Boy, did we have a great day in London.
As you can see, we had a good time. First, we went to the Japanese Festival in Spitalfields Market, up near Liverpool St. Station. Like half of the underground lines were shut down today, it seemed, but we got there eventually. At first, it seemed very small, but we quickly realised it kept going and going into the market. It was really cool: Spitalfields Market is a pretty cool place anyway, but add a bunch of Japanese festival stalls, and it was even cooler. We had some good Japanese food and walked around a couple of times before it got really busy.
I like Japan, but I'm not one of those people who likes Japan, if that makes sense. The kind of people that dress up in kimono and do cosplay. The kind of people that put chopsticks in their hair. I like Japan: it's an amazing place full of amazing things. But please, non-Japanese people, let's not be Japanese fanboys. It reflects poorly on all of us.
From there, we went down to the National Gallery. Not a long time, but saw some of my favourite stuff and stared at van Gogh's sunflowers for a while.
Then we did my favourite thing in the whole world: walking up Charing Cross Road, stopping in at the used bookstores along the way. I was looking for Foucault, but wasn't successful. We crossed the road into Chinatown for a couple of minutes so Yoko could get a sweet bean bun, then made our way to the new Chipotle, a little bit of home that I find myself wanting every so often. I had the chicken salad and chips and salsa: really great and a bit smaller than the States, so we left feeling like we had eaten just enough, rather than we had gone nuts.
We got back on the train and were back in Milton Keynes around 7. It's amazing how close it is and how much you can do without spending hardly any money.