DAY 1

Tuesday 27th April 2004

Bye Bye Britain

I think it was the philosopher Lao-Tzu who said: 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. Mine starts with a single step away from Essex- how much more of an auspicious start could anyone hope for?

The day starts bright, warm and clear as we leave for our 18:25 flight from Heathrow. We arrive at 15:00 and check in straight away. The next 3 hours are spent practicing the ancient Zen art of thumb twiddling. It's an airport. Nothing ever happens at airports.

6:25 p.m. GMT

We leave on time, but to an overcast sky, which suddenly came out of nowhere. In a final act of spite, England tries to subdue our holiday spirits by flinging thunderbolts around the aircraft as we take off. I laugh in the face of danger.

1:20 p.m. Hong Kong time

Arrive in a humid-looking Hong Kong, where huge mountains hide sullenly behind hazy mist, just out of sight. Maybe we'll have more luck on the way back.

3:00 p.m. Hong Kong time

En route to Japan, Cathay Pacific put the boot in by stopping in Taipei to pick up more passengers, which is kind of a 'so near and yet so far' moment- we had spent a good couple of weeks trying to find a way to visit my friend Graham, but were foiled by high prices and unavailability of flights.

Wednesday 28th April- 8: 45 p.m. Japan time

Arrive at Fukuoka airport on time and meet Emma in the arrival lounge. From there it's a bus journey to Saga station, which takes an hour or so. I get chatting to a friendly Japanese guy sat next to me, who spoke good English on account of having lived in America for seven years. His family lives in Saga prefecture and he was travelling back from Tokyo to visit them. I ask what things we should see in Saga and he chuckles sheepishly. 'There's not a lot to see here', he confesses, 'even people in Tokyo don't know where Saga is.' (Over the course of the holiday I learn that Saga has a little bit of an image problem, as it's seen as a very 'country' area between the modern cities of Nagasaki and Fukuoka. There's even a little song poking fun at the local bumpkins, which I will get Emma to teach me some day.) Arriving at Emma's house in the grounds of Shisei School in Kubota, we lay out the futons in the tatami- floored front room ('tatami' are straw mats), and nod off.

KYUSHU