The oldest coffee house in Europe?

I had a quick lunch in the longest established coffee house in Europe before taking the bus to the airport and then flying home to Japan. The food and the staff were nice.

British humor

I walked by a sign that told me that JRR Tolkien had never had drink in a bar I passed. Useful information.

Swedish vodka, Absolut London

There was a lot of Swedish vodka (Absolut Vodka) on sale in Oxford. One version I had never seen before was "Absolut London".

British food, Japanese magic

On the last evening (there were some meetings the next morning too, but most people left at around lunch the last day), 16 of us went to a British place called the Red Lion. I ordered some salmon based starter which was very nice, and a British looking chicken and meat pie, which was also good. Later, a waitress also told me that the chocolate cake with sticky caramel sauce was good and I should order that, so I did.

The guy who wanted to see a card trick sat at my table, so I showed him a card trick. Another guy who I had never met before also watched my magic. He was a great spectator. He laughed and was amazed at every trick, even though he was trying to figure out every trick and asked a lot of penetrating questions. My usual: "I'm sorry, I don't understand the Japanese word you just used" that I tell Japanese spectators that ask me things there are no good answers too was not applicable, but I tried things like: "I am sorry, you accent is a bit strong, could you rephrase?", which he also thought was funny.

We had so much fun at our table that people at the other table from our group also asked me to come by and do some magic for them too. They enjoyed it too.

Sunset in the park

Every day  I walked past a big park on the way to two of the frequent meeting rooms. On the way home one of the days, I took a walk through the park. It was very nice.

The Internet has ruined me

The logo is supposed to be two forks on a plate, I guess, but why would you use two forks? And doesn't this look too much like another famous image?

English breakfast and a hotel with no Internet

I stayed in a place that served traditional English breakfasts. There were fried eggs, toast, beans, bacon, sausages, hash browns, fruits, yogurt, and much more. There was also marmite, if you are into weird smelly stuff.

The buildings we stayed in were beautiful. They looked like old British buildings (and probably were). The plumbing was not great (I have never seen good plumbing in Britain, though I have not been there much). My shower had a control for the temperature, but no matter what setting you set it to, the water was quite cold. After letting it run for several minutes, the water became warm. After about one minute of warm, the water became very hot, and no matter what setting you set the temperature to, the water was uncomfortably hot.

The next day, I figured that I could let the shower run while not standing in the small shower trying to avoid the cold water. This plan was complicated by the fact that the shower sent water flying straight out the door of the shower cabin, making everything nearby very wet, if you tried to turn the shower on while not inside the cabin...

The location was also great. There was a huge garden that looked very nice, and a small river passed nearby. There were also lots of ducks walking around on the grounds.

There was, however, no Internet. That was a big surprise.

It was also surprising that I was in Britain for three days and it did not rain on me even once!

Indian food, Japanese hand towels

One night, almost everyone from our project meeting went out to dinner together. One of the few places in Oxford that can serve that many people, I am told, is an Indian place. They served us a bunch of stuff. It was good, but the people who ordered ordered very bland versions (since they thought some people could not handle spicy food), which was a bit sad.

I was asked by a Greek guy to do some magic, since apparently he had seen me do some magic at some other research related event. I did not have any props on me, but I found some rubber bands and surprised the people close to me. The Greek guy said that the next day he would be expecting card tricks.

After the meal was over, everyone got wet towels to wipe their hands with (when I was in India, I got bowls of lemon scented water to wash my hands in), since you are supposed to eat the curry etc. with your hands. In Japan, the exact same type of towels are handed out before the meal.

Fish and chips, and good fish

When people in Japan think of British food, they only ever come up with Fish and Chips. I have tried fish and chips in other countries, but I am not a huge fan. It is not bad, but it is not very exciting either.

I found a small place where lots of people that seemed to be locals were having dinner, and it was a sea food restaurant. I decided to try some fish and chips there, since this must be top level fish and chips. I also ordered some smoked salmon to have something that was guaranteed to be good if the fish and chips indeed were as uninteresting as I feared. It would also be a good way to check the level of the restaurant in general.

The smoked salmon was great! The WiFi in the restaurant was also great (which was nice, since my hotel did not have Internet... I did not know such hotels still existed).

The fish and chips showed up and were not bad, but not very interesting. The serving was enormous, though. The green stuff are steamed green peas, which were good. The pickles and the sauce were very nice too.

Oxford

I did not have time to go sightseeing in Oxford, but I did spend a lot of time walking from one place of work to the next place of work (we had meetings in different locations). Oxford seemed to be a small but nice town.

Brooms and wands in the Harry Potter store

Oxford is a university town, and right where I got off the bus, they were selling magic wands, magic brooms, and Gryffindor sweatshirts.

Going to Oxford

Last week I went to Oxford to present our research. On my flight there was a group of over 50 young women all wearing black suits. I wonder where they were going?

On my last business trip to Europe, I had time for some sightseeing and then ended up meeting two girls who not only were from Sapporo but who actually work at my university. That was a huge coincidence, and I was not expecting any such coincidences this time. 30 minutes after I entered Britain, I got on a bus from Heathrow Airport to Oxford, and two guys I know were sitting in the bus and said: "Ah, Jonas? You're going to Oxford too?"

They were going to the same research meeting as I was, though, so it was not that strange to run into them in a foreign country.