Vietnam -- R&R #1 -- My first 24 hours -- it got ugly and uglier in an funny kind of way

R&R is short for Rest and Recuperation. It consists of one week from the time you get there to the time you leave. I arrived on Friday the 24th of April, 1970 and would leave on Friday, 1st of May, 1970.

The problems here were two fold.

First, you lost a day going east and you gained a day heading west. So technically, you were only there for 5 days. Second, you were so dog tired the first night the only thing you wanted to do is get some sleep.

That may not mean much to someone who has never served in Vietnam, but when the best of sleeping arrangements is a cot and an air mattress, any bed that had pillows and sheets was a god send. So, you drenched yourself in a bit of comfort the first night.

The second thing you wanted to do is have sex.

You've spent the last six months with hands and imagination, with money in your pocket, the knowledge you might not ever have sex with a woman ever again, the urge to enjoy the comfort of a soft, warm body kicks in and becomes number one on your bucket list.

So I go to a couple of bars along a strip on them not far from Yakoto AFB. The first two didn't feel right for me.  The last one did.  Walked up to a girl who spoke English and simply told her what I was looking for. Gave her my room number and the address.

I said if she could find me a girl, I would pay her a tip. Handed her 100 yen.

I waited around the room for a while, got mad that I just threw away 100 yen, went to another American/Japanese establishment, met a young lady who I could talk to and we both felt good about making love.

We left to go over to the room. She was a medium height, slender, Gesha girl with a young smart smile and a nice pair of breast.  As we walked over to my room, I began to wonder why I hadn't just simply done this on my own in the first place.

My door was open -- which was not the way I left it -- and as soon as the Gesha girl saw the two, she said something in Japanese I know wasn't pleasent and in a huff, left.

Now I'm left with ugly and uglier. Ugly and uglier also left after I refused to pay and now I'm back to with hands and imagination -- which was free.

Next day, I woke up, ate some breakfest, hailed a cab with a driver who lived for scaring Americans to death, hopped on a train heading for the main train station in Tokyo and purchased a ticket on the bullit train and headed down to Osaka and over to Expo 70.