After hearing Wendy Carlos' "Switched-on Bach," he learned that nobody in Japan had a synthesizer. He flew to New York in 1972 to buy one from the Moog company. When he tried to have it shipped back, Japanese customs officers wouldn't allow it. They thought it might be some kind of contraband military equipment. They demanded that he prove it was a musical instrument by playing it for them, but the Moog was difficult to program, and he didn't actually know how to play it properly. Finally, he got someone to send him a photo of a musician playing a synthesizer on stage, and the customs officers allowed it.
