Written by Sandy Travis and directed by John Quinn, this episode guest-stars Karen Sato as Michiko. She’s a shy young woman who is part of an Olympic Gymnastic team from Japan. Her group is in Las Vegas for a weekend trip, although the strict tour-guide, whom thee gymnasts calls Sato-Sensei (Annie M. Dubro) warns them all of the evil dangers and temptations in Vegas and vows to keep an eye on all of them to make sure they don’t get into trouble. Brian Kong plays Yoshi, another gymnast, whom Michiko has a huge crush on, although he barely notices her, and the first chance he gets he sneaks off from the rest of the group because he wants to have fun. Michiko then decides to do the same and sneak off from the group too.

While window-shopping in a high-end fashion store, Michiko gets insulted by a snotty White woman, both for being a foreigner and for being so plain-looking. Sasha (Elena Talan) happens to be in the store at the time and overhears the exchange. She immediately rushes to Michiko’s defense, as a fellow foreigner herself, and takes her to lunch, where Michiko tells her about her background and Yoshi. It’s at this point that Sasha decides to help Michiko have fun and get Yoshi’s attention, and starts by giving her a makeover, buying her a sexy dress, and getting her makeup done. Sasha then enlists both Angelica (Amber Smith) and Matthew’s (Justin Lopez) help in arranging for Michiko to go to a poker game that Yoshi has joined, to see if she gets his attention.

There’s a couple of twists in this story before the episode ends, including a bit of martial arts action, which I won’t spoil for you, but I don’t think it’s a huge surprise for me to say that it works out in the end, with Michiko and Yoshi hooking up. So it’s all good.

Karen Sato is wonderful in her role as Michiko, believably playing the shy quiet girl at first, which helps make her later transformation into a bombshell all the more impressive when it happens. This was her first credited acting role and it looks like she only had a few others after this, including appearing (and having lesbian sex scenes) in a couple of episodes of LIFE ON TOP under the name Karen Fiji. It’s a shame she didn’t do more, as I think she could have made a significant contribution to the softcore genre, which I always thought could use more women of Color in it.

We get three full sex scenes in this episode, two between Karen and Brian, the second of which is the hottest one in the episode. There’s also a solo scene where Karen strips nude and masturbates. The third sex scene involves hardcore actors Nikki Benz and Johnny Castle, who play a newlywed couple that Michiko watches having sex in the dressing room of the fashion store, and that’s also pretty hot. So, all in all, it’s a decent episode of the series.

Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED 5-DVD set of Sin City Diaries season 1 for $39.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list