Meet Peaches

It's the day before we're due to fly to Japan and we're attempting to pack our bags. Ollie's naturally is being packed with perfect precision, and he demonstrates how his zip closes with flawless fluidity. Arse. Looking for a distraction I bring up our impending departure with his 3 year old nephew who's half watching us and half recreating Jurassic Park with the contents of the toy box.

"Hey Alf."
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember where Ollie and I are going tomorrow?"
"Um. No?"
"Japan. Remember we told you, we're going to the place where Pokémon comes from." 
"But Pokémon come from the shop."
"Not the shop, the country! We have to go on a plane journey to get there."
"Oh. Are you coming back next week?"
"We won't be back next week. We'll be back in three months."
"Is that a long time?"
"A pretty long time. We'll be back after your birthday."

"Oh." He contemplates for a moment and then begins looking at the toys strewn across the floor. Thinking that I've lost his attention I carry on attempting to stuff everything into my already bulging bag. A few minutes pass. I start making rude gestures to my half zipped backpack and Oz is looking at me as though only just realising he's got to deal with this for the next three months. We're saved by a small voice coming from the other side of the room.

"Um, Oz and Iz?" 
"Yes Alf?"
"I want you to take this on holiday."

He hands me a small brown mammoth with a slightly wonky eye.

"That's really kind Alf. But we don't want to take your toy away for a long time. Won't you miss it?"
"Nah. She wants to come with you. She will look after you when you're in Japan."
"Are you sure?" He nods with enthusiasm and certainty.
"We promise to send you pictures of her on holiday! What's her name?"
"Peaches"

 And so, at the behest of an insistent three year old Peaches the mammoth became our official travelling companion on our journey through Japan. She met Pokemon and Samurai, climbed ancient mountains and trekked through jungles, and was only nearly lost almost once. Peaches now takes pride of place on a shelf full of mementos and it was looking at her recently that made me realise it has now been a full year since we set out on what was to become the greatest adventure. It was that realisation that inspired me to write our journey down, to combine my thoughts at the time using my journal with long distance perspective to better make sense of everything we did and to provide what I hope will be an entertaining insight into a beautiful country. 

And thus a blog was born.