London, 1929

A red-and-white airline label brings a Japanese traveler from Paris into London. Through bus windows, in restaurants and parks, and along the streets of the East End, she encounters a city whose polished manners conceal profound divisions of wealth and power.

In London, 1929, Miyamoto Yuriko turns travel observation into a forceful examination of commerce, charity, imperial policy, and labor. Comfortable families feed birds while ignoring a destitute man; celebrated social institutions stand quiet when workers might need them; shop windows, newspapers, and sightseeing coaches become instruments for reading the city. Conversations with a Japanese resident test the promises of fair play and practical cooperation against workers’ lives.

This complete English translation preserves the shifting scenes, repeated appeals, slogans, displayed signs, wage figures, and final moonlit image of Trafalgar Square’s lions. Thirty-three notes clarify historical references and textual difficulties. First published in 1930, this vivid account brings a Japanese woman’s critical perspective to the public spaces and concealed foundations of interwar London.