Tag Archives: City of Westminster

16th June 2024: Southwark, the National Gallery and Kamijo at The Garage {London, England, June 2024}

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According to the weather forecast, there was a chance of rain in London in the morning. When I got up and drew the curtains open, it was actually pouring, so I decided to wait the rain out. When I left the hotel around 9:00 to head to the queue, there was still a bit of drizzle which cleared as I was walking. However, when I reached the venue, I was surprised to find a notice on the door “We reserve the right to refuse entry. Anyone queueing before 16:00 will be refused entry.” Ho-kay, that sign had not been there the evening before – or I would have planned accordingly. I shrugged it off and resolved to make the most out of the morning and early afternoon, and be back at 16:00 sharp. I mean, what else could I do, mope at the hotel?

I took the Underground to the London Bridge stop, in Southwark. The first thing I came across was Borough Market, which had never even been in my radar before – I tend to stay on the other bank of the Thames. The market is an Art Decó building designed by Henry Rose in 1851. As a business, it had been in operation for centuries at the time though, and the building would get many refurbishments in the following years. Borough Market claims to be place for sustainable products with a short supply chain. There were wholesalers, coffee brewers, tapas bars and for some reason a bunch of guys yelling that everyone should try their mushroom risotto. The area was packed, and it was almost impossible to get a good picture.

Borough Market

Next to the market, stands Southwark Cathedral, officially Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie. London has four cathedrals: St. Paul and Southwark are Anglican, and Westminster and St. George are Catholic. Southwark Cathedral has stood in place for at least a thousand years. However, there is a legend that places its foundation in the early 600s, and there is archaeological evidence of a Roman road dating even further in time. The current structure is gothic, erected after the previous building was damaged in an area-wide fire in 1212, then transformed with the passing centuries. In the 19th century it was “remedievalised”, and in the 20th it became damaged by the Blitz and requited restoration. Today, it prides itself in being LGTB-friendly and having a resident cat, Hodge. It is also common that a fox, nicknamed Richard, visits the garden. Not sure either keeps the cathedral mouse- or rat-free, or they are too full with treats from the congregation.

Southwark cathedral - outside and nave

Southwark Cathedral details

After the cathedral, I headed to the actual reason I was in Southwark, The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. The museum is located in the attic of a former church – in other to access it, you have to climb up a spiral staircase with 52 steps, up the bell tower. The church was attached to a medieval hospital, in whose attic (or garret) the apothecaries dried medicinal herbs and stored medicines. In 1822, this garret became an operating theatre, with a huge skylight built in order to let light in – we are talking about a time when surgery was performed without anaesthetics, painkillers or antibiotics. The hospital was abandoned some 40 years later, and the theatre was lost to time, until it was rediscovered in 1952 – it is considered the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe.

The museum has a small collection of pathology specimens, a bigger one of nightmarish medical tools, and a reconstruction of an apothecary shop, with a counter and a lot of herbs, and informative panels. Funnily enough, it also runs through the history of medicine, and the great London epidemics using… rubber duckies. Not collecting rubber duckies is becoming more and more difficult… Anyway, these particular rubber duckies have been painted and modelled over, and next to them there is a list of symptoms. From those, you need to diagnose the duckie with “silent killers of the past” – measles, tuberculosis, cholera…

The duckies were a good comic relief of sorts from the pathology collection and specimens, the pre-science artefacts, and the history underlying at the theatre itself. The theatre had several rows of stands where people watched / learnt from the operation while the patients were awake – allowing the procedures to be public was the only way poor people had access to medical treatment and the good surgeons. Honestly, the idea of surgery is scary enough, but just thinking about amputation without anaesthetics makes me shiver. Especially when you see what was used for it – basically a handsaw – with spectators.

The Old Operating Theatre and apothecary

It was still early afternoon, so I hopped onto the Underground towards Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. I had not seen The National Gallery London since I was a child, and I remembered next to nothing of it, so I wanted to revisit it. The National Gallery, in the City of Westminster borough, dates back from 1824, when the government bought 38 paintings from a private collector – and it has been continuously expanding since then. The current building was designed by William Wilkings in 1832, and opened in 1838. the collection comprises over 2,000 paintings by 750 artists, among them Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Tintoretto, Veronesse, El Greco, Caravaggio, Velázquez, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Canaletto, Goya, Constable, Delacroix, Degas, Monet, van Gogh…

Here’s the fun thing, I always thought I liked the impressionists, but it turns out that seeing Monet’s Water Lilies myself was rather underwhelming. Conversely, I found myself enjoying British landscapers a lot, especially Constable. I spent a few hours in here, looking for the masterpieces, but a lot of them were on loan to other sites.

National Gallery London

At one point I was taking a photograph and a gentleman thought he was on my way. When I reassured him he was not bothering me, he said something akin to “That’s because you’re a professional”. I wonder, a professional what? I was not carrying a camera or anything, just the phone…

I did a run throughout the whole gallery, and I was considering staying at the café for a bite, but… I was rather close to Leicester Square… so I thought I could walk there and check if I could have lunch at Coco Curry or somewhere in Chinatown. The line at Coco was rather short – surprisingly, since the Chinatown Coco is always pretty full. Thus, I decided to wait it out and have lunch there – after all, it is the “iconic” one, and the previous time I had only visited the Bond Street shop. I’m not sure when Coco became the feeling of a taste of Japan, but it is one of my favourite food places.

Coco Curry Leicester Square

I had a bit of extra time. Not much for exploring, too long to just stay at the restaurant. I wandered Chinatown a little, and then got to Leicester Square. I’ve been to the Lego store, and the M&Ms place, but there is also a tea boutique, the TWG Tea Shop which I had never stepped into. I did it this time, and I was really tempted by a few of the green teas in pretty tins. I however talked myself out of buying any, since it would be silly to take them to the concert, and if a water bottle is a hazard, I cannot imagine what would be thought of a metal box.

Instead, I headed back to Trafalgar Square and stepped into the church Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. This ancient church was rebuilt in the 1720s by James Gibbs – though it was originally “in the fields”, in the outskirts, by this time it was already part of the city. It is a simple rectangular nave with Corinthian columns and a vaulted ceiling. The church holds choir concerts every Sunday afternoon, and I sat there listening to the music for a bit. I then I headed off to Charing Cross to take the underground towards the venue and the surprise of my life.

The church of St Martin in the Fields

I arrived at The Garage for Kamijo’s Europa Tour 2024 “The Anthem” at 16:00 sharp thinking the queue would be assembling, but no. Apparently there was some “secret parallel queue” going on somewhere – there were between 40 and 50 people there already, so I only got the 18th place due to my type of ticket. I was a bit disappointed, but oh well, what can you do? Nothing any more, so I did not dwell on it. The promoter had actually sent a schedule in advance, saying that doors would be at 19:00 for the VVIPs and showtime at 20:30. Of course, it would not be followed, but it was good having an approximate timetable.

Queuing was okay, not extremely long since we actually went in around 18:30. There was a lady organising the line and giving out the numbers, and the venue staff were willing to go along that, so even if there was a “secondary queue”, there were no issues that I know of. The venue was a bit weird. There were a couple of stairs and a small hall before the actual concert hall. In that tiny hall, all painted black and stuck between the two fire doors, and under horrible lighting, stood Kamijo and his dazzling smile, ready for the meet and greets and pictures for the VVIPs and handshakes for the VIPs.

Kamijo The Anthem poster

I walked in, he gave me a warm smile, and said ‘bonjour’. I smiled back. I don’t know whether I’m getting old, or that sitting on the floor with Yoshiki was a game changer for my brain. And despite the fact that I’ve been neglecting my Japanese, I was able to convey my message. He was adorable. I said something like “There is no ‘I’ve missed you’ in Japanese, but it’s really been a long time.” A staff took our picture, he said thank you again, I said thank you back, then walked into the venue. I received my signed poster – a grey A4 signed in black. Apparently, gold or silver markers were out of the budget…

The barrier was almost completely full, but I was able to squeeze on the left, amongst the people I had queued with, closer to the centre of the stage than I had even hoped. Truth is that Kamijo tends to go to the right more often than to the left than the right, but since he holds his microphone with the left hand, you don’t see his face, so I was happy with my place. However, the hour and a half until concert started felt pretty long, since I was quite squeezed in. Maybe I should have sat, I don’t know. The concert started around 20:00, and it was no pictures of videos allowed.

The supporting musicians were Hiro on guitar – Hiro was also the guitar in La’cryma Christi, one of the most important V-kei bands in the 90s. Also on guitar came Yohio, a Swedish artist who managed to break into the Japanese scene a few years back – he actually got a lot of hate at the beginning, so good that he received some love. On bass came Ikuo (Bykk Zeichen 88, Rayflower), and on drums Ushi (Vorchaos). I’m not sure who the sound tech was, but he or she deserves to be yelled at – for about the first third of the concert Kamijo’s microphone was powerless, to the point that his voices was inaudible at times. There were a few songs I did not know (or was unable to identify due to the noise), amongst them the song that gives the tour its name: The Anthem.

