Last year, when I was packing up and getting my things together for my new job in Japan, I spent sometime in hunting for local gardeners, possibly English speaking. To my surprise, I found the contact of a Japanese nurseryman from Kyushu, with training in England (how small is the horticultural world sometimes!). Last October I went down to Kurume, his native town and place of work, to dialogue about his job and the Japanese nursery and garden industry.