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17 Apr 25 - 07:33 PM (#4221097) Subject: Lyr Add: Meet Me in Kyoto Moto From: Lighter In the mid eighties I met a "non-traditional" (i.e., "older") undergraduate student named Isaac Yost. He was from Pennsylvania. Yost had serve in the USAF in Japan about thirty years earlier. As I recall, this ( ther than "There Are No Fighter Pilots Down in Hell") was the only Air Force song he knew. It went to the tune of "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (1944): Meet me in Kyoto, Moto, Meet me at the shrine. We will take our shoes off, Moto, Or we'll pay a fine. We will have some sukiyaki, And we'll drink a cup of saki: Meet me in Kyoto, Moto, Meet me at the shrine. There are only two Internet appearances (really just one), and the words are virtually the same. "Kyoyo Moto" literaly means "Kyoto Capital," but the song is thinking of the fictional Japanese spy, Mr. Moto, created in 1935 by John P. Marquand, and was the hero of several very popular novels. He was played on screen by Peter Lorre. The Japanese allusions combined with the all-American melody make for an amusing commentary on the novelties of Japanese culture as seen through western eyes. |