Rootin' tootin' hootin' Tex-san

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KUMAMOTO, Japan

Yoshinao Tsuji has just one regret in life. He wanted to be born a cowboy.

He has the gear. The black leather chaps, order-made by Navajos in Arizona. He's got the turquoise accessories, the boots, the big Stetson hat. For one month every year, he lives on a dude ranch.

"I love everything about horses," he says, insisting on being called "Johnnie." "If only I wasn't a city boy from Kyoto."

Johnnie isn't alone.

Cowboys and cowgirls from across Japan turned out by the thousands recently for "Country Gold," an annual event in the foothills of Mount Aso, a southern Japan landmark that has become probably the biggest homage to the Wild West this side of Tucson.

The show had all the fixings of a real hoedown.

Miss Montana Rodeo had her own tent, where she spent the day signing autographs. There was a chuck wagon, selling barbecue and beans on tin plates, an advertisement for recently unbanned American beef imports. And there was enough Jack Daniels flowing to fill a pool.

"It's amazing," Chris Wormer, a guitar player with the Charlie Daniels Band, said as he looked out from the stage into a sea of cowboy hats and bright bandanas. "These people are really into it."

Japan's country crowd is a decidedly older bunch.