I don’t like London

I'm in London. I'm at my sister's

house in London.

Who left the tap on?

I'm in London now with my mom and my wife,

and we're at my sister's place, and I'm

not sure what we're doing today. We got

here yesterday, but we didn't have a very

good time because London is shit.

I think we're going shopping today, and

then we're going back to my parents'

house, and I'm gonna brush my teeth now.

Good morning!

I'm bored.

I didn't even know where

it went, that bag. Everything was gone.

What happened to this milk cup? How did

they dry those clothing? No weather like

this. Singapore.

Why is it so dark?

TV's so thin. It is good for smaller

people. Why is my face on your phone?

Why is my face on your phone? You phoned

me. Did I? I don't know.

Which one's mine?

Too much baked beans.

Daniel, mine is scrambled egg. You want

one? That's not scrambled eggs, it's

poached.

Look, I got a new jumper. Do you like it?

It's very nice. We're back at my parents'

house. Didn't have a very good time in

London. We were supposed to stay there for

a few days, but we only stayed there for

one night and then came back the next day

because it was rubbish. It was just very

boring, and I don't like London. My mum

doesn't like London. My wife didn't want

to see anything in London, so we decided

to just do a bit of shopping and then come

back. I don't know what it is about London

that I don't like, and I think it's kind

of just England in general that I dislike.

And now that I've been here for a few

days, I'm starting to remember why I was

so desperate to go and live in Japan. I

just don't like it here. I like my family.

The only thing I like that's in England is

my family and this place where my parents

live. Apart from that, I don't like living

in England. For some reason, I feel like

my anxiety is a lot worse when I'm in

England, and I think that's because the

people here kind of intimidate me. For

example, we went to Maidstone a few days

ago, and I don't know what it is about the

people in Maidstone. Everyone just seems

so rough-looking, unshaven, covered in

tattoos, covered in piercings. People

shouting at each other on the street.

Walked out onto the high street, a bunch

of guys started shouting at another bunch

of guys, and they just have this mean,

unfriendly kind of demeanor look to them.

For example, it feels like You look at

them wrongly and they'll punch you in the

face. In comparison, I just feel like

Japanese people are nicer, more pleasant,

more civil, more civilized. We went to my

sister's place, her house where she lives

with her boyfriend. She lives in this

pretty shady, horrible neighborhood,

cheap neighborhood in London, and I didn't

like the atmosphere there at all. I

couldn't imagine myself living there. The

house itself was nice, it was just outside

of the house, the street, the people on

the street just seemed kind of shady. And

scary looking, and I felt like I was gonna

get robbed or mugged or stabbed any

moment. I kind of feel like I made the

right decision moving to Japan, because if

I didn't move to Japan, my options would

have been either just live here with my

parents for the rest of my life, or move

out into some kind of town, in some kind

of townhouse like my sister lives in, and

I really wouldn't like that. I'd much

rather live in Japan. I think the most

irritating thing about living with my

parents is the internet speed. We have

really bad internet. Download speed is

about 2 megabits per second, upload speed

is about 1, 1.5, and sometimes it gets

unstable and it keeps disconnecting. For

example, since yesterday and, and today,

the internet is just really unreliable. I

can't do anything. I can't play Mario

Kart, can't do livestreaming, takes ages

to upload a video. And we have the best

internet connection that's available in

our area. We can't get fiber optic because

the internet service providers don't think

that it's worth putting fiber optic in

this area because there's not enough

houses to provide it to. So the only thing

that we have for internet is really slow,

crappy broadband dial-up or whatever it's

called. And if you live mostly on the

internet like I do, if all of your

entertainment comes from the internet and

your, your job is on the internet, then

it's kind of frustrating to have such

unreliable, slow internet. And I can't

even play Mario Kart, which is so

annoying. I feel like my dad doesn't

really care because he barely uses the

internet. He does a bit of shopping,

maybe he goes onto Google if he needs to

find out something, but most of the time

he just doesn't use the internet. For

entertainment, he watches TV, or he just

stares at the wall, or he's out in the

garden busy doing something. And I feel

like English people who live in the

country in general are like that. They

just don't really care about having good

internet because they're old and they

don't do anything on the internet anyway,

so it doesn't really affect them. I think

it's kind of disgraceful that we live in

2018, nearly 2019, and some areas in this

country don't even have fiber optic and we

have really bad internet. Internet—

providing people with good internet should

be a top priority. Like providing water

and electricity. Especially in a modern

country like England, I think it's just

ridiculous that there's some areas in this

country where the internet is just really

bad. And after being in London and

going to Maidstone this week, I've noticed

a few things that kind of irritate me.

For example, when you're trying to get off

the train, English people, they seem to

crowd around the doors and they stand

right in front of the doors blocking,

blocking people trying to get off. It's

hard to get off the train when there's

people standing in front of you, and it

makes you want to scream at them, can you

just wait by the side of the door so I can

get off and then you can get on? It just

seems like that's common sense. It's

common sense that a lot of English people

seem to lack. In Japan, I've never really

had this problem. Japanese people, they

wait by the side of the door of the train

and let people get off first before trying

to get on. It reminds me a few years ago

when I used to go to the job centre and I

would take my bicycle onto the train and I

was trying to get off the train but people

were just standing in front of the door

not moving. Are they stupid? Can you not

see me trying to get off the train? If you

just moved out the way then I could get

off and then you can get on. It's not

rocket science. Another annoying thing is

people seem to be very passive-aggressive

and impolite and they mutter things under

their breath as they're walking past you.

