Akira Toriyama took a trip to Bali in June 1985, and he was accompanied by a Balinese tour guide named Wayan Budhiyasa. Their travels together across Bali, from Hindu temples to restaurants and beaches, inspired Toriyama to draw Wayan at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, and using Bali as the entire setting of the Tenkaichi Budōkai itself in the comic’s volume #3, published in July 1985.

Toriyama’s adventures in Bali in June 1985 are well documented in Bird Land Press #19, published in July 1985. Bird Land Press is a series of booklets published by the Akira Toriyama Preservation Society in Japan. The series explores his life’s work, sometimes featuring exclusive stories and pictures of Toriyama’s personal experiences.

Here we see Akira Toriyama standing in front of a large gate with three other people. Toriyama describes the image with text in the left sidebar: ‘The absolute best resort in Nusa Dua, Bali. Here we are at the main gate of the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel. Unfortunately, it’s not the hotel we stayed at. I just went on a tour. From the left: me, the wife, Matsuyama-kun (Toriyama’s assistant), and our central Balinese friend Wayan Budhiyasa (sitting).’

In 1985, Nusa Dua Beach Hotel was only two years old and was amongst the very first hotels in the Nusa Dua area now known as ITDC’s The Nusa Dua.