Shunsuke Nakamura endured an unhappy homecoming as Celtic slumped to a 3-0 defeat to his former club Yokohama Marinos in Japan.
Goals from Hideo Oshima, Norihisa Shimuzu and Kenta Kano secured the win for the J-League club.
Eyebrows had been raised when Celtic announced they would be travelling to the Far East for a friendly, sandwiched between their SPL opener against Kilmarnock and this weekend`s crucial match against Hearts.
However, it was a shadow team of fringe players and new signings named by Gordon Strachan for the game at the Nissan Stadium.
Also included in the starting line-up was club captain Neil Lennon, who was suspended for last week`s 4-1 win over Killie, and Nakamura, the man most of the local fans were there to see.
However, Yokohama quickly took advantage of a disjointed performance from a group of Celtic players clearly not used to playing with each other every week, and who looked a couple of yards off the pace for much of the game.
The opener came with just five minutes on the clock when Oshima out-jumped Evander Sno at the back post to meet a cross from the left and squeeze a header home at the back post.
Koji Yamase then had the ball in the back of the net with just over half an hour gone but the off-side flag was already raised.
It was the home side who had the net bulging again when Shimuzu collected a long ball from Hayuma Tanaka and there was no-one to pick up the midfielder as he bulleted a header past goalkeeper David Marshall after 41 minutes.
Nakamura - wearing the skipper`s armband - had netted one of his trademark free-kicks against Kilmarnock on Saturday but he saw a similar effort tipped just over the crossbar by Yokohama goalkeeper Tetsuya Enomoto as they took a comfortable 2-0 lead into half-time.
Nakamura made way for Rocco Quinn after the break to applause from the home crowd but there was little else for the Scottish champions to smile about from this lacklustre performance.
A long-range free-kick from substitute Kano provided Yokohama with their third goal after 79 minutes, leaving Marshall motionless on the line and Celtic contemplating the long flight home.
