It's always something of a lottery who you end up living beside at university.

For Keith George, an American student at Oxford in 1983, it turned out to be the future emperor of Japan.

The crown prince, now Emperor Naruhito, was in the room next door at Merton College.

"It was a little bit of a surprise, but we became instant friends," says Keith, speaking from West Virginia where he now works as a lawyer.

More than 40 years later, Emperor Naruhito is going back to his old student haunts while on a state visit to the UK.

Keith, from the Appalachian mountains and who liked to play bluegrass music, gave the young Japanese prince a chance to see a different life to the Imperial Household.

There were no titles or standing on ceremony. "He asked me the first day to call him Hiro," says Keith..

Having a royal........

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