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10th May
When I had breakfast, I saw several lodgers, who seemed to be all laborers. There weren't any tourists except me. The woman who served at table wasn't over forty years old. I could hardly understand what she said,
perhaps because she was speaking with a provincial accent. But I liked her. She served cheefully humming a song to herself. I thought she was kindhearted.
I got on a train for King's Cross. The train left Bradford at 8:53 a.m. I changed trains at Peterborough(arrival at 11:49 a.m.) for Cambridge. I waited only seven minutes. The train reached Cambridge just at 1 p.m.
In the trains, I spent much of the time reading the short story, "The Foolish Virgin" by G.Gissing.
After I had a light lunch at a buffet, I walked to the Tourist Information Office at the center of the city. And there I was recommended this guesthouse, Mr.& Mrs.Barden: 27 Malcolm St. Cambridge. I paid 30 pence,
the same booking fee as at Oxford.
There is another lodger in this house who has stayed for a year. I had a chat with him for a short while. He is a student at a college for foreign studies in Osaka, Japan.
I rambled about in this city. Cambridge had the same atmosphere as Oxford, but the former had a little different impression on me from the latter. The city of Cambridge seemed to be somewhat calm and new.
Such colleges stand in a row on the east side of River Cam as St.John's College, Trinity College, Caius College, Clare College, King's College and St.Catharine's College. I found it comparatively easy to distinguish
colleges from other buildings in Cambridge. The boundary seemed to be vague in Oxford.
I know that no city will open its heart easily to a passing tourist like me, but I think I had a more friendly feeling in the city of Oxford.
11th May
After I posted a card, I was reading the story,"The Foolish Virgin", sitting on a bench in the park,Christ Pieces, near the guesthouse. I found the landlady walking about with a dog.
I entered Fitzwilliam Museum. Appreciation of paintings: Turner, Corot, Dogas, Renoir and Blake Collection. Various kinds of pottery were displayed on the ground floor.
In a secondhand bookshop on Trinity Street, I found E.Dowson's poems reprinted in 1929. I showed the shopkeeper the list of books I seeked. He said that he might have "The Alhambra" by Irving. He was looking for it, but in vain.
I came back to the guesthouse and had a bath. After that, I had dinner at the restaurant on King Street nearby where I ate yesterday. I saw a waitress who I thought was Japanese. I didn't speak to her because she didn't come to me.
It's hard to tell Japanese from Chinese only watching the features.
After dinner, I went to the A.D.C.Theatre. Samuel Beckett's dramas: "Endgame" and "Come & Go" directed by Akemi Horie-Webber. "Come & Go" was a very short play of about five minutes.
I think I must study hard hereafter to regain my lost time.
12th May
After breakfast, I had a chat with H-kun. He has lived here for a year. He seemed to be familiar with various things in this city and England. He said that he had been to Ness,Loch twice. I visited Edinburth with a few friends of mine
on the easter holidays. I regretted not having been there. But there is no use thinking so.
I made up my mind to visit American Military Cemetary, for a guidebook said that it was four miles away from here. When I went out, there was a sudden shower and it began to thunder with flashes of lightning. I gave up going there.
I bought food and drink and came back to this room and had lunch. It had already stopped raining when I came back, but I was not willing to go there. I was reading the book by Dowson at random. Arthur Symons wrote a preface to the book.
I went out a little before 3 p.m., and I visited Folk Museum.
There was a big bookshop,Heffers, on Trinity Street. It was opposite the secondhand bookshop I looked in yesterday. There were many books on the downstair floor, ground floor and upstair floor. I caught sight of three novels by G.Gissing published by
Harvester Press, a book by Pierre Coustillas(I don't remember the name of it) and "Gissing In Context" by Adrian Poole. I also found the novels by Sillitoe on another shelf. I wondered where the books by Pritchet were.
There was a secondhand bookshop next to Heffers. I looked in it, but I couldn't find any books I was looking for.
I felt overawed in Heffers. That was the same feeling as I had for the first time in Maruzen(a Japanese bookshop for foreign books) when I began to get interested in English literature. I felt so because I had inferiority complex about my
English ability. I'll make a student in this city my model after going back to Japan.
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