Sound was so bad that at times I could not hear what Kamijo was saying, much less understand it. However, he sang two of my favourite songs, Moulin Rouge and Eye of Providence, and I was lucky enough that he repeated my favourite line twice. Despite my being amused by his idealisation of Napoleon, there is a line in Sang I (it took me stupidly long to realise that sang is French for ‘blood’) that resonates a lot with me: ‘Just like flying with the wind: no pain, only gain’. He started the song and interrupted himself halfway to make the musicians greet the audience in English. He either forgot he was going to do an emcee, or since he said it was his favourite song, he wanted to sing it twice.

He had fun, and unlike other times I’ve seen him, he indulged in a lot of “fan service” with the musicians, which sent the crowd screaming. Aside from the sound issue, there was one other hiccup during the concert. At one point Kamijo tripped over a wire, stumbled and ended up almost sitting down on the drums, but he did not fall, which was good.

Setlist:
  1. 闇夜のライオン (Yamiyo no lion)
  2. Conspiracy
emcee, with Kamijo saying he was glad to be back in London, and inviting the audience to go to Paris with him.
  3. Moulin Rouge
  4. The Anthem
  5. Louis 〜艶血のラヴィアンローズ〜 (Louis ~Enketsu no la vie en rose)
  6. 運命 (Unmei)
  7. Eye of Providence
  8. Habsburg
  9. mademoiselle
  10. CRIMSON FAMILY
  11. Castrato
  12. Beautiful Rock’n Roll
  13. 薔薇は美しく散る (Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru; song by Lareine, Kamijo’s first band)
  14. Sang I & emcee, where the musicians said what the tour had meant for them
  15. Sang II
  16. Nosferatu
emcee
  17. Avec toi〜君と共に〜
  18. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 1
  19. Throne
  20. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 2
  21. Vampire Rock Star

During the emcees Kamijo said that he was glad to be back to Europe / the UK, and that he was especially happy to be in London. He talked about how great the tour had been, and how amazing an audience we were – though he tells that to everyone anyway. All in all, I had a lot of fun, enjoyed myself, clapped during mademoiselle and even jumped (once, I’m not that crazy) during Vampire Rockstar. Whenever his musicians or himself sing / yell the chorus, the words ‘vampire rockstar’ come out as ‘vampire lobster’. This time, he made the audience yell them all, so considering this was London, it sounded correctly for once.

Snippets pre and post Kamijo's The Anthem concert

After the concert, which lasted a bit over two hours, I bought a sandwich at the open-late supermarket next to The Garage, and headed to the hotel for a shower and sleep. I kind of… forgot to go to bed though. God, I love concert highs, as short as they are. It is always hard to come back to reality, but there was still half a day before that.

11th & 12th September 2023: 23h 45min in London (England) for Yoshiki’s “Under the Sky”

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Considering that Japanese musician Yoshiki recently got his hand- and footprints enshrined at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, I guess he’s not one of my obscure artists any more. Yoshiki is a Japanese drummer and classically-trained pianist who, alongside vocalist ToshI, founded the band X Japan in 1982. They started as a heavy metal band, and eventually shifted over towards progressive rock. Their flashy looks probably gave way to what is now called Visual Kei (V-kei) [V系], though they had dropped them in the mid 1990s, before they disbanded when vocalist ToshI left the band basically to join a cult. In 2007, X Japan reunited.

Yoshiki, born Hayashi Yoshiki [林 佳樹], is considered one of the most influential Japanese artists of all times. Aside from a musician, he is also a songwriter, composer, producer, and fashion designer. He collaborated with Stan Lee for a special four-issue comic collection called Blood Red Dragon, and with international musicians and bands such as Bono (U2), Roger Taylor and Brian May (Queen), KISS, and Sarah Brightman. He composed the theme of the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, worked on the soundtrack of Saw IV, and has composed music for anime such as Saint Seiya and Attack on Titan. Within Japan, aside from tons of collaborations and solo works, he became “mainstream” when he played a concert to honour former Emperor Akihito upon the tenth anniversary of his enthronement in 1999. He also has a Hello Kitty line named and modelled after him, Yoshikitty. And I’ve been using one of his songs as my alarm clock since roughly 2010 (since 2015 it is Born to be free).

Back in 2017, Yoshiki hosted a Q&A in several cities throughout the world, including Vienna (Austria) for special showings of his documentary film on X Japan. The documentary should have premiered in the scheduled March 2016 concert, but when that was postponed, the film went on to be shown at different events festival. When I went to Vienna, I had already travelled to see it in X Japan concert in London and the Beefeater In-Edit festival in Barcelona (and owned the blu-ray).

In 2020, as the Covid-pandemic lockdowns eased up, Yoshiki organised an online concert on a bunch of rooftops, connecting with different artists and having others over, to celebrate his birthday on the 20th of November . Now, he has made a documentary out of the event, called Yoshiki: Under the Sky, which has “premiered” four times, the third of them in London on 11th September 2023. As the London announcement only came mid-August, it was a challenge to get everything running, but I managed to find doable flights and a hotel near the venue. I was able to buy a second-row seat for the cinema, which was pretty good too.

On the 11th of September, trying not to reflect too much on the date, I left the house around 5:00, and right as I merged into the motorway, it started pouring. There was more traffic than usual because the plane was an hour later, but I managed to make it to the airport a bit before the time I had booked to enter the parking lot – yay accuracy. I went through security and passport control without issues, and had to walk to the end of the terminal for my flight, which was also uneventful. Upon landing at London Stansted Airport, we had to wait for a bus because the escalators were broken or something, but I was outside around 9:30. I bought breakfast at Costa Coffee, and settled to wait for a friend I had met in Vienna, A****d. Her flight was due half an hour after mine, so we had decided to hang out for the day. She agreed to tag along to the Natural History Museum – I wanted to go back to the the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary #NHMxJURASSIC store before it closes down at the end of the month. I really really wanted the rubber ducky cosplaying as a velociraptor, but I feared that if I got that one, I would end wanting to collect rubber duckies… I bought get a limited-edition “opening weekend ticket”, which had been out of my budget on my previous visit, and a titanosaur coin that I had not seen when I visited the exhibit.

A****d had never been to the museum, so we took a tour of the highlights – dinosaurs (of course) and other fossils, the “journey inside the earth” (escalator that goes into the inner core of the planet), the historical building, and Cadogan gallery… Unfortunately, the hall of mammals had recently closed for renovations, so we could not visit that one.

Natural History Museum London

Afterwards, we took the underground and got off at Leicester Square to have a late lunch in Chinatown. We found a little place for lunch. I ordered some rice and duck, which was nice but the duck had a lot of shattered bones. We looked for a place she had known that sold ice cream taiyaki, but sadly we did not find it.

London Chinatown

We located the cinema where the film was showing, Odeon London Covent Garden, but there was nothing going on yet, there was not even a poster announcing the film. After taking pictures, we continued down the block to snoop around the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, one of the biggest comic, manga and related merchandise shops in the world. Luckily, they had few things I wanted badly, and the ones they did were stupidly expensive, so I was able to get away with all my money, yay me!

A****d had decided that she would go back to the airport after the film, but I had taken a hotel a few minutes away from the cinema, right in front of the university and a few minutes away from the British Museum. I dropped by to check in, then we backtracked to Leicester Square as the museum was already closing for the day at 17:00. As we walked by the cinema, they were setting a poster for Under the Sky outside.

We decided to do something a bit silly and headed off to the The LEGO Store Leicester Square, two stories dedicated to selling LEGOs, either in sets, or just blocks. There are also different decorations – for photo-ops – made with oversized blocks, which include Shakespeare in the park, a Bobby, a Buckingham palace guard, a whole Aston-Martin with a Bond sculpture – you can actually go into the car – and lots and lots of Harry Potter. It was a bit disconcerting that they were already displaying Christmas sets!

Lego Shop London

Then, we crossed the street for the M&M’S Store London, which has four floors. The ground one has a recreation of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road, with M&M’S. There was a logo asking “which M&M’S colour are you?” which I thought was a little silly, until I found the orange M&M’S section, whose motto seems to be “I’m scared of what might happen if I relax”. I connected immediately. Next time over I should totally buy a mug or something. Also, there was no Christmas decoration yet, as they were preparing for Halloween. Oh, and they were looking for staff, offering “London liveable wages”.

M&Ms Shop London

We came out and it was 18:00, the Swiss glockenspiel at Leicester Square was chiming. The glockenspiel is a Swiss-themed clock which was built in the 1960s as part of the Swiss Centre, a ploy to drag rich British tourists to the country. The centre failed, and the clock was taken away, but it was eventually restored to the area in 2011. I could have sworn it was playing Poncelli’s Dance of the Hours?

