So I finally went to Japan. It was a good trip both business wise (which is good coz they paid for the damn trip) and otherwise (which was good coz I took the damn trip).

It's a long haul. It took me twenty two hours to get there and twenty four to get back. That's house to hotel and vice versa and I suppose that when you consider that it's the other side of the world, it's not so bad really. I got lucky on the flight out as the plane was quite empty and I got a row to myself facilitating sleeping lying down -- my preferred sleeping position.

The evening I arrived Japan were playing Russia in the World Cup just up the road so I went for a wander around the stadium. Many people asked me if I had a ticket for the match, but I would have been inside watching it if that had been the case. Many folk were hanging around watching the match on little three inch portable TVs and there was one guy sitting quietly under a tree with an iBook as well. I wonder did he have wireless connection to the Net.

I went in search of a bar or somewhere like that to watch the match with the locals, but I found that people seemed to be watching on TVs dragged into car parks or other open spaces around the town. Like you do. My view was limited and my hunger unassuaged so I went in search of some ethnic cuisine instead. Japan of course scored while I was slurping my Miso soup, but once I finished eating I joined a group of about a hundred people for the last half an hour of the match. The full time whistle was greeted with enthusiasm and I watched the ensuing melee for a time until weariness sent me back to my hotel.

Most of my time was spent working and eating. I like Japanese food and had some really nice stuff. My local co-workers took me out one night and made me eat raw chicken (it tasted a bit like human flesh) which didn't make me ill, but didn't make me take it up as a staple either.

On Tuesday night I went to the Ireland/Saudi Arabia match. I should now come clean and admit that this was my first ever football match. Not a bad one to start with. To be honest, I missed my mates for the amateur punditry and while the match was satisfying for it's result (I was especially happy that Duffer got a goal) it didn't have the emotional roller coaster ride that the Germany game had. After the match all the fans funneled out of the stadium onto the train back to Tokyo and I was left feeling like the only Irishman in town. My attempts to find a bar failed and when I went to the hotel bar in an attempt to find some countrymen, I ended up paying a lot for two drinks and then heading for bed, largely dissatisfied.

They're very polite and organised there. Despite the fact that I'd never been to a match before I was pretty certain that you wouldn't find a place to check your umbrella at Lansdowne Road. Just umbrellas mind, if you wanted to check other luggage there was a different place for that.

Since returning home things have been pretty normal. Yet more people laid off at work. The original forty something group I belonged to is now only thirteen strong. Oddly, we all got pay increases. Cost of living ones only, but one guy got two letters one saying we value you, here's your pay rise and the other saying sorry, you're fired. Yin, and then again, Yang.

Otherwise work is good for me (stuff I've not done before and good for the CV) but the rest of my team mates are a bit disheartened. When we learned of the lay-offs many of us didn't know whether to sympathise or be jealous.

As we move house soon, I'll be working from home a couple of days a week, and I have been issued with a laptop for moving my work around. I'll have some organising to do to make an office for myself but I'm kinda looking forward to that. Anna's summer holidays are here and I'm feeling more on top of things in general.

An upbeat note for a change.