Culture Clash

'So Terry,' I asked, 'what's the latest on the Sumitomo affair?' He didn't reply immediately. Instead he drew in a deep breath, exhaled slowly, took a sip of his Scotch and water and stared into the middle distance. It wasn't that he hadn't heard or understood my question, although that would have been understandable, given the noise level in the pub in which we were having an early evening drink. But Terry's real name was Teruaki Obata. He had been in London for almost three years but he