It was too off-the-wall to resist: the chance to meet a Chinese ballet master from Alaska. So we arranged to meet in front of Tokyo's Yotsuya Station (not as easy as it sounds, since he is newly arrived and a stranger to Japan) and find him somewhere to eat. Luckily there was a Chinese restaurant right across the street, with a young waiter speaking Shanghai-accented Mandarin. Which helped make Jian-min Hao, born in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, in southwest China, feel almost home. Until I began scribbling.

"Oh my goodness," he spluttered through a mouthful of "mabu-dofu." "You mean you're interviewing me now? But I guess it's OK. I mean, I do have an unusual story. By the way, most people call me Jimmy."

Jimmy Hao is ballet master to the Alaska Dance Theater in Anchorage. My own experience of that city is of being trapped behind glass at the airport en route to elsewhere, gazing out into snowy wastes amid the dubious allure of hirsute macho hunting types, spaced-out rock musicians and very large women on the tourist desk encouraging us to "stay a bit next time and feel welcome." To all this he agrees, especially about people being big. Alaskans are the largest Americans he has encountered anywhere, he says, maybe because everyone spends winter curled up, snacking and watching TV.