Swiss Clock Leicester Square

Leicester Square is built around a sculpture of Willian Shakespeare, and the gardens around him hold a number of statues dedicated to cinema, Scenes in the Square. We spotted Mary Poppins, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly’s character in Singin’ in the Rain), Charles Chaplin, Paddington Bear, Harry Potter, and an Indiana Jones which is supposed to be temporary. Apparently, there are a few more I should be checking out for, but that’s okay because I’ll be coming back to Chinatown eventually, and it’s just a few blocks away.

Statues of cinema figures in Leicester Square + Willian Shakespeare

We headed back towards the Odeon London Covent Garden cinema, and we reached there around 18:20. Another poster had been put up, and some fans were already waiting. We met another friend of hers, M**, who told us she had found a sitting area inside, so we sat and chatted away for about an hour. The staff was extremely friendly and did not peep a word of complain, even if we did not buy anything.

Yoshiki Under The Sky at Odeon Covent Garden London

Finally, we were allowed into Screen 2 and found our seats. I lost count of how many people tried to get away with ignoring the seating numbers. Nobody did. I had a second-row seat, pretty centred. The film was introduced by some film producer who explained what we were going to see as if we had just accidentally wandered into the cinema.

There was supposed to be a trailer for Yoshiki’s upcoming concert in October, which was not shown. We had a few in-house adverts before the documentary started. Through the film, Yoshiki talked a little about the power of music, and how he had come together with all these great musicians to create a world-class event, very Covid-compliant. All the songs featured were either composed by Yoshiki himself, or had been arranged by him in some way. Perched on an LA rooftop, he mostly played piano, but occasionally he donned the drums.

The narrating thread of the whole film is life. Yoshiki was a sickly child, and his father committed suicide when he was ten years old, so he grew up with the idea of death deeply ingrained in his brain. As the film goes on, he speaks about how music can bring people together, and how it is important to find the strength to go on. Halfway through the film, he talks about recently losing his mother and how he cried for days. At some point a voice is introduced. It is a regular John Doe who once reached out to Yoshiki on Twitter as his dying wife had just entered palliative care. The man asked for some encouragement for her, and he got it, from Yoshiki and a lot of the fans, until she passed away. There was a heart-wrenching Zoom call with the man, who spoke about how overwhelmed he was by all the support he received. Unfortunately, she passed away.

The documentary runs for an hour and a half, and it’s a mixture of the Yoshiki’s thoughts, the performances alongside different artists, each in their corner (or rooftop) of the world, and a bit of conversation with them, or a making-of. I was familiar with most of the featured musicians, but not all.

Sarah Brightman: Miracle. Sarah Brightman has had an extremely long career and is an excellent soprano – my first memory of her dates back to the 1992 Olympics. She collaborated with Yoshiki on Miracle in 2018. I was really sorry I was not able to go to any of her performances back then.

Jane Zhang: Hero. The original version of Hero was sung by Katie Fitzgerald for the soundtrack of Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary. Though Saint Seiya was my favourite anime as a kid, I had wandered away from it. The song featured in the film actually made me want to go to see it, and eventually dragged me back into the world. Zhang did a good job, but I personally prefer Fitzgerald’s version.

SixTONES: Imitation Rain. As a music producer, Yoshiki must have realised a bit ago that the Japanese boy-band panorama was dire. For long years, the boy-idol company Johnny’s Entertaining (JE) had dominated the business, with bands as SMAP or Arashi. However, an extremely protectionist policy and the open secret that the director had sexually abused some of the boys, lead to the company losing power. I have no doubt that this is why Yoshiki decided to create and produce a boy-band, and thus looked for the six young men that comprise SixTONES. Having followed some of JE’s bands back in the day, I can see how they would tap into the niche (serious flashbacks to KAT-TUN circa 2005, to be honest).

Scorpions: Wind Of Change. Formed in 1965, Scorpions paved the way for a great deal of the big names in 1980s hard rock such as Guns N’Roses, Mötley Crüe, Helloween, Megadeth… And Yoshiki is a little fanboy of theirs, of course.

Sugizo: La Venus. Sugizo is one of X Japan’s members, who took over guitar duties after they reunited. While the band was separated, original guitarist Hide died in “mysterious circumstances” – either accidentally or by suicide. For a long time, Yoshiki claimed that Hide’s death was an accident, and on this film he for the first time acknowledges otherwise. Thus, Hide was the second person in Yoshiki’s circle to take his own life. Sugizo, who also plays violin and is a member of an insane number of bands, including LunaSea, is credited by Yoshiki as the reason X Japan could come back together, which made him very embarrassed. They played a rendition of La Venus without lyrics, with Sugizo on violin.

Hyde: Red Swan. Hyde is without a doubt one of the best rock vocalists in Japan. He was originally the voice of L’Arc~en~Ciel, when they were still a thing. He worked alone for a few years, then he and KAZ founded VAMPS, and finally he went solo again. Red Swan was a collaboration between Yoshiki and Hyde for the anime Attack on Titan!, released as “Yoshiki feat. Hyde”. Yoshiki explained how the red swan represents rising even covered in blood. After this collaboration, there was a second single, released as “Hyde feat. Yoshiki” with the song Zipang, in English and Japanese, which I personally find even more powerful. The significance of Red Swan in Under the Sky comes from how many versions there are on YouTube, especially as anime songs tend to be translated. Thus, it ties in with the concept of coming together through music.

St. Vincent: New York. St. Vincent is known for her clear voice and her complex arrangements, with lots of instruments playing a part. She is considered one of the best guitarist in the 21st century. Yoshiki arranged her song New York for piano and vocals, which made it extremely powerful. All LA artists were invited to sing on Yoshiki’s rooftop, as it would have reduced the logistics involved.

Nicole Scherzinger: I’ll be your love. Scherzinger was the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2009, but before that she had already performed with Yoshiki with this very same song.

The Chainsmokers: Closer. They are an American electronic DJ pair: Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, whom I honestly know nothing about other than they do electronic remixes. They have some supporting musicians.

Lindsey Stirling: Forever Love. She is a violinist who performs and dances at the same time. I had never heard of her either, but she did feel the music. Regarding her, Yoshiki said that she made him realise that not all songs need lyrics and vocals. She did a great job.

Yoshiki and fans: Endless Rain. In a way, Endless Rain is the emotional ballad that keeps showing up in anything X Japan related – and breaking people’s hearts. A while back, there was a request on social media for fans to send recordings of themselves singing the song, which were used for the film. Hearing a Ukrainian girl singing “endless rain lets me forget all of the pain, all of the sadness” was soul-wrenching. Once more Yoshiki circled back to the idea of music bringing music together, along with living, just keep living.

Yoshiki Q&A in London, 11th September 2023

The Q&A afterwards was awkward. The guy who carried it out – Toby Amies – had done his homework but it was not a Q&A, it was an interview by someone who had just learnt about Yoshiki, and was curious, so he had a ton of questions, most of them absolutely unoriginal, such as hey, I’ve just discovered V-kei, explain that to me! Or “do you prefer piano or drums?” which we hear every time – I could swear that Yoshiki was a bit annoyed at that one. The only input that the audience had, before Yoshiki was even in, was “are the Last Rockstars coming to Europe?” (we know the answer to that: never) and “When is the next X Japan album coming out?” (we know the answer to that, too: also never), but when the interviewer got around to ask those, he messed them up! At some point Yoshiki explained the meaning of the title “Under the Sky” – basically, we’re not in Heaven yet, we are underneath. As he was leaving, he was kind enough to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

After the film, we took a bunch of selfies with other fans in front of the poster(s), then moved on. I went back to my hotel for a shower and a few hours’ rest. The bathroom was tiny but hot water did its job, and I could not find the cereal bar I had packed for dinner. The bed was extremely soft, and the carpet smelt strongly as England is in the middle of yet another heatwave, and my nose clogged – I need to remember to start packing my allergy pills. I did not sleep much if at all, and I ended up leaving the hotel before 5:00. I had to decide between breakfast at London Liverpool station or catching the Stansted Express at 5:25. I decided to go for the train and have breakfast at the Stansted Costa, so I boarded, found a seat, and settled down for a travel nap.

Ten minutes away from the airport, as we left Harlow Town, the second-to-last stop, there was an announcement. We were informed that the train would terminate at Bishop’s Stortford, the last stop before Stansted Airport. There were technical issues at the terminus platform, and the train could not reach it. Passengers should vacate the train at at Bishop’s Stortford and ask the platform staff for instructions. The instructions were that we had to fend for ourselves to reach the airport as there was no alternative transportation provided. It was chaos for a second, with everybody scrambling for buses, taxies and so. I was near a young woman who was going to Uber and had some extra seats. She asked if anyone wanted to tag along and I said yes. She said it would be free because her company would reimburse her, so I was lucky on that account, and I arrived at the airport a bit after 6:30. I waved my Uber-companions good-bye and headed to Costa Coffee for breakfast, feeling relieved that I had decided against waiting for the 5:40 train in London Liverpool.

