Thursday 19th December 2002

A few weeks have now passed, a few very busy weeks. To cut a long story short (surely not why I am writing such a long story), we are now living in our new house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, just outside north-west London. Things turned out well eventually, the whole arduous process just about proved worthwhile. A definite case of "All's well that ends well".

After moving ourselves in (all two car-loads of stuff!), the next day our furniture and belongings shipped over from Japan were delivered. One of the first things I did was to plug in my Sony mini hi-fi, it is clearly marked as suitable for the UK electricity supply (240V/50Hz), but the moment I plugged it in it had a heart attack and died. I also discovered to my surprise, that the projector I had paid so much for in Japan, was not dual voltage, don't know how I slipped up there. I'll have to pick up a transformer on my next trip to Japan, I'm having trouble locating one in the UK. Lots for 110V (USA), but none for 100V.

Yuki is getting on very well at college, now we've moved, she can walk there in only thirty minutes. She's off to Japan on Sunday. She had been planning to attend a wedding in Tokyo in January, but that's been cancelled, so in order not to have to miss any of her studies, she's going over for the Christmas holidays instead. I can't go as I am too busy at work right now, ironically, planning a trip to the Far East, including Japan. It would have coincided with Yuki's original itinerary, but I guess I'll have to find ways to entertain myself for a few days in Tokyo at the end of my business trip. Don't think that'll be a problem somehow, three nights in the Black Lion (now officially reverted to that name), a night in Mad Mulligan's and Coco San's, and a couple of sessions in the Hub with good old Marlon! As for my lonely Christmas... just substitute "The Boot", "Radio Days" and "Casa" for the aforementioned bars!

My story has come to a point now where it seems fitting to stop. Time to wrap up and say goodbye. I've become strangely attached to this journal over the last three and a half years, and feel it would be like saying goodbye to a very good, recent, but treasured friendship. This account has been a very satisfying way for me to vent my feelings, the joy, the frustration, the hangovers. As I really do hate farewells, I'll just do as I did when I left Tokyo, I'll say "Cheerio for now" and promise to keep in touch. It seems no matter how good an aquaintance was, they do tend to slip out of your mind after surprisingly short a time. Some however, do have a much longer lasting effect on your life and get maintained, no matter how infrequently that may be.

I have several low maintenance friendships still going strong in Japan. Let's see now if this travelogue joins them, or if it becomes an old faded photograph with it's edges curled up, surfacing every few years as we are forced to have a clearout, to make room for yet more of the worthless trash accumulated by the static "once travelled" people of this world.

PS. In case this is the end, I should make some big concluding statements to sum the whole experience up. If you get the chance do it, I so nearly did not. It has changed me in so many good ways (not least, marrying Yuki). Be prepared to spend your life pining for that place where the grass is greener, of course, that grass is always growing in the place where you are not.

Visit Japan at least once in your life, you will be amazed.