Cold Showers, Dodgy Electricity & An Overgrown Garden: The Ups & Downs of Having A Holiday Home

Posted on July 15, 2025 by tokyofox

A recent short break for all the teachers in my workplace allowed some time to relax and enjoy the time off but that wasn’t quite the case for me. On the face of it a trip to the east coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture sounds pretty good but as ever it wasn’t really a holiday.

A nice image of a beach in Izu but we could only dream of such a place on this trip!

About eight years ago my parents-in-law bought a second house in Izu so that they had a home closer (than their Hiroshima apartment) to their children (my wife and her brother) in Tokyo without having to live in the big city itself. Their visits to the house have become fewer and fewer in recent years due to Continue reading →

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Is Attending 2 Live Sports Events In One Day Really Worth The Effort?

Posted on July 12, 2025 by tokyofox

 

Two sports matches in one day is something I’ve done a few times in Japan over the years but it has always involved football. There was one time when I did a combo of rugby and football but all other occasions were a double header of the latter. This time though was a mix of two sports that I don’t see too often.

First up on a boiling hot afternoon last Continue reading →

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TF Top 10……Football Match Day Experiences In 2025 So Far (Part 1)

Posted on July 8, 2025 by tokyofox

  

In 2024 I went to 32 football matches in Japan which was the most I’ve ever done including my years as a season ticket holder at Leicester City back in the 1990s. Things have been scaled back a bit this year but (all being well!) I should still manage to see 20-something matches in 2025. These are the first 10 of the year featuring 9 different stadiums/grounds (including four I’d never been to before) in six different prefectures.

A few of these have had their own blog posts but the majority of them weren’t really considered to be worthy of a solitary post so I have collated them into this rankings list. It’s rather Reysol away-day heavy but as ever, it’s certainly not one to be taken too seriously as it’s based on a mixture of occasion, weather, people I met, the stadium and maybe even the football itself! For the record, I have enjoyed all of them in different ways.

10. Aries Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #21 – Yotsutsuji

Posted on July 4, 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: Yotsutsuji

Prefecture: Continue reading →

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The Reality of Being a Blogger (Part 1): 15 B-Grade Spots In 5 Prefectures In 36 Hours

Posted on June 30, 2025 by tokyofox

The majority of people going between Tokyo and Osaka will usually just take the the Shinkansen (bullet train) but flying can often be cheaper. However, the location of both the airports is not so convenient, especially as I was flying from Narita Airport in Chiba. Throw in the cost and time spent getting to and from the airports and it’s probably not worth the hassle. However, after landing in Osaka at about Continue reading →

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Review: Films ‘Set’ In Japan – Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

Posted on June 26, 2025 by tokyofox

The old adage about London buses is that you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once. That’s certainly true about Predator films as this year sees two of them released. One of them is an animation and the other is real-action but what is perhaps surprising is that they both have the same director.

‘Predator: Badlands‘ is released in November (a much later release date is expected in Japan as is often the case) but ‘Predator: Killer of Killers‘ came out recently on Hulu. Personally, I had no particular Continue reading →

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5 Different Sports On 5 Separate Visits To A Multi-Purpose Venue In Tokyo’s Sporting Mecca

Posted on June 22, 2025 by tokyofox

Other than the schools I work at, the place I’ve frequented most by bicycle this year is in the capital city’s sporting home. Along with the Japan Olympic Museum, this particular area of Tokyo has a few sports complexes in very close vicinity of each other. The National Stadium, Chichibunomiya Rugby Ground and Meiji Jingu Stadium are all located within a short walk of each other and I’ve already been to the first two eight times this year! Across from the National Stadium is another sporting venue which has a rich Olympic history.

Although it was built in 1954 for the World Wrestling Championships, Tokyo Continue reading →

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Junk or Treasure? The Ever-Growing Retro Collection At This Outdoor Museum In Tokyo

Posted on June 18, 2025 by tokyofox

An exhibition of items collected by an individual over the years as a hobby, including some very unique and rare items, is displayed outside for all to see 24 hours a day with the only security measure being some CCTV cameras. Only in Japan I guess!

This place is a treasure trove of all kinds of retro machines, vehicles, products, enamel signs and statues belonging to one Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Euro Trip Vol. 1 – Sneaking Into FIFA, Feeling Under-dressed On A Beautiful Mountain & A Popping In To Europe’s 4th Smallest Country

Posted on June 14, 2025 by tokyofox

For a Brit living in Japan it’s a bit strange to go to Europe for a holiday without visiting the UK to see family and friends but that is exactly what happened on this trip. The plan was to fly from Tokyo to Zurich in Switzerland with my return flight to Japan’s capital being from Croatia. I then had to decide how best to fill the time in between those airport encounters. This is the first part of looking back on the time I spent in Switzerland and Liechtenstein…

There’s no such thing as a cheap place to stay in Switzerland so I had to fork out more than double what I was used to paying for accommodation back then. On the plus side the Continue reading →

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The A-Z of Films ‘Set’ In Japan: 70+ Movies From The 1940s To The Present Day!

Posted on June 10, 2025 by tokyofox

Over the last nine decades more than 70 international productions have been “set” in Japan. Looking at those stats now, it seems rather poor but that is more to do with the country’s heavy red-tape in giving permission for movies to be shot in public places. Consequently, many of them have been filmed in the back of taxis (driving through the neon lights), hotels, temples or done guerilla-style! Failing that, they just faked Japanese locations without even entering the country!

All but a few of them have been reviewed on Tokyo Fox over the last two decades (there are still a few that I just cannot get hold of in any way!) so click on the title to see my critique of any that may interest you. Just be aware that some of them are Continue reading →

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