First let’s talk about the location. The area around the tower is part of Sumida-ku, a ward in eastern Tokyo (there are 23 wards/districts). This seems to be an area without the crowds of Shinjuku or Shibuya; it was just much more quaint, more local, more like any normal neighborhood where people knew each other. That’s just the feeling I got.

I went to a small cafe in Higashi-Mukojima called KOGUMA (which means cub), which was remodeled from an old drugstore from 1927. Inside you can eat, read from the cafe’s library of Japanese and some English books and just enjoy an afternoon in a quaint little street – if you can find it! Since it was wintertime, the meal I had was a Baked Curry (1,000 Yen or US$13). I then finished the meal with a Green Tea Chiffon Cake and house-made Ginger Lemon Tea.

The street that the cafe is on had a series of old stores like the one you see below with old signage. It’s like finding a piece of old Tokyo (well, not very old… you get what I mean).

Walking along the Kiku-kawa (river) you can still see glimpses of the Tokyo Sky Tree with foliage.

More of the Sky Tree along the Sumida River with reflections of the Sky Tree on the Asahi beer headquarters building.

This is one place in Tokyo I’m definitely coming back to again.

After the museum, I walked over to Covent Garden. I found a little corner with colorful (literally) stores and cafes, with a cool store called Rice: The Little Shop of Funkiness that sold home and kitchen stuff. This store is actually from Denmark!

The gal from the store recommended a local fish and chips place called Rock and Sole Place, which apparently opened in 1871. Food was good, except it was still expensive. One of the things I learned this time is that eating inside the restaurant can be much more expensive than taking something to-go. For example, the cod fish and chips is £10 if it’s to-go, but £13.50 if you eat in. That’s a 35% difference! Service was not bad though. But next time I’d still opt for the to-go menu.

After a meal, you gotta walk it off. Well, before that it was an attempt at trying to get tickets to Wicked, but that failed miserably as the show was sold out. So then it was a walk from Victoria Station over to the Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, and across the river to Southwark all the way to the Tate Modern – and who knew the Tate Modern was still open for another hour (on Fridays and Saturdays the Tate Modern closes at 10pm)! So that was the evening’s special treat.

After taking in most of the fun at the Tate Modern, it was back on the road to Bloomsbury.

This time around, I decided to take more time to explore the City, especially when the British currency has come down a bit this year. In addition, I found some great accommodations in the Bloomsbury area at reasonable prices (compared to the £150+ per night for hotel accommodations) – so the incentive was there. I’ve also combined fun with a little bit of work for my DesignsWelove site, as the London Design Festival just began (today).

So what have I done so far? The first evening (since I arrived in the afternoon), I saw the London production of Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre, which was an awesome show.

The second day, I actually started the day with a press tour (for the design site) at the Victoria & Albert Museum, in which we met curator Murray Moss for a short presentation of the pieces he curated for the London Design Festival at the V&A. One of the pieces is what you see below – it’s the Escapism Dress made of 3D “printed” linen. More on that one later on DesignsWeLove (that’s my plug).

Then it was a walk through Knightsbridge to have some light lunch at the Fifth Floor Cafe of Harvey Nichols. Not too bad, but it still cost £14.95. By my American standards, this is very expensive. Add another £5 for a large mineral water and you get the point.

One random thing: I do love the fact that in London, there are road markings that remind pedestrians to look in the correct direction when they cross the street. Otherwise, there would be many close calls with tourists…

Getting back on track, I ended up at London Fashion Week at the Somerset House, checking out the exhibition as well as attending London-based Irish designer Orla Kiely’s presentation of her 2012 Spring/Summer collection. Lots of good looking, well-dressed people everywhere.

It’s then some more walking along Buckingham Palace to Oxford Street and then to Regent Street before heading back to the flat for some hot lemon verbena herb tea I bought from Harvey Nichols to end the evening.

So after five months of hiatus, this “new” metrosnapshot will be more of a personal travel blog – local to international. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

Thanks for reading.