Many of us drive cars, watch TVs, use computers, and listen to digital radios made there. But it seems few of us know much about the place - although apparently we would like to learn more.

That is the experience of David Lee, 38, owner of Into Japan (the country I am talking about, if you had not guessed), a specialist travel company, with headquarters in the unlikely setting of Kidlington High Street and now employing nine people.

Mr Lee said: "I too was mystified and intrigued by the idea of Japan. So, back in 1992, off I went, after leaving university.

"And I suppose I fell in love with the place."

Now, back in his native Oxfordshire, it is the turn of his Japanese wife, Yuri, to find out what it is like to live on the other side of the world from her own country. Their two children are learning about both cultures.

Into Japan grew out of Mr Lee's established business, Oxford International Exchange, doubtless a name familiar to many Oxford families who over the past eight years have acted as hosts for Japanese students coming here to study.

His new company marked a literal change of direction for the business which, until then, might have been called Out of Japan since it specialised in sending Japanese people here.

Mr Lee said: "Until autumn last year, I worked from my home in Begbroke. But now that we have our ATOL licence for tours and tour packaging, the Into Japan side has really picked up.

"Now the two sides are about 50-50 and Into Japan might even take over."

His company is now the only UK specialist with a Japan office offering flight-inclusive, fully escorted Japan tours.

Mr Lee says he has received much help and advice from the Japanese Tourist Office in London, which is evidently impressed by his commitment.

He now has an office in Tokyo with staff to ensure that clients are never too disoriented by the cultural differences, and the business achieves a £1.5m turnover.

He said: "Everyone is always impressed by just how welcoming Japanese people are to foreigners."

Most of us have a preconception that Japan is outrageously expensive, but statistics tell a different tale. Since the bursting of the Japanese economic bubble in 1990 there has been no inflation, so prices for western visitors have stayed at those levels and become progressively more affordable.

Mr Lee says: "Our clients see something of traditional Japan, since they fly into the old capital, Kyoto.

"They can see tea houses and Geisha houses as well as the modern Japan, and they see the rural countryside as well - with the bullet train to connect everything up."

The Into Japan UK office may be in Kidlington, but Mr Lee has found that his clients by no means come exclusively from Oxfordshire.

He said: "Many come from Yorkshire as it happens, because there are three Japanese shops there which distribute our leaflets.

"But really there is a great curiosity here about Japan. People, some of them perhaps recently retired, find they use Japanese goods and do business with Japan, but really know very little about it. Just like I was years ago."

When he began offering tours to Japan last year Mr Lee put in a rider on the booking form to the effect that if not enough punters came forward he reserved the right to cancel the tour.

But he said: "We have never had to do that so far."

He added: "When standing in neon-filled commercial hubs of Shinjuku or Shibuya it's hard to imagine the lush scenery, verdant landscapes and zen-like retreats that make up most of the country.

"Modern Japan looks ahead for its place in the world, always building, renewing and innovating, but order, ritual and ceremony are still at Japan's heart.

"Traditional Japanese martial arts, tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy, culinary arts and even social interaction have grown from this sense of order and method."

"Two 15-day tours are scheduled to leave the UK in April. The luxury tour designed for first-timers takes in everything from temples to Geisha girls at a cost of £3,495 per person, and the Kabuki Tour leaves on April 7.

It costs £3,695 per person and includes a unique theatre performance by the Kabuki actors in a temple on the island of Shikoku.

Into Japan is also a sponsor of the Kabuki actors at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, famous for its performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operas - including The Mikado, a work set in Japan which must have done much to engender the British fascination with Japan.

n Contact: www.intojapan.co.uk