Wagamama

My brother asked me to buy these T-shirts in Manchester and send them to Japan.

He cares about fashion very much. He usually wears stylish clothes. I couldn’t believe he wanted to get these, so I thought he must have been joking. However he told me, “That’s the T-shirts I wanted to get.” I told him, “Well, if you like it.”

What do you think?

Trip to London Part 3

“The Lion King” show was finished at 6:00pm. My bus back to Manchester would leave at 7:00pm. I thought I had enough time to go to Japan Centre which was the biggest Japanese shop in the U.K. I wanted to buy a book written by Haruki Murakami. His novels are popular not only in Japan but also all over the world. My friend, Belle recommended me to read “The wind-up bird Chronicle”, ねじまき鳥クロニクル. She told me, “The main character in the story quit his work and the situation is just like you.” It sounded interesting to me.

I should have known the directions to Japan Centre because I went there in April. Although it was not smooth, I found the shop. The book was priced more than double compared with the Japanese original price. However I needed the Japanese edition. When I bought the book I heard the announcement in the shop, “Now all sushi is 50% off.” It was a good idea to have half priced sushi and have it on the bus on my way back. However, there was a LONG queue for buying shushi. If I waited it, I might miss my bus. I was fascinated by 50% off priced sushi, but I gave it up and went back to Victoria station. It was the same bus terminal where I got off the bus from Manchester that morning. I tried to remember the way from the bus terminal to Victoria station. It did not work. I could not find the way to the coach bus terminal. I asked people how to get there. They were kind and told me the way to go. I followed the directions but I just found the local bus terminal. I asked some other people. Everybody pointed to the same direction. So the directions should have been correct. I did not ask about the distance, but I thought it was not so far away. I started to think what should I do if I miss my bus?

It was 6:45pm. Anyway I kept running in the direction where the bus terminal should be. Finally I saw a National Express bus coming out from the corner. The bus terminal must be over there. I felt shame. Nobody was running around Victoria station except me. When I got to the terminal, I was very happy. I checked terminal number of the Manchester departure on electric signboard. The terminal number was 18. All I had to do was go to the terminal 18 and get on the bus. Yes, I made it!

It was 6:55pm. It was better to go to the toilet before the long trip. So I went to the toilet and went to the terminal just before departing time. I saw the destination of terminal 18. It was shown “Rochdale”. WHAT? It should be “Manchester”. I was in a panic. I checked the destinations of terminal 17, 19 and 20. I could not find Manchester. It was almost departing time. The electric signboard for all the destinations was in the main entrance. It was a big bus terminal. If I went back there to check the terminal number, I would not catch the bus. I read Manchester was terminal 18.

Why it was shown Rochdale?

Where is Rochdale?

I came closer to Rochdale sign. And I found small letters written “via Manchester”. Oh, my goodness. I made it!

In many cases British transportations are behind schedule, but this bus left on time. I came back to Manchester on time.

Trip to London Part 2

I had a nice chat and lunch with my friend. There were so many things to talk about, so as always, we were behind the schedule. Actually my friend needed to go back to the conference. And I was planning to go to watch a musical “The Lion King”.

We got on the underground together. I thought I could change the line at Euston where my friend would get off. However I could not change the line at the station. I needed to stay on one more station to Kings cross. After I said good bye to my friend, I got on the same line and got off at Kings cross. I was planning to buy a half priced ticket. So my first destination was “Tickets”, a discounted ticket shop. I should have transferred to the Piccadilly line at Kings cross station. I checked the direction to the South and got on the tube. However, I arrived at Euston again! What happened? I could not transfer to the Piccadilly line at Euston. This meant I did not get on the Piccadilly line. I got on the Victoria line. Why did this happen to me? I really checked it before getting on it. Oh, no. It was all my fault.

Anyway, the direction to the South was not wrong. So I could change to the different line at the different station. In London, the underground system is convenient.

After taking much longer time, I could arrive at “Tickets”. It would be closed at 3:00pm on Sunday. I arrived there at 2:40pm. I thought yes, I made it. I asked “Is there a ticket for The Lion King?” The clerk said “You should go to the theatre.” I was surprised and asked, “Are there tickets at the theatre?” He said, “I don’t know. Anyway, The Lion King starts from 3:00pm. So you should be in a hurry.” I knew it.

I had no choice and run to the theatre. I arrived at the theatre and found a queue there. Yes, this must be a queue for the tickets. So I followed it. A gentleman came to ask us, “Do you have tickets?” I felt it was a silly question. If we had tickets, we would not be in a queue. Everybody answered, “No”. And he said, “I’m sorry, but all tickets were sold out.” I did not know why people did not stop queuing. I asked, “Is there any chance to get a ticket?” He said, “If you don’t mind standing, you could get a standing ticket. It costs 13 pounds. The other person asked, “Is it possible to have a seat with a standing ticket?” Everybody laughed. I arrived here after a long journey, so I really wanted to watch it. I did not mind keep standing, so I bought the ticket and watched it.

