look at me. I asked, “Didn’t you like my friend or did your friend not like me?”

“I like your friend and I like you. My friend likes you a lot and says you are a good lover like your friend. We know that you are leaving today and just wanted to have fun.”

“I had fun too. We can see if you wake them up when I make you cum again.”

They woke up and as we lay together after morning sex, we could hear them in the other room finishing their fun. We showered and went to breakfast with the girls in their clothes from the night before. We checked out and gave the girls a ride home in my new car before driving back to Tokyo.

The drive was about six hours. We did a lot of catching up and I told him everything. I started out talking about high school in the states, then Russia and England. I told him about Adam as a friend, a roommate and a business partner. He knew about me as an agent and promised to tell no one. He told me about college, his friends, his girlfriends and what little he’d done for the agency. He didn’t really have an assignment but to observe different groups at school and report on them. Some were more extreme. He was excited and interested in helping me on my current assignment.

He was studying business management as a degree and had about six months left to graduate. After we stopped for gas, I tossed him the keys and got in the passenger side. I said, “You pay for any tickets. We just have temporary tags on her. We haven’t gotten any embassy plates yet.” I told him that he could drive the car whenever I didn’t need it.

I ended up dropping him at his place and then having to find the way to my hotel. They did have parking and the valet was happy to see me when I pulled up knowing that he would get a chance to drive the car.

After selling the guns and winning at cards, even after buying the car, I still had a lot of money with me and wished that I had a big safe in my room. I wasn’t worried about a robbery but didn’t like to leave it in the room while I went out. That meant that I would be taking a backpack with me when I went out. It also meant that it would be a good idea to open a bank account or two in Japan.

Monday morning I checked in with Sakura. She was happy to hear from me and asked if I could stop by after lunch for a meeting. I spent the morning opening a personal account, a business account and renting a large safe deposit box. I deposited most of the cash in my checking account, transferred about the same amount to our business account making sure that Adam was on the account and sending him a signature card. The safe deposit box got one bundle or a million Yen to start.

Sakura had a smile on her face when I arrived and I was shown to a conference room. Her father came in and we shook hands with slight bows. He started by saying, “Nick, when you first came in, I told you that you didn’t fit the mold of our normal customer and this theme has continued. The size of your place and style you are striving for is different but also an exciting challenge. Sakura has put some things together that I think you’ll like and also discuss some of the challenges that she is facing. She’s one of our junior decorators but seems to be doing a good job. How are you feeling about this so far?”

“I’m looking forward to seeing the vision that she’s come up with. I do a lot of things very well but decorating isn’t one of them. I have trouble picking out the right pair of shoes to go with an outfit. I know what I like and what I don’t but taking a step back to come up with a theme, concept or design is just foreign to me. So far I’m happy with the respect that Sakura has shown me given my age and minimal knowledge in this area. I feel like we have to take small steps and have good communication for this to work and she has been happy to work at this pace with me. I have no complaints. I’m sure she’s reached out to others in your firm to make sure there aren’t things that she’s missing.”

He nodded and Sakura said, “Thank you Nick, I have also enjoyed working with you. Just knowing what you want is a big step in coming up with a solid design.” With that, she started to show some pictures that she’d come up with laying out colors and themes for the different rooms. When she was finished she asked what I thought. Her father sat forward a little bit to hear what I had to say.

“Sakura, I liked most of your designs. I think the only area that I want to change up would be the office. I was thinking a little more masculine as well as needing more space. I’m creative in what I do and work alone for the most part. I don’t need little conference areas. I need room to walk around, a couch to lay down and think, a white board to diagram my ideas and plenty of desk space to work, and a computer and a printer.”

They both looked at each other. Sakura’s dad said, “I have to apologize. That was what she had drawn and when I saw it I thought that what you see here would be more professional in case someone came to visit. I encouraged her to include some of the features that didn’t fit your needs. In fact it was the only drawing that she changed. She’ll redraw it tonight since we marked up the one she had drawn previously.”

“If you have the old one here then maybe we can see it and I can approve or make changes to what she had drawn.”

She did have it and with a couple comments it was approved. She said, “If you like the colors, we can get the paint crews in there this week. It will take a while to get everything painted. I can order the floor coverings and some of the pieces we’ve agreed on. Some of what I envisioned, I’m having trouble finding here in Tokyo. I have been scouring catalogs.”

“I was thinking about that this weekend. Due to my size, some furniture may need to be bought in other places or made custom. I’m tall and if I wanted to stretch out on a couch in front of the TV or in my office, I would want it to be comfortable and long enough so that I didn’t need to curl up to fit.”

She replied, “You’ve traveled the world and picked up things along the way that you like. It is a blessing that you’ve been able to find things that you enjoy but also a curse trying to find it all here in Japan. I’ve been to Hawaii once with my family and they had cookies there that we’re unable to find here. I liked the cookies but there isn’t anything similar here.”

