Arrival in London

I arrived at London's Heathrow airport before dawn on 21 June 1983. I do not remember much about what I could see of London from the aircraft, perhaps because I was sleepy and nervous. The sky in the foreign country in which I was to live for two years looked dull and cloudy and although it was supposed to be summer it felt unexpectedly chilly. I was greeted by Ambassador Hirahara, Mr Elliott, the head of the Far Eastern Department at the British Foreign Office, and one of my cousins Mr Mibu Motohiro who was working in Japan Airline's London Office, and others. After a few minutes in an airport room I was taken by car to the ambassador's residence where I was to stay for ten days.

This was not my first visit to London. I had spent a short time there on my return from visits to Belgium and Spain in 1976. Because I was changing planes I had little time to see London and my memory of that visit was limited to seeing Windsor Castle and the river Thames flowing past, and eating roast beef at a nearby restaurant. I was impressed by Windsor Castle but I was not much impressed by the Thames or the taste of the roast beef. I had a clear memory of looking at the Thames while crossing over it on an old bridge and seeing rubbish floating in dirty water. The taste of the roast beef seemed plain and nothing special.

Now seven years later, as I abandoned myself to the comfortable motion of a motor car, I felt that the curtain was quietly lifting and that I was about to begin an unprecedented two-year stay in a foreign country and the drama of an unknown yet exciting experience as a foreign student. Looking out of the car windows I thought that London had a solemn atmosphere and that the buildings looked impressive and serene. The environment of the Ambassador's residence was tranquil and impressed me very favourably. After taking a rest in the morning I went out again in the afternoon for a drive around the city. This gave me a second chance to see the Thames.