Japanese tourists keep showing up in a small English village & nobody’s sure why
Is this a mystery for Inspector Morse?
Last Thursday, this message was posted to the 'Spotted: Kidlington' Facebook page, a normally sleepy online group for residents to share news of new martial arts clubs, missing cats and visiting police speed camera vans and the like.
And now the world's attention is on the small Oxfordshire village of Kidlington. Prior to, and since this message was posted, coachloads of Japanese tourists have been arriving, taking photos and selfies in front of houses and cars on Benmead Road. And what's special about Benmead Road? No one has a clue.
Kidlington actually boasts thatched houses and a beautiful old church, but Benmead Road is a modern development, with completely normal bungalows and the like.
One resident said to the Metro: "I have only seen them once. At midday on Saturday a busload of tourists disembarked with their selfie sticks, taking pictures of people’s houses. ‘It is bizarre, these aren’t even the oldest houses in the village."
Some believe it could be something to with Inspector Morse - the Boat Inn on Canal Road was used for a Morse location shoot for the opening scene of an episode named The Last Enemy, where a decapitated body is found in the canal and a boatman is interviewed. Others believe it could be related to Harry Potter or Midsomer Murders, though we're not entirely sure why.
According to Wikipedia: "Kidlington has about 50 shops, banks and building societies, a public library, a large village hall and a weekly market. There are seven public houses, two cafes, and four restaurants. The public houses are concentrated along the main A4260 road through the village. North to south these are: the Highwayman Hotel (originally the Anchor, then the Railway Hotel, finally the Wise Alderman, before being renamed again in 2009), the Black Horse, the Black Bull, the Red Lion, as well as the King's Arms in the Moors, and the Six Bells in Mill Street. The Squire Bassett was converted into a Nepalese restaurant and renamed the Gurkha Village in 2012."
As nice as these pubs undoubtedly are, none of this explains why Japanese tourists would want to visit.
Forget UFOs, this is the biggest mystery we can think of right now.
