Offline in London?

[Jembru]

I realise it's a long shot, but JP and I will be in London for my step sister's wedding in July. I mentioned this in the monolingual thread (although I think I said 'sister in law' instead of step sister, because my Japanese is poop and I'm too lazy to use a dictionary to check what I'm saying ^^). We'll only be there for a few days, but will try to get away from my family for at least an afternoon to take in the sights. I know some of our members are from the UK so thought I'd let you know we'd be up for meeting some of you in person for an hour or so if you like. We have some friends from the conversation group who moved to London for work or uni, so you might get to meet one of our Japanese friends too, assuming our schedules don't clash! Either way, it would be fun to hang out and hopefully practice a little Japanese conversation with you! 

[LittleGaijin]

Aww, I've always wanted to do meetups with our lovely Gaiwa folk eventually! Damn, now I wish I lived in the UK. I would definitely dash over to London if I could for this one. If anyone goes, I beg of you, TAKE PICTURES. 

[chocopie]

I should be around in London in July!

[Jembru]

Cool! I'll work out details nearer the time, but it will be nice to have something to look forward too. That sounds bad.. it's not that I'm not excited that my sister's getting married, it's just that I know everyone there will assume I'm a dumb northerner and if I make any attempt to sound intelligent, it'll and up so bad that even Brigid Jones herself would roll her eyes and think, 'could be worse, I could be THAT girl'. I wonder how close 魔 is to London?

LittleGaijin: Hopefully I'll have my new phone by then, so maybe we could briefly skype/Line with you at some point? I'll just put my phone down on the table so we can hear you. I rarely look good in photos, but I'm willing to take one for the team if the others are up for it. Otherwise, can we just do an artsy photo of our feet pointing one another in a neat circle? 

...If only gaiwa had some awesome T.shirts we could buy and pose in.. oh well, if I wish hard enough, maybe it could happen... 

[魔]

I live in north London

[Bokusenou]

Jembru
Wow, sounds so exciting! Have lots of fun!
Oh, and if you get LINE on your new phone, when you get it let me know!

[Jembru]

Just a lil' update. I still have NO IDEA what is happening. The wedding is on Friday 25th, and we plan on spending a day in London on 26th. The only problem is that we're actually staying miles out from London and haven't even been told which of the two possible hotels we're actually staying in (National Express holidays can kiss my behind in future, seriously), so trying to make any travel plans is proving awkward (I've been quoted £170 for the 5 of us to get into London.. don't fancy paying that twice >.<).

So.. whether or not we'll even make it into London on that Saturday, I don't know yet. If it's too short notice and no one can meet up with us, I'll understand, but I'll keep everyone one posted for sure.

Oh and in the meantime, if anyone has an recommendations where to go for cool Japanese stuff in and around London, please let me know.. maybe I can sneak off before the wedding on Friday!

[Bokusenou]

Unfortunately I've never been to London (or Europe for that matter) so I can't check them out myself, but I found a list of Japanese bookstores and such in London which might be helpful.
all-wrongs-reversed.net/2012/03/06/a-guide-to-japanese-london/

[Jembru]

Thanks so much for that! I need to sit down and plan what we'll do on the Saturday. I'm thinking of spending half the day doing what JP wants to, and the other half doing my thing. So I guess once JP decides what he'll do, I can look for Japanese-related places in the general area so we don't spend all day travelling.

I've realised that my Japanese friend won't be in London because she's a student and uni is over, so there maybe won't be any Japanese practice for me that weekend after all