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Category: British Lifestyle

  • A Walk in London

    Continued from the previous entry:

    A Stroll in Haworth

    On the third day, I checked out of the Heathfield B&B on a rainy morning. Since it was a weekday, Keighley Worth & Valley Railway was out of service. The mistress took me to the nearest bus stop on Rawdon Road and told me to wait there for the bus to Keighley.

    While waiting for the bus, an old lady talked to me. She asked me where I was going. I answered that I was going to London. Another lady joined us, and they and I talked a bit until the bus was coming.

    On the bus, I sit on the upper front seat, and the ladies stayed downstairs. Arriving at Keighley bus terminus, I got out of the bus. The train station was a bit distant from the terminus, so I didn’t know how to get there.

    Then the lady who had talked to me first at the Rawdon Road bus stop found me standing there and told me to follow her to the train station, as she was just going shopping nearby. How kind of her! I was able to get to the Keighley train station with her help.

    Waiting room of Keighley station
    Inside Keighley train station.
    Lunch
    The food served on the train on my way from Leeds to London.
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  • A Stroll in Haworth

    Continued from the previous entry:

    A Trip to Real England
    English breakfast

    Breakfast served at Heathfield Bed & Breakfast was very British, with a fried egg, fried potatoes, and mushrooms; a fried tomato cut in half; two slices of bacon; two sausages; cereals; slices of bread; a glass of orange juice; and a cup of tea. I have a good appetite for breakfast in England because when it’s breakfast time in England, it’s time to have dinner in Japan, where it’s nine hours ahead.

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  • A Trip to Real England

    Town in Haworth

    Although it was a bit while ago, I made a private trip to the United Kingdom. It was not the British Hills, not an English village, not a British-style cottage in Tochigi Prefecture, not any other “fake Britain” in Japan. It was the real England, where I had wanted to visit before I died. I visited London and Haworth, West Yorkshire. Both of those places were introduced in the Japanese manga Emma by Kaoru Mori, which was one of my favorite comics I’d ever read.

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  • Paju English Village in South Korea

    Paju English Village in South Korea

    Market Street

    Visiting England is one of the things I want to do in the future. I planned a trip there in the middle of September. I purchased air tickets to and from London and booked hotels there. To my sorrow, however, I was forced to cancel all of the reservations because of the hectic work I had been doing for almost two years. The British Hills is one of its alternatives, but I get tired of it as I have visited there many times. One day, I heard about such a place in South Korea that mocked English streets. That’s why I visited South Korea this month, though I didn’t understand Korean at all.

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  • British Hills in Spring

    Inside the Barracks

    I visited the British Hills for the first time this year because the snow melted and it became accessible by car.

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  • National Azabu Supermarket Closed

    National Azabu Supermarket Closed

    National Azabu Supermarket in Hiroo, where imported foods, groceries, books, toiletries, and stationery were available, has terminated operations as of today due to the age of its building.

    The Hiroo neighbourhood is one of the places I visited very frequently because the training centre of the company I worked for was in that area. I visited there from time to time to have an English test or training for English writing or business skills when I was a young worker. Every time I had classes there, I dropped in on the supermarket to see the shoppers coming from abroad, mainly the United States, who looked rich enough to afford the imported products sold there. To see such successful people encouraged me to do my best to learn English and business skills for my success.

    However, several years later, the training centre was closed and moved to another place. Most of the products sold in supermarkets are available online for the same prices as in their home countries, without paying extra at imported grocery shops. Besides, the United States is no longer the goal for successful persons, given its current circumstances.

    The supermarket was a dream for me, and a wonderland that offered me a space of extraordinariness, but it ended its role as a symbol of success with the change of the times. Without the supermarket, I will visit the Hiroo area more rarely than ever.