I just saw this, if you are still around. It was a woman who worked in one of the little shops in the main part of town, near the restaurant (the one that advertises Ho-Made Pies- I'd love to ask which ho made the pies, but I don't think they'd like the joke, so nevermind) actually I have a story about that restaurant too, which I have posted about before. I walked in and there was a couple of Buddhist monks dressed in long white robes in the restaurant. It was so weird and out of place to see them there, like something from the t.v. show NOrthern Exposure if you remember that. Then another shop owner told me she had brought the monks to town to teach meditation when I mentioned it to her. I don't think they were going to be there permanently.
It seems like the antique and gifts shops (there are only like 3 of them) are owned by women who moved there from other states.
It's really a pretty cool town and I have a strange attraction to that area, which is where some of my early family in MO lived, but I actually didn't know that until a few years ago. It's really beautiful countryside there and a really pleasant place to be. I don't have any idea who the Japanese businessmen are or why they bought land. It's just something this woman told me. Farmland? My guess was maybe they might try to turn it into a tourist area or recreation area with a hotel or something. I hope so because that would be great for the economy there.