Some miscellany here from walking about London, stuff that won’t fit so neatly into a regular post.

Because you never know…

London Spaceport, I believe.

Actually, the Swiss Re Building, a.k.a. 30 St Mary Axe a.k.a. the Gherkin. Cool skyscraper near Liverpool Street Station.

Turns out that on escalators, at least, Londoners are just following the rules as opposed to being naturally polite. In Tokyo, the change happened without prompting. In London, not only are there signs like these, but sometimes even announcements over the PA telling people to stand to the side if they’re not walking up and down the escalator.

As for No Smoking, it’s nice that most places are like that here. Even pubs. But again, it seems to be the law, not politeness.

Taxis in London seem cheap for short distances–the meter starts at 2.2 pounds, but increases immediately, and goes up quickly from there. But the taxis also have incredible leg room, set up with fold-down chairs to accommodate 4 or 5 people. But spacious for just two.

A fun restaurant name:

Though I have to admit, I don’t get the ‘slap’ joke. Unless it’s randy, in which case I still don’t get it.

There are a lot of Japanese restaurants here, more than I would expect. But now that I mention it, there seem to be a lot more Asian people–aside from Indians, Pakistanis, and Middle Eastern immigrants–I should say, more East Asian people here than I expected. In any case, London is more a melting pot than many large American cities.

Speaking of Japan, there are also a lot of Cherry Blossom trees here.

And while I’m on things natural, we spotted some local variants of rather randy Tree Sparrows having at it, mating-season style.

And while on birds, it’s always fun to spot the nerdy pigeon:

Finally, this is something I have been seeing a lot lately:

Seeing the Apple logo in front of Sachi’s face reminds me of The Son of Man. I tried to explain it to Sachi, and she didn’t get it. Later, I showed her the painting, and she still wasn’t impressed. I chalk that more up to my own skewed sense of humor, though.