[Dec. 2025] This time in London, England, we stayed at a large hotel called Dorsett Shepherds Bush London.
It’s located on the other side of Shepherd’s Bush Green from the Shepherd’s Bush underground station, so it’s quite a walk from the station.
But the room wasn’t too small, so it wasn’t a problem.
The only downside was that the room was a little cold.
It was better than the hotel in Hammersmith we stayed at on our previous trip to London.
Unfortunately, the weather was bad on our second day in London.
The day we arrived and the day we left were sunny, though.
The only thing we had planned for that day was to go to a Chinese restaurant in Ealing, west London, where we used to live.
Until then, we bought some English books and went to the cinema at a shopping centre near our hotel.
In Italy, all films are dubbed, so I still can’t enjoy films at the cinema because I don’t speak Italian very well.
Then, at Shepherd’s Bush Market, which we visited for the first time, we bought some onigiri from a Japanese onigiri shop.
This market has the feel of a market run by immigrants for immigrants, and perhaps due to the bad weather, it looked a bit rundown.
I felt like cheering on the Japanese woman running the onigiri stand amidst all that.
The onigiri were delicious.
In the evening, as the rain got heavier, we headed to Ealing.
We bought some ginger biscuits at Marks & Spencer, a place we used to frequent.
Ginger biscuits are one of those things that you cannot find in Italy.
And then we took the bus to the Chinese restaurant.
If the weather had been nicer, we would have liked to walk there.
Ealing has always been home to a large non-British population, but my husband said that the number of dark-skinned people from outside Europe seemed to be increasing.
Indeed, I didn’t hear any Italian here, which I’d always heard before.
This must be the impact of Brexit.
Then we arrived at this street with a Chinese restaurant.
This place is so familiar that it’s hard to believe I no longer live here.
I’ve never felt this way before.
I’ve moved many times in my life, so I’m not particularly attached to places, but there was something about this town where I’ve lived for over 10 years that really stirred my emotions.
At first, it looked unchanged, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that Tesco (supermarket) had been renovated, the furniture store where we bought our bed and cupboards had closed, and the Greek restaurant we’d visited several times was gone.
It may be completely different by the time we come back.
No, I wonder if I’ll ever make the effort to visit here again… I thought, and felt a bit sad.
It had probably been about five years since we’d last been to this Chinese restaurant, and none of the familiar staff were there, but the food was delicious, as it was still Chinese cuisine tailored to British tastes.
All the waiters were Indian, though.
When we got back to Shepherd’s Bush after the meal, the weather had gotten worse, and we got soaked even with umbrellas.
