Okayama 2016 Pt III: Kurashiki

Posted on August 23, 2016 by tokyofox

It had already been a long, long day for me but time is money and all that, so with a couple of hours of daylight remaining I decided to squeeze in one more site before retiring to my capsule hotel for some much needed rest.

Following my lone appearance at Washuzan Highland Theme Park I ventured on to Kurashiki which is a city famed for its Bikan historical area just fifteen minutes away from Okayama by train on the Sanyo Line. It was 5:30pm when I arrived and ten minutes later I had already found my way over to the historical quarter located by the picturesque canal area.

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The entrance area possesses some scenic townscape preserving history from  Continue reading →

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Okayama 2016 Pt II: Washuzan Highland Theme Park

Posted on August 20, 2016 by tokyofox

Have you ever met anyone who went to an amusement park by themselves? Probably not as that is pretty sad, isn’t it! As you can probably guess though, that is exactly what I did on my first afternoon in Okayama!

Keen to experience the Sky Cycle ride which brought this theme park to my attention a few months ago I had no real choice but to go alone with my wife out of the way. With no idea when I may next be in Okayama I thought I had better take this opportunity even if I did have to fly solo!

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Washuzan Highland is actually some kind of Brazilian themed amusement park where the staff all Continue reading →

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Okayama 2016 Pt I: Staying In A Capsule Hotel

Posted on August 17, 2016 by tokyofox

Accommodation in Japan, particularly the big cities, often tends to be a bit more cosy when compared with other global places. All the amenities are usually there but it’s all very compact with very little room to manoeuvre around the bed. And then there are capsule hotels!!

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These extremely small rooms are not for claustrophobic people, that’s for sure! They are almost reminiscent of corpse drawers in a morgue! Continue reading →

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Review: Films Inspired By Japan – Ronin (1998)

Posted on August 14, 2016 by tokyofox

When I first sat down to watch this I felt slightly reassured by its well-known cast of Robert De Niro and the safe pair of hands that is Jean Reno. The former may be a legendary actor but that hasn’t stopped him from making some truly awful films. Thankfully, this wasn’t one as it is actually very good.

Warning: Contains spoilers!

This gritty tale of trust is set and filmed in France (Paris and Nice) and it is these settings, along with the musical score, which really drives this movie for me. It’s a slow but tense opening as the viewer tries to figure out what exactly is happening – someone has something some other people require and they want to get it. Yes, it really is that vague!

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Just after the half way point in this 121 minute film, there is a conversation between Sam (Robert De Niro) and Jean-Pierre (Michael Lonsdale) about the Ronin myth giving an explanation about Continue reading →

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Tokyo Daytripper: Chiba-jo Castle

Posted on August 11, 2016 by tokyofox

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“There’s a castle in Chiba!” is often the reaction of the Tokyo-ite folk I teach when the subject of castles occasionally pops up into conversation. I then confirm that there is indeed one and that I have been there a couple of times with the first trip being a long, long time ago during my Continue reading →

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London Filming Locations: Buster (1988)

Posted on August 8, 2016 by tokyofox

This soppy 90 minute film doesn’t half romanticise criminality and ignore the violent assault of the train driver that really happened on August the 8th, 1963 when the Great Train Robbery took place. Phil Collins stars as Buster, the loveable rogue who steals a suit at the start of the film from a mannequin before hailing a taxi across the road from Broadway Market (below).

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Buster and his wife June (Julie walters) live at 30 Beck Road (below) in Hackney which is seen after 4 minutes. Both Cambridge Heath and London Fields on the Overground Line are around ten minutes away on foot.

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Just after the half hour mark, Abady House (below) on Page Street in Westminster appears and one of these flats is supposedly Continue reading →

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On The Fox Trail……In Oji (Tokyo)

Posted on August 5, 2016 by tokyofox

It’s not only Leicester City taking the Premier League by storm that has made 2016 the year of the fox but also back in March I realised my dream of visiting Zao Kitsune Mura Fox Village in Miyagi prefecture and that was followed by a family trip to the stunning Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto in the wake of Leicester claiming the title.

The Oji Kitsune-no-gyoretsu Fox Parade featured in the ‘TF Top 10……Quirky Japanese Festivals‘ post back in March. A group of local residents, dressed in traditional costumes and wearing fox masks, walk between two shrines on New Years Eve each year culminating in celebrations around bonfires.

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With the new season nearly upon us, and hoping for some luck, I decided to follow the Fox Parade trail from shrine to shrine whilst decked out in the new Leicester shirt and with only my Filbert Fox cuddly toy for company. Starting in reverse, the morning began at  Continue reading →

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TF Top 10……Films Set In Brazil

Posted on August 2, 2016 by tokyofox

The Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro are imminent and the world will focus on the Brazilian city for a month lapping up everything to do with it and the South American country. True to form, Tokyo Fox is most interested in filming locations and over the years there have been a handful of movies featuring Brazil though it has to be said they were not all filmed there!

Here then, in no particular order, is the Tokyo Fox top 10……films “set” in Brazil…

1. Fast Five (2011) – The film that really propelled this franchise into the big time  following on from four fairly average films in the series. Thanks to aerial shots and quick editing many viewers were deceived into thinking it was the real Rio but it was actually filmed in Puerto Rico as their government offered some very beneficial tax incentives to influence the decision to film there. The locals were unimpressed with the Rio stereotypes that included heavily armed drug traffickers, corrupt police, laughable accents and sexy women.

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2. Moonraker (1979) – Bond confronts antagonist Jaws on a cable car going up Sugar Loaf mountain. The atmosphere shots of the Rio Carnival were filmed a year before the film itself was shot but the ‘Brazilian’ training camp was actually Continue reading →

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Tokyo Daytripper: Tokorozawa Aviation Museum

Posted on July 30, 2016 by tokyofox

Despite having worked in close proximity to this place for about six years I had never even heard of this place until earlier this year when I was talking to a student about the Chikatetsu Subway Museum in Kasai. I casually asked him if there were any other transportation museums in and around Tokyo and what I got in response were a few other places. Of course the Railway Museum in Omiya was mentioned as was this aviation museum…..but given the title of this post I guess that is “plane” to see!!

As soon as you leave the leave the station there is an ANA plane on display (below).

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Turn right at the ANA plane and head down the cobbled path for a bit before taking a left turn where you will see Continue reading →

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July J-League Jaunts Taking-In Two Chiba Teams

Posted on July 26, 2016 by tokyofox

As far as I’m concerned there’s only one team in Chiba and that’s Kashiwa Reysol! The reality though is that there are actually two sides based in this prefecture and they both play in yellow! The other team is called JEF United and they play at the Fukuda Denshi Arena in Soga which opened in 2005. The closest station is Soga which is awash with JEF-related decor going as far as having team shirts painted on the toilet cubicle doors!

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On a mission to get round as many grounds as possible, Scottish Neil and I teamed up again to watch another J-League match last Sunday (July 24th) and Shimizu S-Pulse were the visitors. I chose for us to join the Shizuoka-based team in the away end for a couple of reasons. Continue reading →

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