Those up bright and early last week might have been surprised by the site of a middle-aged man in a kimono picking up rubbish.

Falmouth born Tim Evans has been living in Japan for the past nine years teaching theatre but has observed what he sees as similarities between the Japanese and Cornish: their insularity, weather, fishing and shipwrecks.

Every time he returned to Falmouth he was upset by the amount of rubbish left in the town's side streets and decided to do something about it by copying the Japanese tradition of cleaning up "your own patch".

He saw that in Japan the streets were a lot tidier. There were no rubbish bins and yet everywhere was spotless.

This led him to write to the Packet and start picking up the fish and chip packets on his way to the newsagent while here on holiday.

"Filthy Falmouth was not only on my mind, but also the headline in the Packet last summer," he said.

"Every day that I holidayed in my birthplace I saw the same rubbish on the same streets. A week later it was still there and no one had cleaned up, not even me, the overseas moaner.

"The machines go by at 8am but can't go up steps and alley ways. None of us did anything.

"Back in Japan, I saw the habit of cleaning your own patch. Not just residents. A nearby office has all its workers and managers out on the street sweeping once a week. Can you imagine any shop or office doing that in Falmouth?"

To do his bit, Mr Evans decided to go Japanese in Falmouth and slip on a kimono to clean up every day he is here on holiday. He is hoping everybody else will do the same - that is clear up their patch not put on a kimono.