Wed 12 Dec 2002Getting best value from Japan's richMine was the only rucksack on the luggage carousel at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Some backpackers do go to Japan, but they go in much smaller numbers than to anywhere else in Asia; in 11 days, I ran into very few. Any child can tell you why: Japan is arguably the world's most pricy country to be trotting around in without the cushion of a paid-for business trip and an expense account.But for years I had wanted to go there, no matter how briefly; to glimpse something of its layers and masks. I'm not likely to be back that way for a long time again, so it had to be now or perhaps never. At Narita, I swallowed hard and put my card into the ATM to withdraw more yen than I care to remember.

Wed 12 Dec 2002Getting best value from Japan's richMine was the only rucksack on the luggage carousel at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Some backpackers do go to Japan, but they go in much smaller numbers than to anywhere else in Asia; in 11 days, I ran into very few. Any child can tell you why: Japan is arguably the world's most pricy country to be trotting around in without the cushion of a paid-for business trip and an expense account.But for years I had wanted to go there, no matter how briefly; to glimpse something of its layers and masks. I'm not likely to be back that way for a long time again, so it had to be now or perhaps never. At Narita, I swallowed hard and put my card into the ATM to withdraw more yen than I care to remember.