...London! (I know you hoped to read 'Japan' or something, but this time again a trip with my English course to London to watch a lot of Shakespeare!)

Ok, so I will be in London from 02.10.2011-06.10.2011. I will be staying here:

Palmers Lodge Swiss Cottage-Boutique backpackers
40 College Crescent

I know that aphasiac used to be in London, but you're in Taiwan now as far as I know, so.. unfortunately no meeting this time

I'd really like to get to know some of you great guys, so if you happen to live in London/around, perhaps we could arrange something and have a beer somewhere. (Shakespeare will be so dull for me, oh, I can foresee it, I will be reading キノの旅 the whole time in the theatre, ugh. Just cannot find anything appealing in this old English language, but anyway.)

じゃあ、またね！


[Edit]
On Thursday the 5th of Octobre I will be visiting Highgate Cemetry (where Marx is burried and also Douglas Adams!) with a Chinese friend of mine. All in all, the 5th will be the only day I will really have for myself without any course appointments.

[Edit2]
I'd be grateful to get some adresses where I can buy Japanese books (not only textbooks, but also some novels) more or less cheap, as I suppose a city as big as London must have a shop where I can get these, hehe. I'm living in a village here, so that's why I'm asking. Thanks in advance!

I live no where near London, but I hope you have a great time. And give Shakespeare a
chance; Some of it's pretty funny.

Edit: Yeah I did expect that to say Japan lol

Splatted Wrote:I live no where near London, but I hope you have a great time. And give Shakespeare a chance; Some of it's pretty funny. :)

This is my first time I'm traveling to an English-speaking country actually and I'm so afraid of people not understanding me when I talk to them :x Otherwise I always had been to Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Austria, France, Spain (Gibraltar), Greece, Italy and Croatia.

Ok, the murder scenes from McBeth were great, yes, haha. And no, unfortunately not Japan. But I will be around Tokyo next year from May onwards after my graduation :D

[Edit] Ok, forgot that I've been to France once (Paris)...
[Edit2] Darn, I spent my last holidays in Greece (Corfu) lol
[Edit3] Added more countries I visited when I was still a child -- that's about it.

Wow you've travelled a lot. The only foreign country I've ever been to is Japan when I went to visit some relatives.

And don't worry about people understanding you; judging from the sample you posted on this forum no one will have any difficulty.

Wow, congrats Tori! London sounds awesome, and I hope I'll get a chance to visit it someday too.

Shakespeare's plays are pretty cool! ←Huge Shakespeare fan www If you don't understand something, a lot of times you can guess it from context, or from the actor's tone. Sometime I hope I can see Shakespeare performed at the Globe.

Hmm, Paris looks like it has more Japanese bookstores (1 Kinokuniya, and 3 BookOffs...) But it seems England has a Japanese shop called Japan Centre. I'm not sure, but it might have novels... Anyone been there?

Well, you might have the advantage you are a native speaker and have a really broad knowledge of what the words mean, so you can easily even guess in case you don't understand the (old) grammar used, right? I can say I'm fluent in English but not in Shakespearean English, hehe :)

.

Tori-kun Wrote:Well, you might have the advantage you are a native speaker and have a really broad knowledge of what the words mean, so you can easily even guess in case you don't understand the (old) grammar used, right? I can say I'm fluent in English but not in Shakespearean English, hehe

Yeah, but I do the same sorts of things with Japanese all the time. I think half the time, getting fluent at a language is learning to guess from context. Besides, picking up on some Shakespearean English might help with modern English in the long run (and for the record, I'm not "fluent" in Shakespearean English either). Just like how in Japanese they use old ways to say things like 知らぬ and おのれ when they are trying to say things in "mock-Classical Japanese", in English you'll sometimes run across older words from English (i.e "Dost thou mock me?" ), used in a sort of mock-old way. So it might be helpful for English study.

Wise Guys rap summary of Hamlet (in German).