After a sandwich and a vanilla latte, I passed security, where I had to go through secondary screening because… no idea. There was like no metal on me whatsoever. Then the scanner complained about me having something in my pocket – my damn handkerchief! Seriously, now. This has happened a few times. Where do people keep their hankies / tissues if not a pocket??

A****d had not yet departed when I was through, so we could hang out for a little longer – it’s fun that we had only met in person for a few hours in 2017 and we hit off so well. We even had gates in the same area of the airport, so it was cool. This is the first time that I have done the “going to the airport early in the morning” in London, but to be honest there was a 100 € difference between that flight and the next up, since the whole thing was announced and happened so fast. I asked for a refund from the Stansted Express, and now I’m wondering whether to cancel the train for my next trip to London as they’re threatening with strikes on those days… (ETA: I received a full refund, and there was no major incident during the following trip).

The trip back was uneventful except the road was stupidly full when I drove off the parking lot. I napped most of the plane ride, and I had a Coke before 9:00. Talk about living wildly, especially considering how all this happened in 32 hours, and I was in London for less than 24! My only regret was not taking the camera, but I was trying to pack extra-light this time around.

22nd and 23rd April 2023: A date with a dinosaur (London, England, Great Britain)

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Since I cannot keep my mouth shut, I offered to organise a trip to London with some people from work. Despite prices skyrocketing everywhere and my ridiculously hectic schedule, I managed to secure a weekend when flying would not be stupidly expensive, and an activity I would really be looking forward to – the Natural History Museum was running couple of things I was very interested in. One was an exhibition on a gigantic dinosaur: Titanosaur: Life as the biggest dinosaur. Well, twist my arm – NHM is much closer than the actual Titanosaur home in Argentina. Furthermore, there was a collaboration with Jurassic Park (‘an adventure 63,000,030 years in the making’ is the motto), and coming back to the museum would give me the chance to purchase the rock I wanted the last time I was over and did not get because I was heading out to Stonehenge on the same day.

In the end, only one person took up the offer, and I figured out that well, London is pretty much always a good idea for a weekend – so I figured I’d arrange myself a date with a dinosaur. Unfortunately, it turned that London Marathon was held that weekend. Hotel prices were bloated for the night and we ended up at Earl’s Court because I wanted to stay close to South Kensington and the other person wanted the cheapest place possible. We left on a red-eye flight to London Stansted which took a long time to land – we spent about an hour circling the airport, and eventually the head cabin attendant said that there was bad visibility at the airport, and that the pilot required all electronic devices to be turned off so he could use the autolanding system. I did not like that one bit – after I visited Santiago de Compostela in 2022, I felt that I had got over the bad-visitiblity near-miss when I was a teen. Apparently not, the feeling of uneasiness is still there. We landed over an hour late, but we were on our way on the first Stansted Express a few minutes after getting on it. After reaching Liverpool Street Station at around 9:30, I asked my companion to take us to Guildhall as part of the incentive of the trip was introducing them to international travel. It was not a good idea. Their phone trolled us and tried to take us to Guildhall… in Stratford upon Avon. The Costa at the station was closed, but at least I had got myself a sandwich and a latte before we started walking.

After backtracking, we were in known territory around 10:15. As it turns out, my companion was only interested in “walking the city” and shot down any activities I had proposed – thus, some things I just imposed in order not to feel that I had wasted the whole day away. By 11:00, I had confirmed that our travelling styles were not compatible. After some time at the docks next to the Tower of London, I wanted to enter the Anglican church All Hallows by the Tower. All Hallows is the oldest church in the City of London – founded in 675 CE, it predates the nearby Tower of London. The parish used to take care of a lot of the prisoners executed there. The building withstood the Great Fire of London (1666), but it was severely damaged through The Blitz – the German WWII bombing campaign against the UK throughout 1940 and 1941. The church was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1975. Its windows are decorated with symbols from the different London guilds and some families.

Collage of a church. The outer building is brick and it has a tower crowned with a greenish metal spire. The inside has huge windows decorated with guild symbols. The small crypt inside is covered in white stone.

Underneath, there are a few chapels and a small Crypt. Most of the crypt is a museum which chiefly holds artefacts from the Roman period – including remains of an old road. There are other historical items from the Saxon and Medieval times, and the 20th century Crow’s Nest of the vessel Quest, in which Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed for Antarctica for the third time, and where he died.

When we were done, we went to Saint Dunstan in the East Church Garden. I was hoping to use this as a relaxing point for a few minutes, but there was work being done on the parterres. We continued towards the River Thames for some views of Tower Bridge, the museum HMS Belfast and The Shard skyscraper.

We walked by the Monument to the Fire of London on our way to the Sky Garden. The Great Fire burnt inside the Roman city wall for four days after breaking out a bakery after midnight on the 2nd of September, 1666. Though the number of victims is (theoretically) small, the fire destroyed over 13,000 houses (15% of the city’s housing), almost a hundred parish churches, governmental buildings, St Paul’s cathedral, and even some of the city gates.

Afterwards, we walked over to Leadenhall Market, a covered shopping street which can be traced back to a 1321 food market, and marks the centre of Roman Londinium (ruins from the Forum and Basilica are buried underneath). It was given to the city in the 15th century, and in the 19th century, the City Architect Sir Horace Jones designed an iron-and-glass arcade. Today, it holds restaurants, wine bars, varied shops and even beauty parlours.

A covered shopping gallery or street, in dark red and beige tones.

Around the market stands a mixture of modern buildings and traditional buildings, mostly small churches. Among the former:

  • The Lloyd’s Building (25 Gresham Street), sometimes called the “Inside-Out building”. It was finished in 1986 and it is consider a great example of Bowellism – an architectural style that maximises inside space by building ducts, lifts, and other structural necessities on the outside. It was designed by Richard Rogers & Partners, and it still maintains the original entrance of the building that stood in its place in 1928 – the East India House.
  • The Leadenhall Building (122 Leadenhall Street), designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. It opened in 2014.
  • The Willis Towers Watson (WTW), designed by Norman Foster, it was finished in 2008.
  • The Scalpel (52-54 Lime Street), which yields to cool reflections along with the WTW, and has a strange sculpture at the entrance – it made me think of several ship wheels fused together. The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and only completed in 2018.
  • And of course The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe). It was designed by Foster + Partners and it is the first ecological building ever built in London. It opened in 2004.

The historical buildings we encountered (having survived both the Great Fire of London and the Blitz) include:

  • Saint Andrew Undershaft Church. It dates back from 1147, although it has been rebuilt several times. The current building was erected in 1532.
  • Saint Helen’s Bishopsgate Church, where Shakespeare himself used to worship in the 1590s. The building can be traced back to the mid 12th century, and it was restored during the Victorian period and later during the 20th century.

Skyscrapers reflected on the glass that covers yet another huge skyscraper

A small church built in Stone in the background with a huge modern high-rise building behind it

Afterwards, we headed towards Embankment on the Tube. There, I was happy to find a Costa Coffee and get my vanilla latte fix. In the area, we saw the Victoria Embankment Gardens and I wanted to visit Cleopatra’s Needle – half of a pair of obelisks (the other one is in New York), originally made and carved in Heliopolis, what is Cairo today. It has inscriptions from the 18th and 19th Egyptian dynasties (around 1450 BCE). It was presented to the United Kingdom by Sultan Muhammad Ali in 1819, and later transported to London in 1877. Two sphinxes and other decorations were added when the Needle was erected, and the plinth under one of the sphinxes was damaged during London Bombings – it was never restored as a tribute to memory.

An Egyptian obelisk standing against a cloudy background

We walked over to the Westminster area to see the Palace of Westminster and Elizabeth Tower. There was an environmental protest there, which made it packed, but at the same time diverted traffic, allowing for new views from the middle of the street. On the way, I encountered an adorable pit bull mix I got permission to pet – coffee and dog pets made everything better.

A view of the palace of Westminster, with the Elizabeth tower on the left

We continued off to Saint James’s Park, home to squirrels, geese, swans, pigeons, mallard ducks, robins… all of them extremely used to people and tourists, and rather unconcerned by dogs being walked. We ditched the marathon fencing and reached Buckingham Palace, but by then my companion was beat. Thus, we had to go to the hotel so they could get some rest. The hotel was better than expected for a London 2*. It was nice and warm, although the bathroom was tiny – it was difficult to stand inside and close the door.

Buckingham Palace and some of the animals at Saint James' parks

A couple of hours later, we were off into the evening to see Piccadilly Circus, the entrance to Chinatown, and Leicester Square. Companion was beaten, so they were not sure they would be up for anything the following day – we arranged to touch base at 9:00 for them to evaluate. Once in my room, I had a shower and booked a free time slot for the British Museum the following day, just to avoid the queues. I thought, even if we did not make it, at least we had assured entry if we did, and I could always cancel and release the ticket.

