Cats seemingly play a very important role in Japanese lives. Hello Kitty is a hugely popular brand and then there’s also the station master cat, numerous cat cafes, cat island and super-lucky cats are often seen outside restaurants and shops beckoning (not waving good-bye as many tourists think!) customers to enter the establishment.
Time Out Tokyo often produce guides to different parts of the capital city (and beyond) and I usually make a point of Continue reading
This tale of three stories on three different continents intertwining with one another features Mexico, Morocco and Japan which is of course the reason it’s included in this feature. Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu makes full use of these differing backdrops to bring the picture alive with a heavy preference for hand-held camera work.
The director certainly likes the muted screen approach too and lets the pictures do the talking with just a soundtrack. This happens a few times and just goes to show how Continue reading
There’s something alluring for me about visiting lower league grounds as this is the true spirit of football which is often lost amidst the glitz and glamour of the Premier League and the Champions League. Watching FC Ryukyu in Okinawa among so many nice, friendly supporters was a wonderful experience and when Hiro said he’d be in Yokohama for a match two weeks after that I thought it’d be nice to meet up with him again whilst adding another ground to my list!
Thinking the match kicked off at 12 noon I then set about combining it with another match and it became apparent that Continue reading
Disneyland is one of those places which has long mystified me regarding its popularity, especially in Japan where it is widely loved and regarded. Even your coolest looking hip-hop-type guys can often be seen over here sporting a Disney accessory of sorts amongst their apparel! Maybe it’s because us Brits generally think of Disney stuff as being something of a joke and we often use the phrase “it’s a bit Mickey Mouse” to summarise seemingly unimportant things.
Despite all that, I did take my two sisters and brother-in-law to Tokyo Disneyland back in 2004 and I have to admit that I didn’t see much reason for me to ever return there. However, a few years ago I learned that there was a Star Wars ride called Star Tours and as time went on my stance on going back changed a bit and that was further heightened when Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012. Some free tickets on top of that helped push along the idea and so a few days after returning from our (extended!) trip to Okinawa we Continue reading
Japan is very good at coming up with movie tie-ins in unconventional ways and that is certainly true where one of its most famous sons is concerned. The “Godzilla Hotel” in Shinjuku is one such example of that and a recent addition has been to transform this traditional Japanese bathhouse into a Godzilla-themed one.
Kamata Onsen has actually been a place I’ve been interested in visiting for a couple of years now as it is famed for its kuroyu (black hot spring water). We never quite Continue reading
No sooner had I cycled round what I thought was just about every Godzilla-related location back in 2014 and it was announced that a Godzilla hotel would be built in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku. At the start of March last year, a Godzilla head could be seen poking out of the top of Hotel Gracery (below) and by the of the next month the hotel, incorporating Toho Cinema, was finished.
Reception to the hotel is on the 8th floor and a cafe can be found there with means of entry to the Godzilla head. It is also accessible for Continue reading
The 60-90 minutes before the first kids Halloween party is always a fairly frantic and stressful affair for me as tables are dismantled and moved out of the classroom along with the chairs and pretty much any sign of regular school activity such as posters and so on. It’s also Continue reading
‘The Grudge‘ (2004) may have been a carbon copy of the Japanese movie ‘Ju-on‘ (2002) but this American sequel was not a re-make and follows a different storyline to that of ‘Ju-on 2‘ (2003). To date there have been 11 movies in this franchise (8 Japanese and 3 American) and amazingly all of them have been directed by Takashi Shimizu.
Just reading the blurb on the back of ‘The Grudge 2‘ DVD gives you an idea of how lazy the storyline is. Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is back albeit in just a cameo role (just over five minutes in total) to help connect the two films in some vague way. Having failed to Continue reading
Going to watch the local football team wasn’t in my mind when I booked this trip but as soon as I found out they had a home game on that weekend I couldn’t deny myself the chance of seeing the match. After all, it’s not everyday that one is in Okinawa!
Chizu said she’d hook me up with a football bar owner called Hiro who is a huge FC Ryukyu fan that would take me to the game. Along with another guy called Austin, who we met in Hiro’s bar the night before, we were driven up to Okinawa city to the home stadium of FC Ryukyu. I don’t think I’ve ever parked anywhere near a stadium car park on a match-day before but that is what you can do in Okinawa and when he opened the car boot I was surprised to see that he had a drum in there for he is one of those fan leaders! Soon after that we met up with the other Ryukyu fans in their supporters group including Chizu’s friend Aika who I met the night before.
As there were still a couple of hours till kick off (we left Naha three hours before kick off!) Austin and I walked round the outside of the stadium before Continue reading
Mention any part of Japan and it’s fairly likely that a Japanese person will be able to tell you the food specialities of that area. Food really is something of an obsession here and it took me a fair few years to find any appeal in travelling for food reasons. Okinawa is famed for it’s cuisine as it’s quite different to mainland food due to differences in culture, historical contact between other regions, climate, vegetables and other ingredients.
Even though I know I sampled some Okinawan food during my original trip to the islands in 2006 I don’t really remember any of it so it wasn’t till last years ‘Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown‘ about Okinawa (s06E03) that I had any real idea about the local specialities. This particular episode of his CNN show sparked some kind of online conversation with an ex-student of mine who I knew lived in Naha.
The plan to meet up with Chizu was inevitable as soon as we got round to Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 