The author was sent to Japan last year by the Maori Women's Wel-fare League, as conference delegate. Hr lively report shows her experi-ences during the tour. EASTERN INTERLUDE by Mrs TAKA MOSS August The 12th 1958, a gloriously fine day, the time 5 p.m., the place Christchurch International Airport. I was on my way to Japan to attend the 8th International Conference of the Pan Pacific and South East Asian Women's Association, as a delegate of the Pan Pacific Association of New Zealand and as a representative of the Maori Women's Welfare League. Also on the aircraft were five other delegates, including Dr Moana Gow, the leader of the New Zealand Delegation. After short stays in Sydney, Darwin and Man-ila, I flew by Viscount to Hong Kong, and here I felt the full impact of West meets East. Strange to my eyes were the picturesque float-ing restaurants of “Aberdeen,” a most inappro-priate name, where diners may choose the fish they want from huge tanks, and to reach them a trip in a quaint Sampan is necessary. Hong Kong harbour is a tremendously busy place because of its “free port” status, and large cargo ships can be seen unloading at all times. A feature of the skyline are the thousands of bamboo poles which protrude from all the win-dows of most apartment houses, and are used as clothes-lines. Here I had an indefinable feeling that as a Maori I was accepted without reservation by all the Chinese I came in contact with, and the strangeness of being in a country where the dark skinned race are in the majority soon wore off. Just under two days was spent here, then on to Tokyo, where we received a marvellous welcome from our Japanese hostesses, and from students of the International Christian University where the Conference was to be held. They also held high above their heads a banner saying “Wel-come to the Delegates to the P.P.S.E.A. Con-ference.” Tokyo is a very modern city, with wide streets and narrow streets, tall buildings and small build-ings, in fact, it is a city of nine million people, and it seems on first sight that everyone of those nine million is hurrying and scurrying through the streets on foot, on bicycles and in motor-cars, but I soon settled down to this seemingly busy existence. Family stores stay open as long as any mem-ber of the family is awake; the larger stores, however, observe shorter hours. Mrs Taka Moss, with a friend, in Tokio, both looking very acclimatised.