Thursday, March 28th, 2024

I recently visited Durham. During a conversation, I came up with a perfect phrase to summarise it: “It’s a bit like Cambridge, poorer weather, but genetically more diverse, and without all the wankers..” I really liked Durham. It has that University feel to it, lots of good looking and bright people. Staff in shops are […]

Okay, so I blogged earlier about breakfast and big cities. Looking back on what I did, I really can’t believe my life has descended to going for breakfast at John Lewis in Cambridge. It goes against everything I stand for and usually mock. Still, it wasn’t that bad: Note the breakfast not having any random […]

I’m sitting in my office and have the 2 major wants I always seem to have returning from a trip to Japan: Big cities – need to do be somewhere with lots of hustle and bustle. Cambridge doesn’t quite do it. Food – I need good food. Right now I want Bacon, Sausages, and French […]

The main success of this latest trip to Japan was my newly discovered ability to navigate around Asian cities. Large Asian cities tend to have stations with many exists and streets also feel like a maze. My forcing function was the desire to go to the Apple Store in Ginza. Now, I must say that […]

Back to the UK. Flight left Tokyo late, due to incoming flight being delayed (obviously due to incompetence on the UK side). Heathrow, both IRIS systems working (miracle). Then it hits. Heathrow Express cancelled due to broken train, therefore travel plans on the onward journey messed up. I get to Paddington and some nonsense guy […]

Spotted this the other day whilst out for a walk at lunchtime. Contrast this pic to the ‘man putting up umbrella’ that we have in the UK !

It’s been a long time since I spent a proper Friday night out in a big city. And Tokyo certainly makes up for it. The energy of the city is absolutely amazing, just wandering around there is so much visual and sound stimulus- exactly what I need to relax. A few choice quotes of the […]

The range of food gadgets here never fails to amaze me. There’s a tool for absolutely ever task, whether it be the optimal spoon for eating ice cream, or special skewers for chicken. Tonight witnessed a new tool: Forget messing around with forks trying to take meat off of skewers, the Japanese have a special […]

Last time I was here in Japan I was amazed at the volume of people in Shinagawa Station walking to work. The station forms a good crossing from East to West, as well as being a major travel hub including the bullet train. There used to be a picture of people in bowler hats crossing […]

I like the fact that everywhere in the world, save for Italy, you can go to Starbucks. Venti Cappuccino is the standard order. Oh, in Japan/Korea they have macarons: I like the cover at the top to prevent spillage (they have in the US also):