After I started to watch it, I remember, The Lion King is from America. It was not London original musical. I thought I should have chosen British original one. Anyway I enjoyed watching it.

Peak District

I went to Peak District on Saturday.
It was beautiful.

Animals were peaceful.

Some people enjoyed mountain biking.

I enjoyed hiking while watching (or watched by) an animal.

Trip to London Part 1

My friend came to London from Japan for a business trip. I was excited.

It took 2hours and 30minutes from Manchester to London by train. So it wasn’t problem for me to go there.

Three days before her coming, I checked for train tickets on a web site and noticed there were no direct trains from Manchester to London on the weekend. So it would take 4hours and 40minutes with a transfer.

I checked for airplanes. However, I couldn’t find a good flight with a reasonable price.

The other possibility was a bus. It would take 4hours and 30minutes. So there is no time difference between bus and train. It’s much cheaper than train and no transfer is necessary. So I chose to go by bus.

My bus left Manchester at 6:45am. I’ve never used a long distance bus service before, so I wasn’t sure whether they would run on time or not. I asked my friend to ring my mobile in case. When she called me I was on a bus and I couldn’t hear her voice. It was raining, the bus was delayed and my mobile didn’t work well. I was in trouble. She called me again but I was on the underground at that time. So my mobile didn’t work again. After I got off the tube, I noticed a voice message from her. She left a message that she had already left our meeting point and was looking for me. She used a public phone because her Japanese mobile didn’t work in the UK. So I had no way to contact her from my side. Anyway I went to our meeting point and listened to the voice message from her again. I had no clue where she was. I’ve not seen her for a year; she may have changed her hair style. Still I was optimistic and I believed I would see her because I came to London to see her. I walked back toward the underground station. And I saw my friend!

Movie

I went to the watch movie “Iron man”. It wasn’t my choice. My friend was excited to watch it so I just followed him. Before going to the theatre, I searched web site. I couldn’t find the Japanese website, so I needed to check the English one. It didn’t attract me. I went to the cinema with low expectations.

But, it was a really interesting movie. I enjoyed the story from the beginning to the end. The story was from an American comic like “Spiderman”. So it was an interesting movie for kids as well. It meant that the story and the English weren’t difficult to understand for me. This is important.


I like Leonard DiCaprio and Tom Cruise not only because of their nice looks but also their clear English. Even though they are nice-looking I can’t catch George Clooney or Matt Damon’s words.


Anyway I was happy to follow the story. I enjoyed a new type of super hero in this movie. He was rich and intelligent. Usually the superhero is poor but has some special ability or personality. In this movie, the hero had everything. He was famous, rich, intelligent, and popular among girls. Everybody envied him. However, one event changed his way of thinking. He found what was the most important thing for him. And he changed into himself as a superhero. Watching the procedures was also nice. He created his robot armour, tried to use it and adjust it. The process sometimes seemed not perfect. He practiced flying and shooting. Sometimes these looked funny. The cool perfect guy suffered from such uncool procedures and changed into a super hero.

I enjoyed watching “Iron man”. It was really impressive. I’m sure this is satisfactory for Japanese who love robots the most in the world.

Celine Dion

I’m a big fan of Cline Dion. Two weeks ago, she came to Manchester for her world tour concert. I bought the ticket in November last year. In general, entrance fees of movies, classic concerts, musicals and operas, are cheaper here than in Japan. However, the concert ticket was not the same. When I search the best available seats by Internet, it showed the seats costs 85 pounds (17,000yen). I bought the seat, but the best seats had already sold out and they cost 125 pounds (25,000yen).

I’ve waited for the concert for 5months and finally I went to the concert. I received a reminder and a schedule of the concert by email. This was useful information. The starting time of the show was written at 8:00pm, however, the schedule by email told me someone else started to play from 8:00pm to 8:30pm. Celine would start to sing from 8:50pm. I didn’t know the first performer, but I went to the arena by 8:00pm. Many people had already been there. The first performer started to sing on time, but some of the audience members didn’t know about it. They seemed to be surprised that Celine didn’t show up at 8:00pm. The first performer’s song was quite good, but many Celine fans didn’t listen to his songs. They were rather noisy. At 8:50pm, finally Celine was on the stage. Thanks to the expensive tickets, the audience members weren’t young people. None of them stood up. This was a relief for me. People are bigger here than in Japan. If everybody stood up, I wouldn’t be able to see. I could enjoy looking and listening to the concert. Her voice was beyond my imagination. I was about to tear-up when I listened to her song “power of love”. All of the songs were impressive and I really had a good time.

I found some differences from Japan. One of them was about the security check. There was no checking of my belongings at an entrance. Anyone could take photos by camera or mobile phone during the concert. It’s usually forbidden in Japan.

Her native language was French, so she said “I sing at least one French song in every one of my concerts.” I thought it was a good idea. For me, whether she sang in English or in French, it wasn’t a big difference. However, it seemed to be a big difference for British people. I felt the atmosphere from the audience was cool or even cold. I recognized that singing French songs in England was a challenge.

As I expected, the last encore song was “My heart will go on.”