If you're looking for Japanese stuff, go to Piccadilly Circus‎, and head south down Regent Street, to Mitsukoshi. I think there's another Japanese store nearby as well.

As Travis said, Mitsukoshi on the bottom of Regent Street near Nelson's Column is where you'll find your Japanese bookshop and Department store. Its not very big, but it does have a fairly good selection of textbooks, novels and pretty much anything really...

Hey, yeh sorry not available to meet due to move East - otherwise would be beers all round!

Anyway, as people have said, you want to go to Central London, and visit Mitsukoshi Department Store. There's a huge Japanese bookshop in the basement that has manga/books/magazines; look for the sale section/bin for bargains! All the sales staff speak to you in Japanese, which is fun.

Also few doors down is Japan Centre, which is mostly food, but again has books, magazines and a sale rack at the back.

The final place to visit, a short 10min walk away from the above in Soho is Adanami, aka the 2nd hand manga bookstore. It looks pretty weird from the outside (it's an old launderette) but MASSIVE selection of cheap (£1-£3) Japanese books and manga! you *must* go here, it's great!! Just be careful in Soho, don't go into any dodgy strip clubs lol

The Mitsukoshi bookshop - huge? Isn't it just one medium-ish sized room? :S

I guess it's not that big - but for a Japanese specialist place it's not bad. Also has a large gift shop downstairs, and DVDs.

Think the launderette place actually has more books; it's so densely packed!

@merlin.codex: I was in Bulgaria once as a tourist and once for a 2 years exchange in a project dealing with environmental issues. I lived in Stara Zagora, I visited Obzor, Varna, Bourgas and Sophia. Not to forget Nessebar and the beach there :P 'Ponichiki' filled with nougat were just so fuckin' great, oh man!~ On top of that, I guess I wanted to roll a cigarett while being drunk and just took a 2-Leva note instead lol Anyway, Bulgaria is beautiful and I have gotten a really nice impression at least of Stara Zagora. The people are nice, the food is great - but hey, our vodka tastes better than Rakíja :)
Lecka noschtsch~

@aphasiac: Yeah, what a pity!!! Thanks for the recommendations where to get books (in Japanese?) cheaply, though. I suppose I will get an Oyster card for the week I'm in London, so I have one for the next time I'm visiting.

.

merlin.codex Wrote:Wow, I see! I'm really glad you had a great time ^^ And yeah, vodka's way better :D

I wonder how a Bulgarian comes to learn Japanese!^^ It's just a funny combination somehow! Uh, and I had been to 'Veliko Tarnovo' by bus in Bulgaria with my project group which was so bloody funny, I'm telling you! We were so lucky and were allowed to see the laser show there (the castle was the target) which is only presented every 20 years, my exchange student said.
Also I had been to 'Etar' the ethnologial village. I stole some fertility-bracelet (red/white/green colored) from a tree (some kind of tradition?) as.. a souvenir, right :D Ah, and I bought some hand made wooden ポット there, haha!
Due to the project I had lots of insights into real Bulgarian live; since my exchange student was into dancing I also danced Bulgarian folk and also visited some erotic Charuga ("Chalga"?) dance-bar around 4 o'clock in the morning lol Yeah man, I love Bulgaria<3

back to topic :)

@aphasiac et al: Hey, by any chance do you know where I could possibly get the following books cheap comparing all the shops where one can buy Japanese books?

I plan buying so far:
* The 3rd textbook of TheJapanTimes (and perhaps the 2nd one, too)
* DoBJG (definitely!)
* 「告白」 (jp/eng preferrably both for parallel reading!)
* 「ノルウェイの森」 (jp only. I posses Rubin's translation already)

Thanks for tips/experiences!!

have a great time in London Tori!!!

the best place for Japanese literature is by far the shop with the laundrette sign in Soho... you can get a ton more books there for your money.

