Harrow, London U.K.

This time I am going to talk of the time a few years back - when I just arrived in England to learn English for two terms. I was a little nervous because it was the first time I ever lived abroad, even though it was at a college boarding house. Luckily my friend's parents were living in the suburbs of London and let me stay for a fortnight before the new term started, so there was a little time for me to get used to things around.

I had to wait for few hours at Hong Kong airport for my transfer airplane. It was before the airport was rebuild and I was a little worried whether the tip of the airplane wing might hit one of those tall buildings. It was already around 11 at night. Sitting in an almost empty cafe, killing time and watching a French family hanging around waiting for their flight just like I was. I was only half aware then that I was going to live abroad all by myself for the first time in my life. Taking off at last, I looked down the dazzling flood of lights of Hong Kong out of the window. It was surprising to see the bright sleepless town was just a very limited area and outside the rim of it was suddenly dark that I wondered It might be the sea for a moment. No, it was not completely dark. I could see tiny orange lights dotting around. No tall buildings, no flashy signs or neon lights, just ordinary peoples' ordinary houses which go dark when the families go to bed.

After 13 or 14 hours flight altogether the airplane finally slid on the Heathrow runway. My friend's parents were supposed to be in the arrival lobby to pick me up. The lobby was filled with people staring at our faces one from another, their hands holding up pieces of paper with 'Mr. XX' or 'XX Company' written on. Oh dear, is my name among these? I met my friend's mother only once and very briefly, when she visited her daughter in Japan. We moved forward slowly, just like cattles at a fair looking somehow at a loss - then I saw that platinum blonde with a gentle smiling face. She found me too, and she was not holding a name card, thank goodness.
I fell asleep shortly after I arrived at their house (and had a cup of tea) late afternoon - got up at 8 or 9 in the evening, came downstairs and showed my friend's parents a considerably healthy appetite. Since then they kept (and still do) saying to everybody "Although looking little and thin (not considered exactly so in Japan), she' got a hollow-leg and you have to keep feeding her". Well perhaps I was lucky. Sometimes Japanese people, being modest and polite, tend to hesitate to eat a lot when they are invited to somebody's house even in western country - and are sometimes misunderstood as light-eaters and next time your meal will be indeed very light. I would rather be a hollow-legged.

The livingroom of my friend's parents' house in North-west London. They bought a house in the country and moved recently, so they are not living here anymore. It was a typical semi-detached house of London, which looks like one big house from outside but actually divided into two individual houses inside. Harrow is where there is the famous Harrow public school - the late Prime Minister Churchill was also among the pupils. Just as old days, teachers still wear long gowns and pupils straw hats on their respectable heads. I should have taken pictures of them. Being called Harrow-on-the-Hill and indeed situated on a hill from where you can see a nice view of London, it will be very nice and pleasant to have a walk around the school, as long as the weather is good.



The backyard. It was the best season for apples. This is probably the first picture I took after I arrived in London. It was a nice and clear day and the trees looked so beautiful in the sun...although it may not show up well in this shrunk picture. British crab apples are smaller then Japanese ones and good for cooking as well as eating as they are.




London suburbs can be considerably quiet and you will see different kinds of birds and squirrels daily in the garden. Since the country used to colonise India it still has large population of Indian-British. Around my friend's place also has a lot of Indian residents, so naturally there are many Indian restaurants, groceries and special food shops like ones selling HALAL meat for Hindu people. Indian food is much more popular and inexpensive here than in Japan, and it is much more authentic. Even those ready-made and frozen food which are sold at ordinary supermarkets are quite good (or at least is seems so to me), so why not try it out if you have a chance to visit the country.

There are still many women (mostly middle-aged and over) walking down the streets wearing their traditional sari. Even in wintertime they are waiting for buses in the beautifully coloured thin cloth fluttering in the cold wind...it looks awfully cold, I wonder whether they are warm enough? I tried to find it out closely (and politely) watching those ladies whenever I had a chance, but without a success. They still look freezing. I once asked a young Indian-British about it and he said "I'm not sure how they do". If you know the answer please let me know.





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