I have often wondered why some people wander and others are content to stay at home. Why do some people leave their home town and live or work somewhere else, whilst others never leave, even for a holiday. Or even more interestingly, why do some people (some nationalities far more than others) choose to emigrate and start a new life somewhere else, but others never leave the country of their birth, even for a holiday? Some of the lads I went to school with have never been interstate let alone overseas – the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast is the limit of their travels – North or South, yet remain enviably content with life.

In a book I am reading by an Irish author – Fintan O’Toole, he talks about the Irish diaspora from the mid 1800s to the 1980s. The population in that country halved between 1840 and the end of WWI. Despite this, most of the Irish left for the one place they felt greatest animosity towards – England. (That would be like half the population of Rosewood moving to Laidley in a 70 year period – unthinkable.)  His description of the Ireland of his youth is that of a ‘decrepit, isolated cottage with wolves at the door, scratching and howling – trying to get out, not in’  Those same wolves would later bring ‘The Troubles’ to Ireland. All of the departees sought to start a new life, and as they did so, it wasn’t in the land of the rising sun.

The modern Japanese are great travellers, but do not have a history of emigration themselves.  There are stll only two cities in the world with an expat Japanese population greater than 50,000 – Los Angeles and Bangkok. This is our 6th or 7th visit to Japan and as always I am fascinated by the place and do wonder why. Perhaps this is because it was partially hidden from my view as a child.  My father, like many of those of his generation, wouldn’t even buy a Japanese car let alone go there on a holiday. There were no Japanese restaurants in my entire childhood experience, although I’m sure Myrl would have had a crack at tonkatsu had she been asked.  There were no ‘Japantowns’ in the same way that every major city seemed to have its own Chinatown – Greek and Italian food was about as exotic as it got. I was raised on stolid British fare cooked with Myrl Evans flare – or at least dutifully attempted.  This is perhaps why this place draws us back so often – its unfamiliarity is so, so alluring.

Lady Cunnington-Smythe and I will continue to do here what we love doing whenever we are researching for my vast reading public – wandering back streets and laneways with our cameras, stumbling upon unexpected moments, marvelling at the aesthetic beauty that emerges in the most unanticipated places, eating with gusto at local diners when possible – and pausing reverently to drink coffee every day at our local haunt – Bluebottle Coffee in Roppongi.  (There are some things one should never stray too far from – good coffee is one).  We tend to choose to spend our days like this whenever we travel, but Japan is particularly good for back street wandering and tiny restaurant dining.  It’s hard to get fat whilst walking kilometres every day – but I am willing to give it a shot (such is my dedication to my vast reading public of course). We will get outside of Tokyo briefly, but the capital will be our base for this particular research assignment – someone has to do it I guess. I am certain though that none of this would have been possible had Myrl and Ted emigrated with their family to a foreign place like Gatton or Laidley in the 60’s (perish the thought).

So I think I’d better let you go Scotty – there is a little seafood tempura place nearby that I do need to check out before it closes, and some more suburbs to wander.

Farley.