Introduction
Thank you very much for purchasing “London! Living on a Narrow Boat ~Newlyweds on the Canal~ Vol.1.” This e-book is a re-edition of the series of articles that started in February 2017 on a Japanese website and were translated into English.
The story starts when a Japanese lady of around 30 years old, who could only think of the UK's red buses and cloudy skyes, suddenly went to London to chase her unforgettable boyfriend with only one suitcase. After arriving in London, I was very shocked at how high the prices were! My 100,000 yen disappeared in a very short time. And the most surprising thing was the expensive rent in London!
I didn’t know so much about London, but I got back together with my ex-boyfriend and got married to him. The place we chose to start our married life together was on the water!! And our house was a boat!!
Later, I realized that it was a valuable experience to enjoy the historical U.K. In the U.K., there is an inland waterway network of 3,500 km in total. About 200 years ago, the canals were important inland waterways that supported the time of the industrial revolution as a transportation measure.
The Roman colonists who settled in 55 B.C. already built some canals in the U.K. to transport stone materials for building churches.
I’d like to tell you about my true experience of living on the canal that even British people don’t know well. I hope you enjoy this interesting life abroad from a foreigner’s point of view.
From next month, I’ll start living on a narrow boatwith my husband on the canal in the U.K.!
Last year (2017), my husband bought a narrow boat for Christmas, and we’ll start living on a narrow boat next month! Let me explain a little bit why I came here to the U.K. from Japan.
A Twin Soul Relationship, and off to the U.K.
I left Japan at the end of November 2015. That was because I wanted to get back together and marry to my Italian ex-boyfriend who I met in Australia while I was on a working holiday in 2013. I came back from Australia in 2014 and lived in Japan for almost 2 years, but I felt something was wrong.
By my intuition, I realizedeverything. I felt that I wouldn't get married and my luck wouldn't prosper if I kept living in Japan. If there’s something called a turning point in life, I thought I need to go to the place where he is, London, and open this door in life immediately. I had a sense of “twin souls” and something destined with that Italian guy.
I arrived at London Heathrow Airport withtwo sides of me inside: very ambitious me thinking, “I’m going to get married by this flight from Japan to the U.K.!” and the other side of me overlooking this dream being a reality in the future.
Flatshare Even After Marriage?
We got married on Halloween in 2016. People around me were surprised because I had kept my word! We were flat-sharing before we get married. We rented one room together, and we shared the kitchen and the bathroom with other flatmates. In Japan, we call this “share house,”but in the U.K., it’s called "flatshare." In the U.K., flats mainly represent multiple dwelling places for different families which occupy different floors. We call it flatshare because we share such kind of housing with several people.
Flatshare in London Was Terrible!
I went to London because I wanted to meet my ex-boyfriend again, and he was living in the U.K. at the time. What I knew about the U.K. was that red buses were running on the road and many of the days are cloudy. With that little knowledge, I packed up my suitcase and flew to London. Even in that kind of situation, I got back with my ex-boyfriend and got married to him, and I was supposed to be extremely happy. But, the reality wasn’t that simple.
I was doing well with my husband, but the living environment was a problem. We didn’t know what kind of people the flatmates were until we actually start living there. Many British people live together with friends or rent a house from a person that they know.
Also, there are good and bad of the estate agents. At the first flat we lived in, we had a good room and good flatmates, but the agent wasn’t good, so we decided to move. At the new flat, the flatmates were a problem. I was feeling very depressed at first when I thought of living there for six months.
When I rented a room in an apartment in Japan, the people who rented were all equal, and we were able to have a good service.
I was never stressed out about housing in Japan, but in the U.K., the tenants are weaker than the landlords. I felt like they were saying, “You don’t have money to buy a house in the U.K., and you are renting this flat, so be patient!”
This issue was stuck in my mind all the time. According to the contract, we were able get leave the flat the next day and let the room be vacant for half a year. But once we made a contract, we had to pay the rent for six months even if we weren’t staying there anymore.
(It was just the contract for my flatshare, and the contracts could be different for each case. Other people could have different contracts.)