For example, me and my family, we were

standing on the pavement and Yeah, we were

in the way. We were blocking up the

pavement. Some guy just walks past, he was

on his phone, and then I heard him say

something like, stupid people taking up

the whole road. How about you just say

excuse me if you're trying to get past?

How about being a bit polite? If you're

trying to get past a bunch of people and

they're in the way, then you would say

excuse me, I'm trying to get past. Is it

that difficult? You don't have to call us

stupid on your phone. And then me and my

wife were on the Underground and my wife

was sitting in the priority seat. I didn't

notice it was a priority seat. And some,

some woman and some man were standing in

front of us. I wasn't really paying

attention to what they were saying because

I was tired and I was in a bad mood. And I

think they were just standing there in

front of me and my wife complaining about

my wife because my wife didn't give up the

priority seat to them. I think one of them

was using a cane and they had a painful

leg. As we got up to get off the train,

they went to take our seats, and I heard

one of them say, unbelievable, absolutely

disgraceful, stupid woman. If she wanted

to sit down so badly, how about you just

ask us? Say something like, excuse me, my

leg's painful and I have to use a cane.

Would it be— would you mind if we sat

down? You know, use some

manners, be polite, and just stand there

complaining about us and then mutter

something under your breath as we're

getting up to go. It's just so shameful

that she had so much to say and complain

about us in front of us, but she didn't

even have the decency to say it to our

faces directly or to even ask us if she

could sit down. If it's so painful, if

your leg is so painful and you can't even

stand for a few minutes, then maybe you

shouldn't have left your house. You should

have stayed at home and rested instead of

standing in a train. Whinging about people

sitting in the priority seat. I don't even

know if my wife knew that they were

talking about her or complaining about

her. I don't even know if she knew,

understood what they were saying. I didn't

really catch what they were saying because

I wasn't paying attention. I just feel

like the people in London or in Maidstone

is kind of rude, passive-aggressive. They

don't say things like, excuse me. They

don't ask you if they want— they just

mutter under their breath.

Passively-aggressively. And then we went

to Canterbury and we went into a cafe,

Costa Cafe, and the guy working there, he

was just sitting in front of the sandwich

bar chatting to customers. And I was

trying to get to the sandwiches, but he

was just standing there blocking the way.

And he was covered in tattoos, he had

these weird metal spike piercings coming

out of his nostrils, he had these big

black hoops in his earlobes, and he just

looked so unprofessional. And he was just

sitting there in front of the sandwich

bars resting against the the ledge of the

refrigerator thing, blocking all the

sandwiches. I couldn't get any sandwiches.

I had to stand there waiting for about 10

minutes until he stopped chatting and

moved. And I just felt like it was so

unprofessional. That would never happen in

Japan. Japanese people take their work

very seriously, very customer orientated.

They wouldn't just stand there chatting to

customers. I know a lot of people like

body piercings and tattoos, and that's

fine if you like that stuff, but if you're

going to work Is it so much to ask to take

out the piercings and cover up the

tattoos? Because, you know, not everyone

wants to see that stuff. I'm just kind of

glad that these weird body modifications

and piercings like metal spikes coming out

of your nose or big black hoops in your

earlobes, they aren't really a thing in

Japan. And I kind of

appreciate that because I'm not really

into it. But I guess it's up to you if you

want to do that stuff. It's your body. I

guess you can do what you want with your

own body. I'm not judging. I just feel a

bit intimidated when I, when I go into a

coffee cafe, Costa Cafe. I just want to

get some coffee and a sandwich. I don't

want to feel like I'm, I'm dealing with a

drug dealer or motorbike gang member.

I guess I just feel kind of scared in

general when I'm out in town here in

England, um, especially when I'm walking

past a gang of young guys who are wearing

hoodies. I, I make sure I look at the

floor, look down at the ground. I'm very

careful not to make eye contact out of

fear of getting beaten up. And a lot of

English young guys, they like to do this

tough guy walk where they swing their

shoulders like this. It's like they're

trying to compensate for something. Oh,

look at me, I walk like a tough guy, I'm

gonna beat you up. Why can't they just

walk like a normal person instead of

trying to show off and look like a tough

guy? People walk up and down the street

smoking, puffing cigarettes, smoking into

your face. In Japan, this never happens.

Because I think it's illegal to smoke on

the street. You have to go to a special

smoking area in Japan. People are so noisy

on the trains and on public transport

here. Some, some people just sit there on

the train chatting away on their phone,

so you end up listening into their

personal lives and what they're doing next

weekend on Saturday with their friend

Sally. I miss how quiet the trains are in

Japan. Everyone in Japan, they're just so

well-behaved and quiet and well-mannered,

and I miss that. And then you get people

riding horses up and down the roads, and

the horses shit all over the road, so the

roads are all just covered in horse shit

all the time. It looks disgusting. I don't

understand why, why people who walk dogs

outside, they have to pick up their dog's

waste, but people riding horses up and

down the road, they just let the horse

shit all over the place. They don't have

to scoop it up or dispose of it. They

should be made to carry a shovel whilst

they're riding their horses and then clean

up the mess. Anyway, apart from that, I'm

having a great time in England. My wife

likes it. My mum's Japanese friend and

their family's coming over on Sunday, so

that might be fun. And I get

to eat English bacon again, which is good.

I feel much better now. Just needed to get

that off my chest.

Stupid ball.