British Pub in Kichijoji

Last night I suggested that Rob, Katy, Naomi and I try a British pub in Kichijoji (吉祥寺), which is the biggest centre in West Tokyo, just four stops away on the Chuo line from us. The pub was part of the Hub chain, which has branches all over Tokyo. I'd been to the Ebisu branch once before, with a colleague from Gaba, so I had an idea of what it would be like.

As we walked in, Rob and Katy (Naomi's Belgian) uttered cries of nostalgia and "it's so weird that we're still in Tokyo!" It was very nice to be in a British-style atmosphere, even though we've only been here for three and a half weeks or so!

Because we knew we were still in Japan, and knew what size the portions would be, we got two dishes each - I went for good old fish and chips and a burger. Healthy! The other dishes available are either semi-British but with a Japanese spin on them, or just not British at all.

The chips are lovely, and so is the fish, but it's not proper British fish, it's thin strips fried like tempura. But it was still delicious.

One of the waitresses was really really friendly and she gave us all her phone mail address and asked if we could get in contact for a language exchange set-up. She was so nice!

After the pub, we went to a nearby Baskin and Robbins ice cream store for dessert. They have a 31% off deal until the end of this month, so we knew we had to take advantage of that! I had a Double cone with Rocky Road and Chocolate Holic (that's right, not Chocoholic!) The ice cream was so good. Very indulgent of course, but so good!

We took our ice creams round to Inokashira Park (井の頭公園), which is a big park in Kichijoji, and I'd heard of it before, so I suppose it might be famous, but I'm not sure.

It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and there was a lovely lake in the centre surrounded by trees and bushes. But at one point, a Japanese man with flashing antennae on his head walked up to us and started dancing, and then pulled a pair of binoculars out of his bag, took a quick scan of the area, and then proceeded to try to hear the heartbeat of the air with a toy stethoscope.

We were a bit worried that he was going to ask for money for his brief perfomance, but he just bounced along on his merry way to the next group of people.

How strange!