They don't sell textbooks though, for that your best bet is to look in the Mitsukoshi store, though they aren't cheap. If you can find someone selling them 2nd hand online, you'll get a better deal, but Mitsukoshi's good for finding some interesting Japanese learning books that you might not have found if you just searched online. (e.g. that ambiguous sentences book i wrote a review of).

For English books, my favourite bookstore is Foyles between tottenham court road and leicester square, but waterstones also has a few good branches, the biggest being the Picadilly road one, and Gower Street is good for academic books (though neither are good for Japanese textbooks).

While you're there, definately check out brick lane (try one of the bagels if you're a meat eater), and the tate modern, and there's a really good Japanese restaurant (proper Japanese food!) just down from mornington crescent station. You can also eat food with a different country of origin for every meal, it's great!!

p.s. Shakespeare is really good once you get past the old english, so give it a chance!

Thank you IceCream!!! I will check out the shops you recommended (already printed out the Google Map route for not getting lost in the tube T_T I'm living in a village here lol). Perhaps I will have a chance trying to eat some proper Sushi or Donburi here or there during my stay.

What do you think? Will I find some novels at Soho? :D

definately!!! It's a big enough selection for me to be able to spend hours happily browsing

oh, the restaurant is here: http://www.qype.co.uk/place/121263-Asaku...ant-London

i used to live just a few doors down from it at one point ^_^

there's also Tokyo Diner in Soho for Donburi which is also nice, but definately the mornington crescent one is the best! http://www.tokyodiner.com/

if you're looking for something cheap, you can also get fresh sushi for a couple of pounds, but i forgot the name, it's between picadilly and leicester square though.

p.s. the ice cream shop in Soho is also amazing!!! Look out for it as you wander around,　(it's the one where the serving desk is all up the left hand side) their flavours are like, the platonic form of that flavour or something!! (i recommend the caramel!；)

Soo how was your trip Tori? Update please!

OMG!!!
I met Lady Gaga in McDonalds >DDD

Tori-kun Wrote:OMG!!!
I met Lady Gaga in McDonalds >DDD

I know pacing helps keep story tension strong, but this is ridiculous! Did she sign something for you, a napkin, cup, or sth. else? And what else was happening in London?

Ich habe dir übrigens zwei Mails geschickt, aber mysteriöserweise werden diese ständig retourniert. Hast du mich etwa auf block gesetzt? Korrektur. Eine Mail, die ich versuchte, zweimal zu schicken. :o

@Nagareboshi: Usually hush.ai only had 2Mb space for free users, so perhaps the space is occupied right now, but I see in their news, that the space for free users was extended to 25Mb.. I will check it out once I'm home and give you notice. Why should I set you on "block"? ;)

Nah, I saw quite a woman in McDonalds, certainly having as much money as Lady Gaga and looking just like.. her!! Though, I ask myself why she went THERE... so cheap lol

P.S. I went NOT on purpose into the red-light district somehow (don't ask me how, i was tired and hungry and thirsty and my oyster card was empty, darn) BUT found finally after a long walk ADANAMI!!! OH MY ***** GOD! Bought Japanese books and went to Mitsukoshi, too, and spoke my first two sentences in Japanese, which where questions. Wow, that gave me motivation! :D

Tori-kun Wrote:@Nagareboshi: Usually hush.ai only had 2Mb space for free users, so perhaps the space is occupied right now, but I see in their news, that the space for free users was extended to 25Mb.. I will check it out once I'm home and give you notice. Why should I set you on "block"?

Not on purpose, of course. But you know how mail-providers can be. So I thought I ask you.

Tori-Kun Wrote:P.S. I went NOT on purpose into the red-light district somehow (don't ask me how, i was tired and hungry and thirsty and my oyster card was empty, darn) BUT found finally after a long walk ADANAMI!!! OH MY ***** GOD! Bought Japanese books and went to Mitsukoshi, too, and spoke my first two sentences in Japanese, which where questions. Wow, that gave me motivation!

Ha, ha, well done!