As a teenager he would often run away from home to pursue an adventurous lifestyle, including riding in a rodeo in Arizona and playing in a jazz band in Acapulco. After studying philosophy at Dartmouth College (where he had made friends with screenwriter Buck Henry),[5] Rafelson was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Japan. In Japan he worked as a disk jockey, translated Japanese films and was an adviser to the Shochiku Film Company as to what films would be financially successful in the United States.[6] In an interview with critic Peter Tonguette, he said he was fascinated by the films he saw in Japan: "I'd have to watch an Ozu movie over and over again--say, Tokyo Story--and I was hypnotized by the stillness of his frames, his sureness of composition," he said.