By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent in Yokohama
It might not be a farce but it has become a bit of a pantomime.
The eastern promise was that the friendly in old Japan would be the first day of the rest of George Burley's life, but it turns out he would need Barlinnie to keep his squad together.
Players have been evaporating in the night since the Scotland manager named his squad for the friendly in Yokohama; 10 at the last count missing in action - or, rather, lack of it.
It means that guys like Don Cowie have zipped up the pecking order and suddenly the travelling party has the look of Berti Vogts's motley crew when Scotland were in these parts on the tour of Korea and Hong Kong back in 2002.
Manager George Burley has taken his Scotland squad to Japan
There was all sorts of flotsam and jetsam of the game named in that gang as wee Berti tried the scattergun approach to finding players.
I fear the harvest from the crop on this expedition will not be rich.
The game was agreed in the hope of continuity, given that we were hoping to be involved in a World Cup play-off tie next month.
It may have escaped your attention, but Japan is not actually in Europe and there are those who questioned the logic of taking on such an exotic fixture at all.
There was always going to be a mass retreat of players once we lost interest in South Africa. Call me cynical, but I would have thought 10 was a pretty good estimate of the quantity who would turn up with 'excuse me' notes.
Even the assistant manager is marked absent.
In any case, sadly now we have the look of a jilted bride who has already bought the dress.
Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith insists that, despite everything, the jaunt is far from a farce. But he'll have to accept it's a pantomime. Oh yes it is.
From aborted landings at Heathrow to Typhoon Melor it has been no easy ride for the Scots. It was ever thus in Burley's reign, you might well reflect.
Normally I would travel with the team but this time I arrived in Yokohama 24 hours earlier, and, given the adventures of the squad flight I thank the Good Lord for that.
But what I have witnessed here is a ferocious typhoon, blowing 120mph, which threatens to huff and puff Japan further east into the Pacific. On the day Scotland eventually arrived, there had already been 90 flights cancelled out of Japanese airports.
Melor is the first typhoon to hit the mainland here in two years and it was another stark reminder that you don't mess with Mother Nature.
Midfielder Don Cowie was a late call-up to the Scotland squad
The wind whipped up waves the height of hills and trucks were swatted over in the gusts, while the floods broke up roads and bridges like tablet.
But it is Scotland who will be the orphans of the World Cup storm here on Saturday night (the game kicks off at 1120 BST).
Japan have already qualified for South Africa and yet again the Scots are the ones with the envious looks.
You have to feel sympathy for George Burley on this one. Privately, I suspect he could now see this fixture far enough, for I honestly cannot see him learning anything he doesn't know already.
He finished his World Cup campaign with storm clouds over his head and he starts the long road to Poland and Ukraine by flying into nature's tempest.
Maybe though it will signal a wind of change in our fortunes.
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