Central London at night - Picadilly Circus' Eros and entrance to Chinatown

The next morning, I left on my own around 8:00 to look for a nearby Costa Coffee for a large vanilla latte breakfast, and I came across Brompton Cemetery. This had not been on my radar, but since I had time, I decided to explore it a little. Brompton Cemetery, formerly West of London and Westminster Cemetery, opened in 1840, and it has belonged to the British Crown since 1852. It is on of the oldest garden cemeteries in Britain and comprises around 35,000 monuments. I wandered for about half an hour before I had to head back.

Brompton cemetery, a 19th century graveyard and garden

We managed to get to to the Natural History Museum on time for my date with a dinosaur just after opening. I had my Titanosaur ticket at 10:15, and left off my companion to wander on their own after agreeing to check with each other around noon. The exhibition Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur brings a cast of Patagotitan mayorum to Europe for the first time, along with a few real fossil bones, of a front leg, some teeth, and an egg.

Patagotitan mayorum is one of the largest known animals to have ever lived. It was a sauropod dinosaur – a tetrapod with extremely long neck and tail. It lived in forest regions during the Late Cretaceous (102 to 95 million years ago) grazing on ferns and tree leaves. The species was discovered in Argentina in 2010, and it’s calculated that it could have been up to 31 metres long and weigh over 50 tonnes. It is widely considered the most complete of the South American dinosaurs. The cast that the Natural History museum brought is considered the holotype, and it was reconstructed from the partial skeletons of six specimens.

Titanosaur skeleton. People walking around don't even reach its knees.

The best thing about the exhibit was being able to actually touch the cast, so I kinda hugged my date, I guess. As far as I know, there are only three casts of titanosaur – the one in Argentina (Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew), one in the US (Field Museum, Chicago), named Máximo, and this one.

After I had pranced around the exhibition to my heart’s content, and as it filled up with kids, I moved on to reason number two of this visit having to happen asap in 2023. To celebrate 30 (thirty!) years of the 1993 release of Jurassic Park, the Natural History Museum was running a limited-time-only collaboration pop-up shop – the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary #NHMxJURASSIC store in which I did not even spend that much! I bought a replica badge and a commemorative coin, both limited, numbered editions. The shop had both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World merchandise, especially toys and T-shirts, and a few props, including a life-size sculpture of Blue the velociraptor.

Jurassic Park pop-up shop, with Blue the velociraptor just hanging out

I then headed to the official museum shop to get myself the rock I had wanted – a piece of aura silicon carbide, a shiny mostly-artificial mineral. I also bought a souvenir guide, just because. They did not have anything from the Titanosaur exhibit there, so I backtracked to the exhibition shop to buy a pin.

Whenever I got to the Natural History Museum, I end up in the dinosaur gallery (well, there was that one time I walked through the whole thing throughout a winter day). This time, however, I decided to wander the upper area of the historical building. I was drawn to the Treasures in the Cadogan gallery. I had not been there since it opened in 2013, and my mind was blown. The collection includes a first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and some of the pigeon specimens that he used to develop the theory of evolution. I also got to see the first-ever-found iguanodon teeth (not the replicas), the first fossil ever found of the Archaeopteryx (the link between dinosaurs and birds), and a skeleton and egg of the great auk, the first confirmed victim of anthropogenic extinction (due to human activity). I was very impressed, these were all treasures indeed – no overselling.

Treasures at the Natural History Museum - ancient bird fossil, extinct penguin-like bird, a book, dinosaur teeth. Whale skeleton.

After wandering the second floor for a bit, I ran into my companion and at noon we left towards the British Museum, where I had booked entry for 12:40. I left them to their own devices again and headed off to the Japanese galleries, which had been closed the last couple of times I was in the museum. I was… a bit on the disappointed side, I remembered them being way more impressive from my early 2000s visits.

Japanese Galleries at the British Museum: Samurai Armour, lion dogs pair, articulated metal animals, a standing Buddha.

I visited the Moai, the Elgin Marbles, the Babylonian bulls and the Rosetta Stone, and I headed off to the shop to get myself a treat – retail therapy is a thing. Eventually, we left the museum and managed to get to Liverpool Street to take the Stansted Express to the airport. Security was smooth, not as crammed as other times, and then, as tradition calls, I got myself some sushi at Itsu.

When we boarded the plane, I had been assigned an emergency exit seat. In order to sit there, you need to be able to take responsibility about opening the exit if something happens. I flagged a flight attendant to inform them that I would be physically unable to do so. I had a new seat in 4.5 seconds, and it turned out to be a window seat. We took off a few minutes late, and landed with a delay of almost a quarter of an hour. Nevertheless, after passport control and all, I managed to reached the parking lot payment machines with a few seconds to spare the overstaying fee – all good!

Balance – The marathon barely interfered with the weekend. I had a date with a dinosaur and hugged them. That was awesome. I got limited edition Jurassic Park and Jurassic World merchandise. I found some Kettle Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena crisps at one of the supermarkets. I got two new books, commemorative coins and a shiny rock. I also discovered new places to explore in the future, and had Costa – twice. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for extra visits on Sunday – so I could not fit in either the HMS Belfast or the Jack the Ripper Museum. Furthermore, the Grant Museum of Zoology is closed for renovation, and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology does not open on Sundays, so in the end I was not really able to scratch much off my list. Whoops!

Souvenirs from London: books, crisps, commemorative coins and Jurassic Park merch

13th August 2022: Smoothness in Chaos {England, August 2022}

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As rail strikes rolled out both in London and the rest of England, I was thankful I had found out in advance. The hotel internet was patchy and I would have had trouble booking a coach ticket for the airport. I decided not to try and cram more than I had already on my plate for the day, and stick to my booked tickets and original timing.

I took an underground line to Victoria railway station, from which I went to find out where my airport coach would leave from. After that, I walked from Victoria coach station towards Westminster, stopping at Westminster Cathedral, a rather out-of-place Neo-Byzantine building, which serves as the Catholic cathedral. Designed by John Francis Bentley, it was completed in 1903. It was closed for service, unfortunately.

Westminster Cathedral, a Chrsistian neo-byzantine building: a view of the exterior, in white and red brick, and the open doors showing the inner altar from afar

Due to the strikes and potential issues, Westminster Abbey had rearranged its opening hours, and waived all the “entry times”. So basically it was a bit on the chaotic side, though I arrived for my own timeslot, as I had calculated that would be all right for the tour I had signed up for. The abbey is officially called Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. It was a originally a Benedictine abbey, and William the Conqueror, in 1066 made it the “official coronation ceremony” place, and many Royal Weddings have occurred there. It is built in the Gothic style, with Neo-Gothic towers. Furthermore, most British monarchs were buried there, along with a number of personalities that were either earthed there, or had memorials erected – Darwin, Newton, Hawkins, Shakespeare… The Abbey features a 19th-century wooden choir in the middle, and an outer cloister in early Gothic style. It was bustling with people fighting the audio guide and extremely hot though. However, this completed my tour of the Unesco World Heritage Site of “The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church”

Westminster Abby, a Gothic Protestant Cathedral. Collage showing the towers and main entrance, the inner Norman altar in golden wood, the ceiling in the nave, and the cloister

Before the train strikes and the chaos in English airports, I had booked a 12:15 “Westminster Abbey hidden highlights” tour as my last activity in London before taking the Stansted Express to the airport. The change of plans meant I had to take the 14:00 h coach instead of the 15:00 h train to be at the airport by 16:00, to make sure that I would have plenty of time to go through security. That meant that I unfortunately had to cut the tour short. Event then, I got to see St Margaret’s Church, the old Medieval sacristy, the inner chambers of Samaria and Jerusalem, and got close to coronation chair. Not bad at all, even if I unfortunately had to miss the library to walk back to the station.

A collage showing an archaeological excavation (very professional holes on the ground, some showing a hint of brick foundations); the Coronation Chair and the hanging flag over it; ornate wooden ceilings; and a mythological-themed tapestry hanging from a wall

I have to say that the return was exhausting. Even with one hour difference, I got on the coach for the airport at 14:00 and did not land until 22:00. However, flying out of Stansted always has a good thing – goodbye sushi!

Tray of sushi and sashimi

All in all, this non-weekend weekend was an amazing mental break! Even if the last day did not work as originally organised, I had a heads up in order to prepare my contingency plans. I got to see something that I always wanted to see – and even if Stonehenge was smaller than I thought, it was not disappointing. Also, I checked that entering the UK after Brexit is pretty much the same as before, so I can organise more escapades in the future, because I still need to go to Jurassic Coast…

Walking distance: 11.27 km / 16672 km

11th August 2022: 21 hours straight of ups and downs in London {England, August 2022}

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The first thing I had to do was waking up for a 6:30 flight – though considering I did not sleep very much that night due to the heat, I’m not sure if that it counts as waking up. The previous day, the airline had sent warning emails about arriving at the airport early – three hours before the flight would have meant being there at 3:30, so… not really. I arrived at the airport around 5:10, and I was at the gate by… 5:20, I’m not even kidding. While I normally do not queue to enter planes – the advantages of backpacks, I just kick them under the seat – I had been assigned seat 1A, which meant I had to put my luggage into the overhead compartment. I had decided to take a small backpack too, because I would be carrying it around for a while, and it would get searched in a couple of places.

