My daughter and I were thinking of having dinner in downtown with another daughter, who had been staying in Oxford since September, but some urgent business came up for her and the dinner was cancelled. Then we decided to come back to our hotel and receive our luggage which was still kept at the front desk. We walked about 2 km to our hotel. It was not hard work for us, but rather a fun way to look around the streets in Oxford. During the walk, I found that today was a weekday. I wondered that people in downtown were mainly visitors, for I felt the number of young people increased toward early evening. We dropped in at a supermarket on the way to see the local food. I was concerned about what my youngest daughter would eat in the U.K. as her father. There were lots of young people, who I thought had come from other countries judging from their skin color. I really envied them studying in Oxford.
Being away from the city center, the atmosphere of the streets had remarkably changed into that of the academic world. I saw several signboards of various institutes as I'll show you below. I understood from those institutes that Oxford University was made up of several dozen colleges and institutes.
街中で三女も交えて夕食を摂るつもりだったが急な予定が入って不可とのこと。ならばホテルに帰り、フロントに預けたままの荷物の整理をしようと言うことでホテルまで歩いた。と言っても２ｋｍほど。歩き始めて気がついたのだが、今日は平日。街中に大勢いたのは多くは観光客だったのだろうと思った。というのは夕刻になって若者が増えたような気がしたから。途中でスーパーマーケットに立ち寄り、地元の食材を見て歩いた。三女がどのようなものを食べるのか、父親として少し気になった。スーパーマーケットにも学生と思われる大勢の人たちがいた。街を離れると寂しいくらい静かで学究都市の雰囲気が伝わってきた。そして、次々となんとか研究所という看板があった。オックスフォード大学が小さな大学や研究所の集合体だと言うことが理解できた。それら研究所の看板の写真も何枚か載せる。
（１枚目の写真は皇太子殿下の留学されたカレッジの前で日本人の修学旅行？の生徒にガイドが説明してる）
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