I fly to Japan tomorrow, and will probably not be around online for a few days, or much at all for the next few months at least. My UK mobile phone number no longer exists, and I won’t have a new cellphone for a couple of weeks until I’ve sorted out all of my gaijin identification stuff. My luggage is currently about 8KGs overweight, thanks solely to wanting to take my guitar with me, and of course needing to place it in a big ass heavy case to keep it safe during the flight. Maybe I should just leave it behind and pick a new one up in Fukuoka. Judging by some quick googling, it seems that my airline (JAL) charge 1.5% of the total fare per kilogram of overweight luggage, which in my case means a charge of about £100 - hopefully I’ll find a lenient check-in assistant, otherwise I’m going to be seriously considering leaving my axe in Blightly - If I have to pay that both ways it really would be cheaper to buy a guitar out there and sell it again before I leave. Plus then I get a sweet new toy. I just hope they cater for lefties…

Gladly I’ll be leaving England with my beloved Sky Blues topping the Coca-Cola football league Championship after an unbeaten start to the season which has seen them amass 7 points from their opening three fixtures. If our form continues like this until May I could well be making an unscheduled visit back home to join in with the party, thought a long hard life as a CCFC supporter tells me not too worry about such fancies.

I think I’m ready to go. Everything on my several hastily assembled to-do lists is done, and I’ve said at least 75% of the required good-byes before I can disappear. Now all that’s left to is is drive down to Heathrow and meet Stephen and Christopher and board our flight bound for Osaka Kansai, before then jumping on an internal flight to Fukuoka and onto the iHouse.

I’ll update ASAP, possibly with a video tour of the iHouse if I can get everything working. See you soon. Probably.