A 13-part worldwide series
Presented by Ronald Eyre

'The search began in a Tokyo restaurant five floors high and busy. Its nickname, regardless of what the billboard says, is the Zen restaurant and that's what intrigued me. Say Buddhism and Japan in one breath and people like me say Zen. The restaurant is owned by Mr Tani. Forty-five years ago during the Depression, starving and jobless, Mr Tani could see no way out but to kill himself. Instead, he sat quite still and attempted to switch off the bombardment of his thoughts by listening to his breath. He stayed alive.'

Book: Ronald Eyre on The Long Search £5.50, from bookshops