This was a crossroads. The time and cost of designing and building one off pieces of furniture or going to find what is already being built somewhere else. Or I had the option of just trying to get as close as possible with what was available. They were both watching me as I made my decision.

“I have a proposition. I can work anywhere and in fact did some work while I’ve been here in this meeting. I had an idea that I’ll draw up and send off to the main office. What this boils down to is a choice to compromise what I want, find what I want or build what I want. Building may be cheaper but for selfish reasons, I would like to find it.”

They both were quiet so I went on, “One of my ideas for a new business here in Japan is to start importing things from other countries that are not already here. I got a new car over the weekend and if there are three of them in the country, I’d be surprised. The cookies that you had in Hawaii could be something on the shelf. I would also like to have some furniture for those that want a different look or feel. To that end, I would like to go find what we can; not only for my apartment but also to find suppliers for my store. If Sakura is able to travel and help find the right things for the apartment, I’ll pay her way and she can also find new suppliers for your business here.”

Sakura turned to her father with hope in her eyes. “Where do you think you will go?”

I said, “America for sure. North Carolina has a lot of furniture factories and New York and Los Angeles have stores that specialize in high-end furniture for those regions. Outside of that I don’t know where in the world to travel. I would suspect that Paris has high-end stores, but I don’t know where the furniture is made.”

Sakura said, “I have seen some high quality furniture coming out of Vietnam, the US like you said and Germany. Italy and China are also players in the market but China makes primarily what others design.”

Looking at her father, I asked, “Can you do without her while she adds to her resume?”

“That would be some trip. How long will you be gone?”

“I know in America that there is one city in North Carolina that is known for furniture and many companies are in that area or they’re centralized. The same could be said for boat builders or carpet manufacturers. What that means is that we won’t be touring America. We could just go to that one region in that one state and see a majority of the manufacturers. Again LA and New York are options if we wanted to see new styles on display but as far as relationships and the people making the furniture we wouldn’t be stopping in each state looking at what they have to offer. I would think that the same was true in other countries.”

“I have heard of Hickory, North Carolina and the same is true for other countries. If you are paying her way, then I think it would be good for both her and the firm. We’ll discuss it after you leave and let you know this afternoon.”

It felt like I was being dismissed but I stayed seated. “I know that I’m already making changes but some of the things that I thought of over the weekend before you start construction and painting is that I’d like a good size safe in my office and smaller ones for jewelry or valuables in each of the bedrooms. My mother may come visit and she is a jewelry nut. I would just feel safer being able to lock things away.”

Sakura said, “We’re still in the design phase so it isn’t a big deal. If you were moving in tomorrow it would be.”

“One other thing that I’d like is to have the phone lines installed and turned on. I don’t have a phone number and am rarely at the hotel. I’d like an answering machine so people can leave me messages.”

“You said three lines in the office. One of those will be throughout the apartment, correct?”

“Perfect.”

There was some small talk to end the meeting but I was soon on my way. Sakura called later that afternoon at my hotel and let me know that the trip was approved but she needed to get the crews working and make a few lists of the things she would be looking for. We set up a time for the following week to take off and start exploring.

I made a call to Kari to tell her about the trip and ask about the guns. She told me that they had twenty-five and were making sure that no more than two or three serial numbers were in sequence so that it looked like they were purchased from multiple stores and not one big shipment. I thanked her for her attention to detail and said that I’d let her know when I would be over to get them.

My last call of the day was after dinner to the states. I called at 9:00. Adam was awake and at his desk. “How is Japan?”

“It’s going well. I may stop by in a week or two. I need to do some furniture shopping.”

“I got all mine in one day at one store. You should learn to be efficient like me.”

“I’m sure the Salvation Army appreciated the income. My mom might come and visit me so it has to look good. She likes only the best for her boy.”

“I remember the speakers she bought. I still use them today. Let me know when you’ll be in and I’ll clear my calendar.”

“I will. I had another idea for us. As I was working with a designer, I was thinking about having to make changes often meaning that a new document needs to be created. It made me think of the word processing software. You can save it, change it and print out a new one. The same can or could be done for building blueprints and layouts for interior designers.

“You would have to have conversions for metric, and of course printers that could handle the larger printing but the detail that is put into a drawing is substantial and the ability to make changes would warrant the cost of the software.”

“I like it. Can you write up a summary and send it over?”

“I thought you were taking notes. Sure, I guess that I can do my job for a change.”

“You do fine. What else is new?”

“I opened a few bank accounts. You will get some paperwork to give you ownership and a signature card so you can move money in and out. I bought a car so I can get around and carry things. I found an apartment that’s being decorated and I’m going on a trip looking for things I may want to import. The restaurant and bar is coming along slowly. Most places I eat are really small. I mean like twenty to thirty people. I’m looking for locations and keep kicking around concepts that I think will work. When I figure it out, I’ll make the next steps.”

“I believe in you. You normally think things through to some extent. Business is continuing to grow and money is coming in so do what you want. Let me know when you’ll be in town.”

“I will. It may be New York or North Carolina but I’ll try to do a day at least in Boston.”