By Dean Adams
Nick Voge’s column “Behind the Bamboo Screen” has appeared occasionally on Soup for the last decade or more where it formed a very large fan base.
Many Americans have worked for a Japanese manufacturer in Japan but few have lived it the way Voge did. His new e-book covers his travels from Southern California to Tokyo and back.
The description of Voge’s book reads as follows:
Ever dream about going to live in Japan? Maybe study the language and settle down in this ancient and mysterious land. And since dreams are free, why not dream about working for the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers? Maybe write for them. After learning the language maybe even do a bit of translating or interpreting. Maybe even work as a riding model. You know, travel the world and get paid to ride all the new bikes. Yeah, dream on, right?
This is the story of a man who has done all this and much more.
At age twenty-two, after spending his youth racing and wrenching in the Southern California motorcycle scene, Nick Voge left America in search of another life. He found it in Japan.
After mastering the language he went to work for the motorcycle manufacturers first as a translator, interpreter and copywriter, and then as motorcycle model, traveling across Japan and around the world to ride Japan’s latest and most powerful machines for videos, photo shoots and TV commercials.
Sounds like a dream come true doesn’t it? But what is it that drives a man away from his home, friends and family to a distant and alien land? For those who dare to make their dreams come true will also have nightmares. For everything gained, something must be lost. Yin and Yang.
Was it worth the price? You decide.
