During Clint’s stay in St. Petersburg, he enjoys many of the sites of the city, especially the ones Hans suggested. But he can’t get his mind off Hans. After his last conversation with Hans, he flies from St. Petersburg to Tokyo, Japan. He is totally lost and dejected for awhile, not having the Count to help direct his travels and not knowing what it is he wants to see, or where he wants to go. He hires and promptly fires two travel guides as they can’t begin to measure up to the Count exceedingly high standards. One day, while idlying away the time in the lobby of his hotel, someone mentions an interesting Buddhist shrine in a distant village. Out of curiosity, he travels to this village. The gardens and surrounding parks about the shrine are breathtaking, but his eye can’t help noticing a very handsome American who is also at the Shrine. Clint isn’t bashful and introduces himself and thus meets Ridge Waters for the first time. Ridge’s humor strikes a positive chord with Clint and soon, the two of them are talking up a storm. Ridge has been in Japan for several months, studying their culture and sight seeing. He has a college project he is developing and these out-of-the-way villages fit in nicely with one of his goals, a comparative analysis of rural cultures. Ridge lives in a small town in Illinois, USA and goes to college in Chicago. They travel back to Tokyo together, where Ridge joins Clint at his hotel. He loves to gamble and suckers Clint into a few games. He lets Clint win a few times just to string him along. The following days, they travel around Japan together, taking in the sites and having a great time. Then, one night, after several stops at saki bars, they wind up back at Clint’s hotel room, where Ridge suckers Clint into play strip poker and promptly cleans his clock. I leave it up to your imagination as to what happened after that. Needless to say, they become hard, fast friends and spend many more happy days touring Japan together revisiting many of Ridge’s favorite haunts and discovering many new ones as well. After a couples weeks in Japan, Clint decides he wants to get back to the states. He wants to spend some more time with his Aunt and Uncle in Chicago. He mentions to Ridge he might take a road trip in his Corvette. Ridge says he plans on staying another week or so in Japan to wrap things up before he returns home. Ridge is optimistic they will meet up again, for a strong friendship has developed and they have really enjoyed each others company. P4 and M4 characters. Rendered in Poser 6. Postwork in PS7. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!