2008 Vs. 2025: How Did These 2 Star Wars Celebration Japan Conventions Differ?

Posted on April 17, 2026 by tokyofox

Since 1999 there have been 16 Star Wars Celebration fan conventions. The majority of these events have been in the USA but there have been four in Europe and two in Japan. The first Japanese ones in 2008 was four years before the Disney takeover and also in a limited-digital era of interaction. Times had changed a fair bit by the time it returned to Japan 17 years later. I’m lucky enough to have been at both of them but how did they differ?

Dates: Star Wars Celebration Japan 2008 ran for three days between 19-21 July with the final day being on Marine Day, one of Japan’s national holidays. On the other hand, the 2025 version took place from April 18-20.

Climate: The hot & humid summer played host to the 2008 event whereas last year’s was Continue reading →

Posted in Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TF Flashback: 4 Days of Movie-Location Hunting in Kyoto & the Surrounding Area (2011)

Posted on April 14, 2026 by tokyofox

Visiting the Star Wars locales in Tunisia in 2009 whetted my appetite for doing something similar a bit closer to home. Those Tokyo shooting location posts weren’t particularly good but they did catch a bit of attention and indeed featured in a magazine and newspaper in Japan. Fast forward 18 months and I took a trip 500 kilometres south to the Kansai region (Osaka, Kyoto etc.) to track down the movie locations for a handful of international productions including ‘Lost in Translation‘ (2003), ‘The Last Samurai‘ (2003), ‘Memoirs of a Geisha‘ (2006) and ‘You Only Live Twice‘ (1967) among others.

The overnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka was long and sleepless. Why I didn’t book a ticket to Kyoto or just disembark there I really don’t know! As it was, I took Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Waxing Lyrical About This World-Renowned Celebrity Spotting Place

Posted on April 10, 2026 by tokyofox

Glitz and glamour in London with a vast number of celebrities from the world of TV, film, sport, politics, royalty and music is the dream for many people. That all became reality for me a few months ago but not all is as it seems as this was not a Variety Show Performance or whatever but just an afternoon at one of London’s premier tourist attractions. I’m sure you knew that already though but hey I have to come up with some kind of opening!

Back in 2014 my parents-in-law accompanied my wife and I on our summer trip back to the UK and the one thing they wanted to do was visit Continue reading →

Posted in Films, Sport, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TF Top 10……Reverse Culture Shock Experiences I Had Back in the UK

Posted on April 7, 2026 by tokyofox

After being nowhere else but Japan for the last six years it was perhaps inevitable that I’d experience some reverse culture shock when I went back to the UK for the festive season a few months ago. Many of these have been mentioned on the pages of Tokyo Fox before but that was many, many years ago when I was still finding my feet in Japan and blogging about such differences.

1. Opening hours – Japan’s lust for convenience means Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Food & Drink | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Nostalgic Walking Tour of Britain’s Most Underrated City!

Posted on April 4, 2026 by tokyofox

Back in August last year I was all set to meet up with a fellow Leicester City fan to watch RB Omiya Ardija but a couple of days before the match I got a message saying he’d taken an impromptu trip back to England. Viewing all his Insta stories from Leicester was actually what gave me the idea of returning home last Christmas having never given it a moment’s thought before that. His updates really did take me on a journey back in time and I wanted to replicate such nostalgia when I was back in the UK.

The short trip into Leicester (15 minutes by train) usually only happens once or twice for me whilst back home but I went there five times on this occasion, all in the name of live sport. A few of them were combined with looking around the city though which I have a great love and affection for. Eagle eyed readers may recall that I Continue reading →

Posted in Euro Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Is the Way to Put on a Free Star Wars Mandalorian & Grogu Exhibition!

Posted on March 31, 2026 by tokyofox

After an absence of six and a half years, Star Wars will finally return to the big screen in May with the Mandalorian and Grogu movie. Consequently, the promotion campaign for it is starting to ramp up a bit as the countdown to its release gets closer and closer.

Star Wars pop up stores are common in Tokyo all year round these days, but a few have recently opened to help promote the new film, and NTV Tower have put on a Continue reading →

Posted in Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Circling Tokyo’s Iconic Yamanote Line on Foot! (Part 1)

Posted on March 27, 2026 by tokyofox

My idea of cycling around the Yamanote Line way back in 2009 was actually inspired by a former colleague of mine who did it all on foot over two days including a capsule hotel overnight at the midway point. I was never too interested in repeating that so settled for doing it by bicycle. Fast forward about a decade and a half though and I’d changed my mind. Well, kind of!

Needing some original Sunday morning dog walking ideas, my wife and I decided to walk round the famous green train line which passes through most of Tokyo’s urban centres in a loop. I should point out that our Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Japan Life, Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Went To My 1st Ever Leicester Riders Basketball Game

Posted on March 23, 2026 by tokyofox

Even though I don’t particularly have any love for the famous American sports, I do seem to attend a few basketball and baseball games every year. I’ve even been to a couple of American football matches in the last few years, so I guess I have developed something of a taste for such sporting occasions.

As soon as I’d decided to go back to the UK last Christmas I began to check the Continue reading →

Posted in Sport | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dublin’ Up on Irish Events to Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day in Tokyo

Posted on March 19, 2026 by tokyofox

My appearance at the Green Ireland Festival in Yoyogi Park two years ago really sparked my interest for going to a few more similar celebrations in Tokyo that year. The Irish festival was the first I had been to in many, many years and I had a really great time so was keen to return but with the addition of also taking in the long running St. Patrick’s Day parade taking place nearby.

This parade has been a fixture on the Japanese calendar for as long as I can remember but Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Life, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

TF Flashback: Dodgy Accommodation, Downpours, Delightful Sights, Local Delicacies, Late Night Drinking & Unexpected Expenditures on My 1st Visit to Hong Kong

Posted on March 16, 2026 by tokyofox

One of the things I was looking forward to when I first arrived in Japan was using it as a hub for exploring other parts of Asia. Of course, I had to familiarise myself with Japan first but once that had happened, I would be jetting off regularly on my own to nearby countries. That probably took longer than expected though and it wasn’t until 2006 that I finally did some solo travel in a place which had been part of the UK less than a decade earlier.

Despite the connection to my home country, I think I was still expecting Hong Kong to just be Continue reading →

Posted in Asia Travel, Food & Drink | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment