A very ordinary English man's chance encounters with Japanese culture bring colour and unlikely friendships into his deceptively ordered world.Publican Charlie Moulton is at a crossroads in his life. Unwrapping a gift from a Japanese customer after the death of his wife he is transported back to his childhood evacuation in the Norfolk countryside where he was adopted by an elderly professor and his Japanese wife.He embarks on a road trip which takes him back to a joyous and tragic past and which intersects with the present in unexpected ways.By turns funny and sad, the story travels through time and place. First as a child and then as an adult, this outwardly conventional man encounters an exotic and exuberant culture,