Surprisingly, despite Brexit, the Ryanair strikes, airport chaos, and the fact that apparently the automatic passport reader cannot cope with my new look, I made it into the United Kingdom first and straight to London without a glitch. Not only that, I managed to get my Oyster recharged without any problems, and as soon as I had bought some food, I was on my way to the first stop of the day: Crystal Palace Park, for which I got to ride the shiny new underground line, the Elizabeth Line, then the Overground. Even though there are another couple of landmarks (that might warrant a visit when / if the restoration project finally goes through), what interested me in Crystal Palace was a collection of Victorian sculptures – the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Though Ancient Greek already knew about fossils before the current era, it was in the 19th century when it hatched as a “science”, according to some spurred by Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. Fossil hunters ran amok, excavating and spoiling the North American badlands. In England itself, Mary Anning kept discovering cool things. There was a sort of a “Dinosaur fever” – the Victorians became fascinated with all things prehistoric. In 1852, a number of extinct animal reconstructions were commissioned to be erected in the gardens of the Crystal Palace, after the World Exhibition. Using the knowledge available at the time, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkings, a natural history illustrator and sculptor, who did his best according to scientific knowledge at the time.

Not all the animals represented are real dinosaurs, but the nickname stuck. From today’s standards, most of the reproductions are extremely inaccurate, with some exceptions, such as the ichthyosaur (discovered by Mary Anning around 1811), and the plesiosaur (of which Mary Anning also found a skeleton in 1823, and then another in 1830 – I love that woman). Today, the park is organised in several “islands” where you can see the sculptures, though the water was a bit down due to the heatwaves:

  • Amphibians and therapsids: Dicynodon and Labyrinthodon
  • Marine reptiles: Ichthyosaur, Mosasaurus, Plesiosaur and Teleosaurus
  • Dinosaurs and pterosaurs: Hylaeosaurus, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Pterosaur
  • Mammals: Palaeotherium, Anoplotherium, Megaloceros and Megatherium

I have been aware of these sculptures for a long time – since I was a child and started liking dinosaurs. However, only recently did I find out that they really existed, and where they were. I arrived at Crystal Palace station a little after ten (making whole travel from the airport about two hours). I walked by a small farm with typical fauna such as… an alpaca, then I ate my sandwich overseeing the first island.

A collage showing differet statues of prehistoric creatures. Some try to be dinosaurs, and they look almost comically wrong, like giant iguanas or chameleons. There is one plesiosaurus looking rather acurate - it has a long neck and flipers. Finally, some mammals: a deer with huge antlers and a tiny horse-looking creature

I walked around for about an hour and then I set on my way back. Though I had planned to have a relaxed day at first, I had to adjust due to cancellations and train strikes. It was around that time that I calculated that I could actually cram my original Thursday and Saturday plans onto Thursday, plus the alternative plans I had made if I tweaked the time a little. So I back-rode for another hour towards the city.

Near Tower Hill stands the Sky Garden, on the 35th floor of the 20 Fenchurch Street building, designed by Rafael Viñoly. Sky Garden is considered the highest garden in London, and a fantastic viewpoint of the city. I almost accidentally came across the option to book a free access ticket for this – while I had not wanted to pay for any morning / early afternoon activities in case my plane was delayed, I figured out that I could book this for free, especially as they go stupidly fast! I made my 12:30 timeslot with a few minutes to spare, but I was let in after a queue, ID check, X rays and metal detection.

The Sky Garden features two terraces full of plants (landscaped by Gillespies), a couple of restaurants and bars, and an “open” gallery which has glass above your head so the feeling of opening dissipates – the glass is stained and scratched. It was one of the “must-do’s” in London I had never visited before, so I thought it would be a good opportunity. Fortunately, they have relaxed the rules on no bottles because of the unusual high temperatures.

After wandering around for a bit, I continued onto Saint Dunstan in the East Church Garden, the ruins of an old Wren church destroyed by The Great Fire of London and destroyed again during the Blitz (World War II bombings). Dating back to the 1100s, it was opened as a public park in 1970. Aside from being a very cute building park I wanted to see for a while, a music video by the band VAMPS was filmed there.

Ruins of a gothic church turned garden, with hanging ivy and bushes overgrowing the walls and windows

As it was lunchtime, the park was bustling with people, so I just had to move on rather quickly, and went back to the underground to get to the area of Westminster. I had originally booked tickets for Saturday (back in May) but then they were cancelled due to “repair work” going on that day (I do wonder if it was a security measure related to the strikes though).

But of course, first I feasted my eyes on the very new Elizabeth Tower clock tower aka Big Ben – though Big Ben is one of the bells in the tower, but nobody really cares about that any more.

Elizabeth Tower, shining gold with the restoration. It almost looks fake. The clock marks Quarter to two.

The Palace of Westminster or Houses of Parliament is the centre of the United Kingdom’s turbulent political life. The current palace was built after the previous one was destroyed by a fire in 1834. The new palace was erected in the Neo-Gothic style, and it was mostly finished by 1860, although it did open to be used in 1835. There was a competition regarding the design, which was won by sir Charles Barry. The Palace of Westminster holds the two chambers where the British government meets – the House of Lords and the House of Commons – alongside the Norman Porch, St. Stephen’s chapel, and the different corridors where the MPs vote or discuss state matters. I’ll forever be amused that “for security reasons, photography is not permitted in these chambers with dozens of cameras for TV broadcasting and Internet streaming”, but alas. The woodwork on the Norman Porch ceiling is fantastic, and some of the decoration choices, such as Churchill’s sculpture are… interesting. It is noteworthy that it is part of the Unesco Heritage Site “Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church”.

Collage: a view of the houses of parliament (London), with the Elizabeth Tower on the left. Two shots of the Norman Hall, a huge ward with an intrincate design of wooden ceiling. A gothic corridor with a wooden door and some coloured glass panels

Afterwards, I just found my way to the hotel – though I had to wander a little to find the nearby supermarket, bugger those never-ending attached-house neighbourhoods, rested for a little and then went to the station to go to the theatre – I wanted some extra time to check out where my airport coach would leave, so I gave myself 45 minutes for a 22-minute trip. It turns out there was train trouble and I was barely on time, taking an alternative route instead of the direct one.

When I realised my flight timing would give a free evening in London, I booked tickets for the Apollo Victoria Theatre to watch the “Wicked”. This musical tells the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from the point of view of the witches, and somehow gives the “Wicked Witch from the West”, Elphaba, an amazing personality and backstory that resonates a lot with me. For the same price as the ticket I was eyeing back in the day, I found a VIP upgrade just one seat over, so I was entitled to a drink and “snacks”, an early entry, along with access to the “Ambassador Lounge”, a tiny reception hall with access to a private restroom.

“Wicked” was great. The actress who plays the main character, Elphaba (Lucie Jones) came out a little yelly though in her solos. The duets with the other female singer (Glinda, Helen Woolf) were fantastic, and the male love interest’s (Fiyero, Ryan Reid) song was absolutely great, even though he is a character I have never cared for.

Apollo Victoria Theatre: the inner theatre, showing a dragon and a closed curtain showing a map of Oz. The outer theatre: there is a sign reading Apollo Victoria Wicked, and everything is lit green. The VIP lounge, with a glass of soda, and some chairs. The cast at the end of the show, taking their goodbye bows.

By the time I was out, the trains were running again, and one-to-three-minute delay on a line that runs every five minutes or so, and I was at the hotel by 23:00, absolutely beat. The room was extremely hot, because London is absolutely not ready for heat, so I had a snack in front of the fan, took a shower and then got some sleep – 21 hours on the go were over. Funnily enough, by the time I went to bed, I had that wobbly-world jet-lag feeling I have after my first day in Japan. It must have been the barely sleeping the night before. I fell asleep very fast.

Walking distance: 30.52 km / 46192 steps

23rd & 24th June 2018: London Express (England, Great Britain)

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I took some family members over to London for the weekend, and they asked me to organise something so they could see a lot of things. We took the red-eye flight so we were downtown London something around 8:30. Our first visit had tickets for 10:00, so first spot was a Costa Coffee for breakfast! (≧▽≦)

Afterwards we saw the Tower Bridge over the Thames.

Then, at the right time, we walked into the Tower of London, where we wandered around visiting all the areas, including the White Tower, the dungeons, the Crown Jewels vault and the raven nests.

Once we were done, we took the underground to the British Museum for a quick visit through the most important collections, along with a few of the less known but interesting things – in the end we saw the Babylonian, Grecian, Egyptian collections, and had a glimpse at a few of the Chinese artefacts and the Hoa Hakananai’a from Easter Island.

We had lunch in-between and then went to the hotel to drop our things off. After that, we took off again and, via underground, we reached Trafalgar Square. We walked towards Piccadilly and on the way we stopped at Legoland and M&Ms shop. Then had dinner in an Angus steakhouse in Leicester square, and to end the day, we had a look at the lit Piccadilly Circus.

We got back to the hotel, and honestly, I had not realised how close to the centre we actually were until I looked out of the window.

The next morning we woke up early and headed off to have breakfast on the go – actually the weather was super nice so we got ourselves some Nero coffee and sandwiches and ate them in front of Westminster’s Abby. As it was Sunday we could not visit the Abby, but we saw the scaffolded Big-Ben, and walked around the Houses of Parliament.

We went to visit the Monument to Emmeline Pankhurst because the youngest person in the group needed to be told about a period in history in which she would not have been as free as she is today.

After that, we crossed over the Thames, then moved on to the London Eye. Half of the group wanting to go up, the other half being not fans of heights, we divided and conquered – two of us went to the London Aquarium while the other three enjoyed their VIP ride in the London Eye. I know you are not surprised I picked the side with the sharks instead of going up.

This guy judged us, very hard:

After our riverbank separation, we regrouped and headed off towards the Natural History Museum where we first saw the Butterfly carp that was installed outside it – they were extremely pretty and beyond friendly, because we were landed on quite often.

When we had finished the walk, we stepped into the Natural History Museum itself to wander through the dinosaur area for a bit, and then around the animal collection.

We decided to head out to the restaurant to have a bite to eat, and as we were walking through the marine invertebrate area (the room with all the crabs and so on), there was a nice lady showing items. And that’s how I ended up holding a megalodon tooth and fanbying like there was no tomorrow. Don’t judge me. Or do so, I don’t care ☆⌒(ゝ。∂)

As they walked into the insect / general creepy-crawler gallery, I walked around the gallery that held “less impressive” fossils, including the ones discovered by Anne Manning. We had lunch in the NHM, then moved on.

A short underground ride later, we were at St James’s Park, where we took a bit of a walk towards Buckingham Palace. As the weather was nice, we got to see a lot of the local fauna, even the local swans.

We hung around for a while as we saw Buckingham Palace, then headed off back towards the airport. Although we had a couple-of-hours delay, we made it home without further complication.

9th & 10th June 2018: Wicked London (England, Great Britain)

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This will be the last work-trip, at least for a while. I might change my mind later, but for now I’m done with them (although there’s an upcoming family trip rather soon…). Again, we flew in early Saturday morning, and we went to walk around the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.

Then we went to the British Museum. I left them for a couple of hours there and I went to visit some of the lesser-seen galleries.

We had booked tickets for the musical “Wicked” in the Apollo Victoria Theatre at 14:30, so we headed over there. Wicked is a parallel story to “The Wizard of Oz”, focusing on the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, who becomes a social outcast due to her tendency to speak her mind and the strength of her magic. I had really wanted to watch this for a long time, so I used this chance and convinced the group to get there. I absolutely loved it ♥.

After the show, we dropped our things at the hotel. The group wanted to get some rest, so we stayed there for a while, then got out again. We took the underground towards London central and we were in Trafalgar Square for a while.

Then, we went to Chinatown for dinner.

Later, we walked around Piccadilly Circus, checking out some shops and so. We even stopped for cake.

On Sunday morning we went to Saint James’s Park, where we got to meet the local fauna, especially a very adventurous squirrel.

Then we dropped by Buckingham Palace. Although we did not watch the Guard Change, we did see one of the relief marches.

We walked from there to Westminster, saw the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, along the outside of Westminster Abby.

We visited the Monument to Emmeline Pankhurst and stayed for a while in the Victoria Tower Gardens.

As a final visit, we went to the Natural History Museum.

Finally, we headed off to the airport, and the icing of the cake was that we got caught in a controllers’ strike, so we had like a three-hour delay on our flight and it took forever to get home (;¬_¬). All in all, this was a very… strange trip, and without a doubt the highlight was going to see Wicked, which is something I had wanted to do for a long time, and gave me a couple of hours of enjoyment to myself.

11th & 12th June 2017: Highlights of London (England, Great Britain)

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As part of my day job, I took a group of customers on a trip to London. Not the best decision in my life, but one that I would repeat a couple of times before I had enough. This was a short getaway – we took off on a red-eye flight on Saturday and we came back on Sunday evening.

Our first stop was The Tower of London, officially called “Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London”. The main Tower, “White Tower”, was built in the 11th century, and additions to it were made up to the 1400s. It was designated Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998. The Tower holds an armoury, some treasure, documentation offices, a few shops and the Crown Jewels of England. And, according to the legend, quite a few ghosts.

After the Tower, we took a moment to see the Tower Bridge.

We had a hotel basically at the end of the world, and we decided to go to drop our things off before we continued on the visit. We saw the Wellington Arc in Hyde Park on the way to the royal palace.

Then we fooled around Buckingham Palace.

Finally we went to Chinatown to have dinner…

… and rounded up the day at Piccadilly Circus.

The next morning we headed off to the British Museum. We had breakfast outside because of course it was one of those times when it’s all warm in London. Waffles = ♥

The British Museum was established in 1753, and opened to the public, in its current location, in 1759. It focuses on human history and art, having branched the natural history items to the Museum of Natural History and all the documentation to the British Library. The museum holds the awe-inducing number of 150 million of artefacts from dozens of cultures of the world, both ancient and modern, with amazing Grecian and Egyptian collections (albeit having disputed ownership…)

Inside the British Museum we separated. I left them to have a walk around the most important areas and I walked into my favourite spots (although the Japanese galleries were still closed. I also got a ticket to see the Hokusai – beyond the Great Wave exhibition, which presents a number of Hokusai’s works organised in series or topics. One is waves, and it shows how Hokusai experimented with textures, shapes, swirls and foam until he found the “perfect” wave – his most famous work, the Great Wave. There is a series on people, another one on mythology, and another one on himself and his family.

After I was done and we had met up again, I helped them found some stuff that they had not seen but still wanted to. Then, we headed off to the Westminster area to see the Big Ben, and although there was some scaffolding already visible, we managed to see the whole thing.

Finally, we headed off to the airport to get back home.

3rd – 5th March 2017: #XDAY in London (England, Great Britain)

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The X JAPAN concert in Wembley was scheduled for the 12th of March 2016. Unfortunately, on the 15th of January, guitarist PATA was admitted to the ICU in Japan, which set back the date a whole year. For the record, I’m very happy that PATA made a full recovery.

Since January 2016 I had been trying to arrange one of the VIP packs that were being offered and which included transportation, but the promoter ONTOURS had been skittish. The postponement did not come as a surprise. In the end these packages blew up and there was a different kind of VIP upgrade arranged, that my friend C***** and I chose to buy. This included half of the merchandise and access to the sound-check. Later on, it was announced that the band would be signing copies of the “We are X” album at hmv in Oxford street. My friend C***** and I also managed to get tickets for that one, so we were elated.

Friday, 3rd of March 2017: We Nailed It

C***** and I met at the airport on the 3rd of March, Friday, for an early afternoon flight, and everything went smoothly. The only minor bump was that she was carrying a trolley and the lady at the gate decided that there were already more than fifty trolleys being loaded as carry-on – there were not, I had counted them and that she had to check in. She tried to protest (literally, the attendant started tagging the line when she saw us) to no avail. I was not having it, so as soon as we walked past the boarding pass check, I ripped off the “check at gate” tag and produced a copy of the boarding pass (without the check-in sticker), and we were allowed in without problem.

We arrived in London Stansted, went through immigration without any impertinent agent bugging us, and we took the Stansted Express, then changed into the underground. It was all smooth once more, we got to the Oxford Street stop, alit, and found the hmv building. When we reached the queue, sheshe stayed and I went in to buy the CDs for the autographs. I also bought a bottle of water, and the cashier actually got a chuckle out of my face when they gave me a new £5 note, which are sort of plastic-y, and have a transparent part. After this, we settled to wait. It took a long time to finally get to the signing area, but the weather was reasonable and there were no weird people around.

You could take pictures on the approach to the band, but as you arrived at the front, you had to leave all your things. As you approached the band, one of the assistants would take the booklet from you and handed it over to the first artist, guitarist Sugizo, who did not look too awake. Then ToshI, who was smiling all the time. Yoshiki was happy as he tends to be when he is the centre of attention. Patatried to look like nothing had to do with him. Finally Heath handed (what you hoped was) your booklet back to you.

All in all you might be seeing them for 3 or 4 minutes top as the hmv staff kept yelling at you to hurry up. It was however worth every second, although all my pictures ended up being horrible.

hmv building outside, autographied CD and a very blurry image of the band signing

And here is my not-so-little secret: I froze. I had practised so much what I wanted to tell each and every one of them, but I just froze and I couldn’t get the words out except a mumbled thank you to Heath when he gave me my booklet back. I remember looking at Sugizo and Yoshiki thinking “they’re real, they’re here, it’s happening…”

We knew that there would be a crowd after the event, and we wanted to avoid that, as C***** has a bad back, so we decided against waiting for them after the fact. Instead, we headed off for the hotel we had booked just next to Wembley Arena. On the way, we stopped at a Salisbury supermarket to get some stuff that we might need – aka some drinks and snacks for the following day – we needn’t have worried though as when we turned the corner we found a whole shopping centre with restaurants.

