Ten.

Ten days until I leave for Japan.

Being tall affords me a few advantages:

• I can dust shelves you've never even seen.
• I'll know if you're balding way before you ever will.
• I have a natural advantage when it comes to bird watching.
• I can raise my hand with authority.
• I'll never lose anyone in a supermarket.

When I'm in Japan I should be able to add another one to the list: scaring the holy hell out of people...

I'm 6'4. The height of the average Japanese male is 5'7.5. That would put the average Japanese male's eye level somewhere around my collar bone - making staring contests and headbutts impossible.*

So what does this mean?

Well, it's more than likely I'm going to be mistaken for a Kaiju - a giant monster** hell bent on tearing up Japan.

Japan is well practiced at dealing with Kaiju, so I should bone up on my fighting skills. They could send a giant dinosaur, robot dinosaur, or - in rare cases - a rocket turtle.

*more startling is the fact that virtually all Japanese people will be able to see up my nose... I'm going to have to start trimming my nose hair...
**that looks suspiciously like a man in a foam-rubber suit