It is down to 15 degrees Celsius by day on Sakhalin Island, and already under 5 at night. By December the temperature will be minus 30, and still going down.
"Brrr," says Andrew Vincenti, shivering at the thought. Understandably he has mixed feelings about leaving the temperate (and intemperate) delights of Tokyo for another six-month stint in the freezing north as branch manager for the logistics company Kuehne & Nagel. His official address again from last Saturday? No. 54, Vokzalnaya Street, Off. 6, 693000 Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Russian Federation.
Sakhalin is a subject of great political debate. Japan ceded it to Russia in 1875 in exchange for the Kuril island group to the east, regained some control in 1905, and then renounced all claims to Sakhalin (though not the Kurils) in 1951 after it was occupied by Russia in 1945. It used to be a gulag in the czars' day. Now Japan wants it back.