London

I had to go to London for a meeting yesterday, so I booked myself onto the 9:35 train to London which stopped only at Derby and Leicester and dropped me into St Pancras at 11:35.  This was in exceptionally good time for my meeting in Houndsditch at 1pm, so I walked down Greys Inn Road to Chancery Lane and hopped on a tube there to Liverpool Street Station.

I rather enjoyed the meeting.  Not only was it interesting and informative, but they also gave us a very pleasant lunch - and it finished at 3:15 which left loads of time for me to make my way over to Regents Street for a bit of a play.

Some time ago my colleague Rupert drew my attention to an email subscription he had with the Japan Centre. Not only do they send out weekly emails with tasty recipes and tempting things to buy in their online shop, but there is also a physical shop on Regents Street. So I had decided that I would take the opportunity while I was in London to go and have a look at it.  I was a bit surprised to find that the shop sits in what is effectively a small "Japan Town" (like a small China Town only Japanese :-D ). I didn't go and explore the department store - but I did visit the Japan Centre supermarket for a proper explore around. I didn't buy much but I definitely have it marked as somewhere to go when I am in London and armed with a large shopping bag and a wad of money! In addition to the supermarket they also have a noodle bar and a sushi bar in the shop.  But it wasn't that long since I had had my rather nice lunch - so I ambled off down Regents Street to Hamleys, where I amused myself by starting at the top and making my way slowly down, admiring the toys, the sales staff playing with the toys, the children playing with the toys ... and the rather more than life-sized Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry gazing over the top balcony in full wedding regalia - made entirely out of Lego!!  I would have taken photos of them but I wasn't sure if you were allowed to (some shops don't like it if you take photos of their stock, or even the insides of their shops!). It wasn't until I got right down to ground level that I saw the posters advertising their "If your photos have the awwwww factor or make us laugh you could be in the running for ... " competition.  I couldn't be bothered going all the way back up to the top of the shop so we are photo-less!

Then I went back to the Japan Centre and went into their next door restaurant and had crumbed chicken fillet with curry and rice, followed by a not very Lenten mochi ice cream ball for dinner.  You know you are likely to get authentic ethnic cuisine when you go into a restaurant and find that the staff and clientele are all, or nearly all, from that place.  I was the only non-Japanese customer until I was leaving, when a Western family came in. And all the waiting staff except one were Japanese.  If you should be pottering around in London and looking for nice Japanese food, you could do worse than eat in Toku.

Then I came home.  On a train that got slower and slower and slower the further north we went.  Apparently one of the two engines had failed and the train really didn't like going uphill!!!

Freyja's train heading south from Sheffield had no such trouble and our trains passed around Leicester.  She had been planning to join me on my Japanese adventure in London but had to defer it till the next time I'm in town.  A friend of hers was in hospital in Sheffield and she had taken advantage of a couple of days not at uni and not at work and gone up to visit her.  So no mochi ball for Freyja (although she had honoured the original arrangement in as much as she too had eaten Japanese for dinner - but in a Sheffield restaurant, not a Regents Street one).