Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 Day 1: Ryan Gosling & Sigourney Weaver Up Close, Animation & 90s Panels, Cuteness Overload, Cosplayers & Meeting A Fan Favourite

Posted on April 22, 2025 by tokyofox

For the first time in nearly two decades, Star Wars Celebration was held in Japan at Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture. That event in 2008 really ignited my fandom but I honestly thought the language barrier would mean it stays predominantly in the USA with the occasional UK-based ones. “Star Wars is for everyone” is a well-used phrase but it certainly does favour the English-speaking audience so it would be interesting to see how things would work in the modern day compared to 17 years ago.

Very few tourists ever really came to Japan in 2008 and that Celebration event was very much a Japanese one for local fans of the franchise. Since re-opening its doors to international visitors a few years ago the country has seen a massive influx of international visitors. Being far more open to people from overseas and the growth in popularity of Continue reading →

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TF Top 10……Places In Tokyo Metropolis Taking You To Another World!

Posted on April 18, 2025 by tokyofox

 

For the thousands and thousands of inbound tourists coming to Japan from the western world in the last couple of years, Japan can be a bit like a fairytale land that is just so different to their own country. Once you’ve been here for a while though you might be in  need of a break from all things Japanese so here are some suggestions of places in the Tokyo Metropolis area that can take you to another world. They are listed in no particular order.

1. Sakura Furusato Square @ Sakura, Continue reading →

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I Hopped On Over To The Outskirts of The City To Visit A Frog Temple

Posted on April 14, 2025 by tokyofox

The sight of a frog temple in Japan is quite a rare one but this region possesses two of them, and I hopped on over to one of them to see if it was a ribbet-ing place or not!

Unwittingly I had chosen to visit the secondary temple which is said to be Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Parasailing, Horse Riding, Snake Temple, Local Food, Dr Fish & 007 In Malaysia’s British Colonial Town (2010)

Posted on April 10, 2025 by tokyofox

When planning any trip it’s fairly usual to check out the weather forecast for the place you’re going to. In my experience, the sight of rain every day in south-east Asian cities has been quite a common occurrence but has rarely ever been correct. That was indeed what was predicted for my three night trip to Malaysia 15 years ago but reality was just a few brief moments of drizzle amidst mostly hot weather.

On arrival at the airport, my girlfriend-of-the-time and I took Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #20 – Sue

Posted on April 6, 2025 by tokyofox

Think of train stations in Japan and the mighty Shinjuku station is sure to come to mind for many people. That is the world’s busiest train station, and Japan monopolises the top 50 list with only five of them not in this country. However, at the other end of the scale are some tiny stations which are usually unstaffed and used by very few commuters.

Station: Sue

Prefecture: Continue reading →

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The 1st Ever League Clash Between These Local Rivals In Japan Actually Deserves To Be Called A Derby!

Posted on April 2, 2025 by tokyofox

The use of the word derby in football seems to be more and more prevalent these days as  the people behind club social media accounts think of interesting and creative ways to market fixtures whether it be based on personnel who have represented both sides, shirt colours (the orange/green/purple derby etc), similar sounding names (Kashiwa and Kashima), anagrams (Tokyo & Kyoto) or whatever. There really seems to be no end to it but there was no need for such tenuous links last Sunday (30th March) though as this fixture was actually related to good old-fashioned geography.

The combination of relegation for Continue reading →

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On The Fox Trail……In Japan’s Fox-Blessed Hot Spring Town

Posted on March 30, 2025 by tokyofox

In the latter half of the last decade the ‘On The Fox Trail…’ series spawned over 20 posts, and I really did think I had covered pretty much any fox-related place in Japan. That wasn’t the case though as this fox-blessed hot spring town somehow bypassed my attention.

It was only whilst I was checking out the nearest stations on Google Maps for accessing Renofa Yamaguchi’s football stadium last August that I came across a few interesting sights. Yabara is actually the closest station to the Ishin Me-Life Stadium but Yudaonsen is also within walking distance and proved to be an Continue reading →

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My Furthest Away Day Trip At A Rather Inconveniently Located Former World Cup Stadium

Posted on March 26, 2025 by tokyofox

At the start of this month I was looking at Futbology (an app for ground hoppers) when I noticed someone had been to Miyagi Stadium. Not only that but he had actually seen Vegalta Sendai in action rather than Mynavi Sendai Ladies team or Sony Sendai FC * who sometimes play there. I was somewhat surprised as Vegalta play their home games at the Yurtec Stadium but subsequent research told me that new turf was being laid there so Continue reading →

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The World’s Largest Bronze Statue Really Is Impressive In Both Size & Wonder

Posted on March 22, 2025 by tokyofox

It seems like many Buddha statues have some kind of claim to fame whether it be the tallest, longest or biggest one made of whatever material in whichever country, city or region.

This Buddha statue in Japan is the largest bronze statue in the world but I sadly wasn’t aware of it until shortly after I’d made a Continue reading →

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All-White On The Night As Guitar-Hero Jack Rocks Out In Tokyo!

Posted on March 18, 2025 by tokyofox

Just three nights after seeing Kylie, we were at another concert but this one couldn’t have been more constrasting in style!

It was back to more regular and comfortable territory for me as my wife and I went to Toyosu Pit in Koto Ward (Tokyo) to see the genius behind The Continue reading →

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