THE TROUBLE WiTH TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Twenty four hours in transit and I sit here in the country I will call home for the next twelve months. With a stomach full of aeroplane food, I'm like an excited child on Christmas day, everything is new, fresh, exciting. My eyes dash around my new found environment, like a newborn's eyes seeing everything for the first time.

Everything is amazing, I'm overcome with a sense of claim, which differed from my last airport visit. Airports normally witness the two extremes of human emotion. One of sheer delight, families reunited, old friends catching up after years of no contact. Or the dread of a painful goodbye, tears normally accompany both.

The Japanese people that surrounded me seemed to be almost emotionless. This intrigued me.

I saw two other foreign travellers. They looked as drained and exhausted as I felt. They didn't make eye contract and kept on about their own business. My eyes were ecstatic to observe something familiar again.

I decided to check in with Shannon, let him know that I had arrived safely. The plan was - he would meet me at the airport. But plans had changed. I rang him the day before I left Australia, he informed me that he had to work so he couldn't make it. A dark cloud of worry attempted to shroud over me. I forced that thought from my mind.

Here lay my first challenge: I had only the international number for Shannon used for when calling from overseas. Dialling from within the country was of course different. The only reference I had was to calling Australian numbers from overseas. You would always drop the first zero off the number and then add +61 at the start. This being the country code for Australia. So I removed +81 from Shannon's number and dialed - still no go. Then I added a zero to the front as you would in Oz, nothing.

At this stage many people would be annoyed or frustrated, this clouds your logic. On the most basic level this was a problem, a riddle, a puzzle. I thrived on problems. I searched my surroundings for a solution... I spotted an English phone book. I also had Shannon's address. I counted the number of digits that Japanese phone numbers should have and also got Shannon's area code. Bang, problem solved.

Shannon's wife answered the phone, as instructed I said "Shannon, Australia" in a clear voice. This was broken English for "Can I please speak to Shannon, its Australia calling". Shannon answered, he welcomed me to Japan and asked what my plans were. I had decided to get a train into Tokyo Central and scout the place out! Find a hotel, check in early and have a long hot shower.