Japan can feel like a strange and alien place to a Westerner, but I think it's wonderful. I am not really a city person, but these have a wow factor, especially when lit-up at night-time with their twinkling, rainbow brightness, constant noise and busy-ness.
It's the history, culture and countryside of Japan that I love the most, which is why I was delighted to be posted to work at Yokohama on Tokyo Bay for a few months. This is a very built-up port, but hopefully I would have time to explore beyond and go on adventures in my leisure hours and days-off.
I don't speak any Japanese beyond basic greetings so had been assigned an interpreter, who would tag along with me during work hours. The first time I saw Yui my heart skipped a beat, as she was so tiny, exquisitely pretty and with lovely feminine curves. She was wearing a tartan skirt and matching scarf to welcome me, as she knew I was from Scotland, which was a nice touch.
Yui was such a happy and friendly woman with a wide, sweet smile that immediately had me confident and relaxed. Her English was excellent having studied in Vancouver and she loved Scotland too, which had me in her good books from the start. Yui was in her mid-thirties and unmarried and I was also single and just a few years older. This pleasing revelation caused an immediate frisson of excitement between us, which we would need to suppress if we were going to maintain a professional relationship.
Working with Yui proved to be an absolute delight, although a source of amusement to many of her work colleagues, as she was just over 5'1" tall and I am 6'4". Walking about with her was a bit like the "Little and Large" show, both getting cricks in our necks on the occasions she had to whisper translations to me.
Yui lived with her parents in a beautiful apartment overlooking Tokyo Bay. Her father was a Captain in the Japanese Navy (Maritime Defence Force) and her mother a Doctor. Early-on, she invited me to supper at her home, where I was treated like an honoured guest far more important than my actual status in such illustrious company.
The family seemed to glow when I mentioned how much I loved Japan - Shinto, Bushido and the history of the Samurai. The Captain showed me his collection of bonsai trees that he had patiently nurtured for over twenty years. He also had a wonderful, hand-made Samurai sword that was the value of a family car and we talked passionately about Kendo, a sword-fighting, martial art, which I had practiced back home in Edinburgh.
When I also raised my intense love of nature, Yui's mother suggested that I visit Kyoto with her lovely daughter to see the cherry blossom in this historic city. The Sakura, or cherry blossom festival, is a beautiful, natural spectacle of trees festooned in pink blossom, which is incredibly popular in Japan. It's difficult to find accommodation in Kyoto at Sakura time, but as Yui's uncle ran a ryokan (traditional guesthouse) in the city, we could stay with him.
A couple of weeks' later, an excited Yui and I were zooming through the countryside and rice paddies on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Now that we were away from our working environment, we could drop the pretence of not fancying one another and started to flirt outrageously. Yui said that she had a special surprise for me when we arrived in Kyoto, which was also intriguing.
Arriving at a rainy Kyoto in the evening, we took a quick taxi tour around the beautiful gardens, temples and castles, before being dropped off at our ryokan. The traditional inn was exactly as you could imagine, with sliding, paper walls and tatami mats and was just perfect. Our rooms were in a little building that we had to ourselves separate from the main guesthouse.
