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I`m off to Hong Kong next year - January 22nd for a couple of days and I can`t wait. It was a close run thing though. The money minus the deposit had to be paid by today and with Reiko working it was left to me to pay it.

“Find a Sumitomo Mitsui Bank before 3:00 when banks close in Japan and pay the money to the company`s account with them!”, she told me.

“OK”, I replied, “Where are these banks?”

“You`ll find them. They`re everywhere”

It takes me 30 minutes to get to Namba AKA Osaka city centre. I realise 20 minutes into that journey that I`ve forgotten the piece of paper with all the details on which means I have to rush back home on the train, take a bus home and repeat the whole thing again. I got to Namba at 2:00 with an hour to find this SMBC bank. I found three UFJ`s, two MUFG`s and a Citibank. I finally found the bank and professed complete ignorance of banking ways in order to facilitate a quicker navigation of the payment procedure with help from limited English woman. But it all got done.

I haven`t been travelling for a long time and I`m starting to get the itch again. Living in Osaka and acting like a native working Mon-Sat and doing inane things on Sundays seems pointless. It`s with that in mind I`m going to Hong Kong on the 22nd and Tokyo on the 8th of Januay for Reiko`s friend`s wedding as well. It`s costing us 250 quid for the both of us to attend the main wedding ceremony but it`s worth it so I can face the gaijin dilemma every two minutes and I can fulfill a long held ambition to emulate one third of a quote from the excellent BBC comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin which goes something like this:

“I`ve drunk schnapps in Berlin, tequila in Mexico and sake in Tokyo.”

By the 9th, I will hopefully be one third through emulating this experience.

Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sake