The elementary school I attended was located at several minutes away by foot, through the nearby shopping street. It was from mid-to late Showa 30s (around 1960). There were two movie theatres a little bit before going through the shopping street. The one closer to my house was called "Romansu-Za" (Romance Theatre), specializing in Japanese movies, and the next one was called "Rearuto-Gekijou" (Realto Theatre), specializing in foreign movies. However, I went to see "Radon" (Japanese flying monster movie) with several neighborhood kids, all in elementary school, at "Rearuto-Gekijou". I was the youngest and still in early elementary school or in kindergarten. When the flying monster appeared in full screen, I was so scared that I said "I'm going home!" and rushed out of the theatre. "Radon" is, of course a Japanese movie made by Toho, so "Rearuto-Gekijou" might have not completely specialized, but it probably mainly had shown foreign films.

The town where I grew up was one of those in the outskirts of Yokohama and almost all the programs these two theatres showed were a couple to several months old, except once Kurosawa's "Tsubaki Sanjurou" was released at "Romansu-Za". I remember a long line forming in front of the theatre that day (I suppose it was weekend). My father went to see it and came back so excited saying "Great! GREAT!!".

"Uchyu Dai Sennsow' ("The War In The Space"), "Mosura", "Matango". I saw these movies at "Romansu-Za". Then, "The day of The Trrifids" at "Rearuto-Gekijou". In my memory, it had been "The Last Day Of The Earth", but the Japanese title when it was released was "Human SOS". I just checked it on the internet.

When I was in mid-5th grade, I think, first, "Rearuto-Gekijou" had gone down and was replaced by none other but a strip theatre named "Be-Sekai" (Another world)!!. Soon after, "Romansu -Za" was also replaced by Pachinko parlor, but my memory is not quite clear on that one. They put up four stripper paintings, each one taller than 10ft, proudly at the second floor height right in front of "Be-Sekai" building. From that day on, we elementary school kids were looking up at four pairs of huge boobs every day on the way to and from the school.

When I was in elementary school, there wasn't any teaching about sex, and at the age of 11, I hadn't developed any sexual desire at all. I didn't even know the word "sexual desire". I had only seen naked women when I was smaller at a public bath where my mother took me, and had no interest in it. Yet, I understood "Be-Sekai" meant a different world, and the strange, abnormal atmosphere the four stripper paintings were emanating came down on me with an overwhelming existence. You might say "exotic", but an unknown and incomprehensible world, something shadier wrapped in some kind of taboo, had suddenly appeared right in the middle of the market street where book stores and grocery stores were lined up side by side. The space around "Be-Sekai" felt as if distorted and it had surely become "Another World".

Out of the four stripper paintings, I can't remember three of them, but one got stuck in my memory very clearly. A stripper with a pair of huge melon-like boobs posing with large black and white feather decorations on her head and hip, reminding me of an ostrich. The reason I remember it is because I saw the real thing. There was a narrow alley at the side of "Be-Sekai" and I could go back home through that alley. One day, on my return from the school, just about to pass the end of the building, a half naked woman with the feather decoration had come out from the door behind the building. She didn't have huge boobs like the one on the painting but she sure was topless. I remember the image so clearly. Whether I stopped and observed or hurried away as if nothing has happened, I can't remember. Only, the shock of witnessing a woman in the same costume as the painting, and her image was, even today, burned into my brain.

So I thought until recently. Then I realized some things were not quite right in this picture. I'm pretty sure the stripper paintings were up there for at least two years since the time of the opening. I don't exactly remember when I saw the real stripper, but it couldn't be around the time of the opening. Were they wearing the same costumes the whole time? I do remember there was some space between the back of the building and the next one, and there had been some garbage cans and rubbish scattered around, but was there a door? It was on my return from the school, so it must had been around 3~4 in the afternoon. Even if it was the back of the building, would a stripper come out in a half naked costume? I do see really vivid dreams once in a while. Could this clear image have come from one of those dreams inspired by the stripper painting?

"Be-Sekai" was there until after I graduated high school, but the four nude paintings were taken off by the time I graduated middle school. There must have been a complain from some educational committee or some such, I suppose. Now, where "Be-Sekai" had been is a pachinko parlor, and where "Romansu-Za" had been is a super market. The buildings themselves were reconstructed. The market street has an overhead dome from one end to the other and many of the old stores were replaced by recent store chains. As such, the possibility of checking whether the image in my head was something I actually witnessed or if it was a scene from a dream locked in my memory as if it actually happened has forever been lost.