Osaka to Liverpool, day -4 or so

This is the first part of my retrospective of my journey from Japan to the UK. It seems like a god idea to fill you all in on the background before I launch into the whole palaver of getting across the landmass.

In the space of just over five years I had gone from being a bemused graduate of the Microbiological Arts, through purveyor of English at a high-street corporate conveyor-belt operation, distracter of children and occasional language tutor and into the much more apt role of unemployee. I was in Japan. I was an English man. I was nearly broken but free and intact.

Let me gloss over the rapidly replaced passport and slide past the six trips to Osaka, needed to obtain Visas. Doubtless it would have been easier to get a visa card, as Tricky tells me it isn't hard nowadays. I was nearly packed, had almost boxed or binned my gear: One for the postman, three for the dustman. It was something like that ratio, anyway. Likewise, I will spend little time on the farewells, sincere or otherwise. There is just one big ups to Kenny, whose site is here and is a master of the needle and thread. He makes stuff from old kimonos. Have a look at his site.

So I was packed, ready to go and I had four days left in the realm. I went to bed.