We checked in, left our things, had a shower, and headed off for dinner. She had never been in a Wagamama before, so I thought it was a great idea to try it for dinner. I think she enjoyed it – and so did I, I might have eaten a bit too much.

Dinner: dumplings, fried chicken, ramen with a lot of veggies, sweet buns

Saturday, 4th of March 2017: The Actual #XDAY

On Saturday morning, the actual #XDAY, the fourth of March 2017, we had breakfast at a Costa Coffee – I have to say that I really enjoyed introducing her to a bunch of “my favourite British things”.

Tall coffee latte mug

We hung out at the outside of the venue all morning until we could get our VIP accreditations and be admitted. Before everything started, though, we had some burgers for lunch.

Fancy burger with overflowing lettuce and avocado sauce

After lunch, we went to the VIP line. I saved up the space while my friend made a run to the merchandise booth to check if they had the We are X soundtrack CDs – yes, exactly the same one that we had bought the day before, except that this time they had a special cover – blue, red, or purple. And with each CD you got a set of “trading cards”. We were not lucky at this time.

The venue, with lots and lots of windows

The whole experience once within the venue started with watching the rehearsal, at least what we were allowed to – to this day I don’t understand why we were let in late and escorted out early so we only caught about 50% of it. Highlights of this are Yoshiki in pink sweatpants, and ToshI waving his hand at us whenever “nobody” was looking.

The band rehearsing

We were chased out to wait in the halls and I used the time to slither towards the merch booth, where I got the CDs – all three colours (twice, actually, for both myself and C***** as she kept the spot). Eventually, the doors opened again and we took the picture on the stage – unfortunately without the band – as the arena started filling up with people. After this we found our seats. I made a run to the ticket booth again because I had won an extra set of tickets and we needed to check whether by any chance they were better than what we had. Through this process, I ended up having a riff-raff with the security staff at Wembley that lead me to file a complaint letter. Of course, I had to run into my least favourite things about British people.

Late, of course, everything started. First, we were shown the documentary “We are X”, and it hurt every bit as much as the first time in Barcelona. And as the documentary was coming to an end, the music rose up and we got started with the chords of Rusty Nail. The concert was fantastic – we had had to wait for over a year but we were finally there. This was my first real X Japan concert, and my heart was soaring all through the event. Everything was magnificent: all the members, the music, the crowd… It was so amazing I wished it never ended.

Unfortunately, though, everything comes to an end, and so did the concert, though I hope the memories never fade away.

Stills of the concert

Sunday, 5th of March 2017: Excitement Hangover

The next morning, we woke up and went to find the Costa again, because Costa is amazing. It was raining, cold, and I was not feeling too well as I had hit a wall, but coffee revived me a little. We got into the underground to go to the commuting point to the train and kept an eye out for any We Are X posters that we could find (we decided against trying to find the billboards because that would mean a big detour and we did not feel comfortable with the flights timing).

We eventually found some posters at Baker Street and… after a quick Instagram check we realised that we had stumbled upon the very same poster in front of which ToshI had taken his pictures, and we had a laughing flash.

The concert promo in the underground.

When we reached the airport we had some hot food at the Stansted Itsu – not the best but it was warm and it helped me feel a bit better.

Lunch - containers of fast food: gyoza, miso soup, turkey with peas, and meat broth. The logo says itsu eat beautiful

We separated at the airport because C***** had a better connection to her town to return than she had for arriving in London. All in all, this was one of the best weekends of my life and it all worked almost perfectly – all the important things anyway.

Also, I made a promise to myself after this – that I would not freeze again in front of a star. I hope I can keep it.

28th & 29th March 2014: London (England, Great Britain) for VAMPS

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A friend convinced me to attend this VAMPS concert in London by paying for the VIP upgrade in advance. I took a red-eye flight on Saturday morning to Gatwick and went directly to Camden, where the venue, Koko live house, stood.

The venue, a neoclassical building with a marking reading Koko

Aside from the run to the hotel, I spent most of the day in the queue, which was rewarded when I got an autograph from HYDE himself on the Sex Blood Rock ‘n’ Roll album.

Hyde's autograph on the Sex Blood Rock n' Roll CD

It was probably due to the high of the autograph, but this is one of the best concerts that I’ve ever attended, with lots of amazing songs, and I had a great time. I did not freeze during the Meet and Greet, and I shook hands with both members, mumbled something along the lines of “thanks for the autograph” to Hyde and “thanks for the pick” to K.A.Z, referring to the one I got in Barcelona. Then I bounced off the evening with most of the songs:
  1. Devil side
  2. Redrum
  3. The past
  4. Secret in my heart
  5. Replay
  6. Dolly
  7. Sweet Dreams
  8. Life on Mars?
  9. Hunting II
  10. World’s end
  11. Angel trip
  12. Trouble
  13. Midnight celebration
  14. Revolution II
  15. Memories
  16. Love addict
  17. Sex Blood Rock N’ Roll

The venue at night

The next morning my friend went off to the airport first thing in the morning. I was not travelling back till the evening, so I took the chance to… Well, first things first, I took the chance to get myself to a Costa Coffee and get a vanilla latte.

A Costa coffee dispossable glass

Then I took the underground towards the end of the world, or more precisely the end of the Jubilee line – to North Greenwich. I took the O2 Arena exit, to say hi the IndigO2, where I had been once back in 2012 to attend the L’Arc~en~Ciel World Tour, the first and only time I’ve ever seen them.

North Greenwich undergrond station

The O2, a huge tent with crane-looking structures that reminds one of a giant hedgehog

I left the O2 Arena behind, and walked about 20 minutes towards the Cutty Sark, a tea clipper built in Dumbarton in 1869. It took eight trips to China to trade for tea and other items. Its history involved mutinee, murder, trampling of cargo and travels to Asia and Australia. In the 1880s it was considered one of the fastest ships if not the fastest sailing the ocean.

A landed sailboat

The Cutty Sark’s figurehead is the witch Nannie Dee, created by Robert Burns – in the poem a man falls in… love or lust… with a witch during a coven meeting that he’s spying, and the witch chases him away, getting away with the tail of his horse, that you can see in her hand.

Close up of the ship. It is perched on a glass structure that gives away tot he museum

The steam engines made sail-ships obsolete, but the Cutty Sark was active until the 1950s, when it was rammed by another ship on the Thames. In 1954 it was moved to a custom-dock in Greenwich to become a museum.

I wanted to see the exhibition inside, which turned out out be about Chinese tea and the history of the ship, which was not unexpected. I bought a pet-rat souvenir plush because I found it adorable. In 2007 it was ravaged by a fire, and extensive rebuilding works were undertaken, which included building a new support of glass and steel that would also become the new visitor centre when the museum reopened in 2012 (when I was there in 2012 it was not yet open. I guess this was an itch I had to scratch).

Different objects in the Cutty Sark museum - tea boxes, sailing instruments, the steering wheel, marionettes, one of the original floaters

A small black rat plush with the Cutty Sark tag

Oh, and by the way… here’s the binnacle!

An actual binnacle compass

I walked back towards the underground and by the Thames riverbank.

Thames and riverbank

There stands the Old Royal Naval College, a Unesco World Heritage site build between 1696 and 1712 – it was originally conceived as a hospital and it became the Royal Naval College in 1873.

Naval college. A symmetric Neoclassical building, with columns and a green lawn

Continuing on the riverbank, you can see the floodgates in the background.

Small waves at the walk near the river

I paid my respect to Admiral Lord Nelson Statue and went on.

A sculpture of Nelson, with his right hand

I had to take a bus at Victoria Coach Station to go to the airport, and I got a very nice tour of the city, with the Big Ben and Houses of Parliament…

The Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower

… the London Eye …

The London Eye, a giant ferris wheel

… and the Tower of London.

The Medieval Fortress Tower of London

Once at the airport, I had some Yo!Sushi dinner – not the best, but hey I take sushi wherever I can find it because yay sushi.

Sushi dinner

Flashback to 28th December 2010 – 2nd January 2011: New Year’s in London

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  • Hyde Park
  • Piccadilly Circus
  • Sherlock Holmes Museum
  • London Eye
  • Houses of Parliament
  • Big Ben
  • River Thames
  • Tower Bridge
  • Tower of London
  • St Paul’s Cathedral
  • Globe Theatre
  • London Aquarium
  • British Museum
  • London Natural History Museum
  • Buckingham Palace

Note: This is a flashback post, which means it is just a collage regarding a trip I took before I started the blog in 2012. Tags may be incomplete or slightly off.