Latest Update:
A quick check on the [ British Airways web site] answered my concern. Their answer was Use of a laptop is permitted during your flight, at times when the 'Fasten seat belt' sign is switched off i.e. not during the take-off and landing periods.
Good news - I can pass the 12 hours watching the Beatles Anthology on DVD.
Flee as a blurred.

 
We are constantly being told that the earth is shrinking - Canadian Marshall McLuhan coined the term Global Village. This was to be the great innovation in communication and understanding. This all may well be true, but it has also brought problems. Airlines have been hit hard because of terrorism and air traffic control strikes. Now they are faced with international illnesses. I heard recently that some people from Canada had cancelled their trip to England, because a plane from Tokyo had been quarantined in the US because four people were showing similar symptoms of SARS. The fact that the result was a clean bill of health didn't matter. My view it that I am still far more likely to be knocked over by a car than any of the ones reported in newspaper headlines.
At least the weather is looking good and should not delay take-off. We are departing at 1 o'clock on Saturday and will arrive at 9am on Sunday morning. I keep being told that lying Eastwards means I won't suffer from jet lag. The experts keep telling me this will happen when we return. My major concern at the moment is will I be able to use my laptop during the flight? As well as doing some work I have the 5 DVD Beatles' Anthology which should help me pass the time.
Whatever happens tonight will be early to bed.

 
Three days to go. Tidying up the final bits.
I have made my final updates to my research web sites - [ http://www.itsnewstome.co.uk] following a visit to the British Library Newspaper Library. Great news on this front. I discovered a photograph of one of the ancestors of a client. This is a rare incident for newspapers before the 1940's when photographs were rare and the best was a sketch. It is a wonderful experience after the usual hours of trawling through edition after edition.
I purchased a digital camera - a Minolta Dimage 7 with a few memory cards but very soon realised that even the IBM 1GB drive would not be sufficient for a three week holiday. So I bought a cheap laptop, a Compaq Presario, and a USB device to download the camera images. All this was quite easy. I then tried to buy a power adapter so I could use the laptop in Japan, and after a bit od research decided on the Targus Worldwide kit. After a bit of problem with delivery with the Post Office I got the kit. Finger Technology [ http://www.fingertech.co.uk/] were excellent, actually delivering a replacement personally.
But the problem didn't end there - The coverage on the list included in the kit showed Japan - Hurrah! but the list showing which device was for each country did not list Japan. A call to Targus and a longish wait resulted in the correct device - for anyone in the same position the correct device is PWR102.
I have now got my International Drivers licence. Like all good countries the Japanese drive on the right side, which is the left side. The only major problem is to a. understand the road signs and be happy to pay the toll fees. I have also obtained two visitor rail tickets. It works out quite well the cost of the ticket is paid for by a return trip from Tokyo to Kyoto.
I'm not a great linguist, I failed O-level French! But Japanese is far more like a computer program, something I have some acquaintance having mastered over 35 computer languages in my 30 odd years of programming. Japanese has no gender, no conjunction and very strong rules, with few irregularities. To be honest I don't know why we are lumbered with minority languages like French and German being taught in our schools whereas Japanese, Chinese, Gujarati are spoken by far more people, and by many communities within the UK.
I am going to try to keep a hand written journal and will try to post some English [Eigo] and Japanese {Nippongo] to the blog - just don't be too critical. Unfortunately for me the log will not allow Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji to be included.

 
Initial posting.
Just five days to go before we fly out from Heathrow to Japan.
The preparation has been interesting. I booked the flights and the hotels (Japanese style) in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nikko over the Internet.
Japan is a place I have wanted to visit for years, every since I started playing Go at University in the late 60s.
When may daughter graduated and promptly departed to Japan on the JET scheme I had the perfect excuse to go.

Steve