To London

→Japanese

On the 15th, I traveled from Stockholm to London. I had a “secret meeting” that I had been previously asked to attend. I returned to Heathrow Airport after coming here six weeks ago for the West Sussex conference.

On Sunday the 16th, I took a walk around Hyde Park, in front of the hotel. It is in the middle of London and is very spacious, with lots of foliage and very peaceful. Mr. Mizuno of Collar Capital visited my hotel to have lunch.

I had a relaxed afternoon tea with Political Minister Shikata and his wife and son, as well as Miss Ninomiya, who is a graduate student at the University of Oxford. Minister Shikata’s son was inspired by the liberal arts summer program that I have introduced in this blog and is currently an undergraduate student at Georgetown University. He is visiting his parents in London during the summer break.

Mrs. Shikata also works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her posts are in Spanish speaking countries and the family have often crossed paths. In Sweden, I met the Swedish Ambassador to Zambia, Lena Nordstrom (1), who lived in the Spanish speaking country of Colombia and Chile for twelve years. We were seated next to each other at the dinner with the King of Sweden in Tallberg on the 13th. The Ambassador spends around five to six years in each post.

It has been a while since I spent such a relaxed Sunday.

On the morning of the 17th, I had a fruitful meeting with around eight people regarding new opportunities for business relations between Japan and the U.K.

At noon, I took the Eurostar to Paris. In about three hours, I reached Paris Gare du Nord. There was a heavy rain falling from the morning and it was very humid. I changed immediately and headed to a meeting starting at 5pm.