Ohhhhhhh, Big Ben! Big Ben makes me think of Peter Pan.

When I saw it for the first time, on Miho and my third day sightseeing, I was like, “OOOH, I FOUND LONDON, HERE IT IS!”

I wonder how everyone else feels. ^^;

According to our guidebooks, Big Ben is generally not open to the public, as is Parliament. There are tours of Parliament, but not on the days that we were there, and it seems that there are tours of the inside of Big Ben, but only at certain times of the year, or something like that. It might be kind of neat and steampunk-y, though, so I would really love to go inside!

I’m going to blow through some of these pictures really fast, because they’re good so I want to show them, but there is something coming up that is waaaaaay more exciting for me. XD; So please enjoy the pictures, and tell me if you liked any! I love reading comments, and I really need to get to work on answering them soon!

Here are the pictures!!! ——-> Continue Reading »

I may not be a professional photographer (yet!), but I love to take photos. I’ve always loved to take photos, and sometimes when I get going, I sit at the computer and can edit them foreeeeeeeever. Forever and ever! When I was a kid, I used up rolls and rolls of film on a little yellow point-and-click camera, capturing everything. (The photos are mostly back home in the States now, so I’ll post some of them one day)

Part of this whole photography obsession is just for my own personal amusement, and part of it is because I love sharing them with everyone on my blog. Even before I came to Japan, I would share all kinds of random photos from my college life in Phoenix!

Well, this is me, it is who I am, and I understand that there are places in the worldwhere photographs aren’t permitted for one reason or other. But it just makes me sad that some of the coolest tourist areas that I went in London  didn’t allow photos.

That’s not to say that I don’t have photos of the area, and outside of the buildings, but not the inside!! It makes my heart sad. (There are still some cool photos that I want to share with you, though, so click on through!!) Continue Reading »

Somewhere (well, everywhere, really) I had read/heard that England was dreary and cold most of the year. I guess that it’s a little like Japan’s reputation for being really modern and full of new technology. Every once in a while, you walk into a bathroom stall and find a squat toilet. So in other words, it’s not always true.

In Miho and my case, our first day sightseeing together started with lovely blue skies, the opposite of what we expected! The temperature, too, was opposite of what we expected. It was biting cold and I was frozen to the bone, having arrived from a Tokyo where I was still wearing sundresses (To me, Tokyo is very cold most of the time, so I had expected that London was similar. Oops!). I don’t know if London was going through a cold snap at the time, or if nearly freezing temperatures are normal for early October in England. I was very glad that I’d grabbed a heavy jacket “just in case”!

After we were finished with the Tower of London and next door churchiness, we decided that the best course of action would be to walk up the neighboring Thames river toward Shakespeare’s theater and the Tate Modern. We are Tokyoites- used to walking to get anywhere.

And it was beautiful! At least, until it started to rain… Continue Reading »

Earlier, I mentioned the London Pass and how awesome it was. Seriously. It was the best thing that we bought in London, because the pass was relatively inexpensive, and the entrance fee for many of the big attractions costs were over 30 pounds! The London Pass people aren’t paying me anything to say this (although I wouldn’t turn down any $!). I found out about it randomly on a web search and bought it because it seemed like a great deal. I just think that it was the best thing that I did, and definitely recommend it to anyone heading into London! In fact, I tried a few things just because entrance was included in the pass, and one of them turned out to be one of the most awesome things I’ve experienced in my short 30 years on this planet! (More on that later, though!).

Anyways, Miho and I finished up at the Tower-of-London-that-was-actually-a-castle-not-a-tower-at-all, and we went next door to a little church with a cool-looking green spire. It was called All Hallows By the Tower, and to be honest… we only went because entrance was free, it was right next door, and in the London Pass guidebook it said that pass holders are given a free guidebook for entering. I like free! In fact, I’m looking at the guidebook right now because I couldn’t even remember the name of the church. >.>

Well, this is a bit of a short post because I did not take all that many photos in All Hallows By the Tower. It had the most gorgeous stained glass, though! You know that you want to see!! Continue Reading »