I was sitting having a drink with an American girl in San-chan's Bar. I had just met her, a young doctor who had come directly from Osaka's Kansai airport to Shiraishi Island. She was staying five days on the island and when she left, she would go directly back to Kansai airport.

This is part of a new tourist boom that is puzzling our island residents. This boom has nothing to do with me, but with a writer named Charles Lane who came to visit Shiraishi with his family last year. He was so impressed with our happy little microcosm that he wrote an article about it in The Washington Post. Since then, articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines about this "little known" gem in Japan's Inland Sea. As I am the only English link to the island, my mailbox has been flooded with inquiries from foreigners wanting to come to Shiraishi Island. For those like the American girl I had just met, this is the only part of Japan they'll see.

The floor of San-chan's Bar is elevated, so you have to go up four stairs to enter. This is a recent addition after having the bar flooded by typhoons so often. As we were sipping hot sake and watching the sun set, one of the locals decided he'd had enough to drink -- and keeled. He passed out on the floor, right at the top of the four stairs. In typical Japanese fashion, everyone else just ignored the keeled man and stepped over him as they entered and exited the bar to get to the beach.