SHINJIrarenai! (Unbelievable!!)

Posted on July 19, 2016 by tokyofox

The following article was written specifically for the Summer issue (#20) of J-Soccer magazine; Japan’s number one English language football publication. The editor chose the title for the piece and is rather fitting as the Japanese word shinjirarenai means unbelievable.

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When Shinji Okazaki became the seventh Japanese player to grace the English Premier League since it’s inception in 1992 he surely can’t have believed he would join the other notable Shinji in picking up a winners medal. There was always a strong chance that Kagawa would win the Premier League with Manchester United, as he did during his first season in 2012, but no-one, absolutely no-one could have predicted the same for Okazaki.

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Just as Japanese fans were licking their lips at the prospect of Okazaki teaming up in the Bundasliga with the incoming Muto he was on his way out of Mainz and heading to a team in England which he’d been linked with at the start of January 2015. His new team Leicester City had been Continue reading →

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Taiwan 2016 Pt IV: Longshan Temple & Ximending

Posted on July 16, 2016 by tokyofox

The capital of Taiwan is a very nice place and one that we really like but it’s certainly not the most beautiful of cities appearance-wise. Whilst there are some great sightseeing spots in and around the city we didn’t really do them this time and I have fairly vague memories of my trip ten years ago (other than what I wrote on here!) when I spent the majority of my time outside of the city.

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This trip was mostly about just sampling a load of local food and visiting Jiufen so it’s fairly Continue reading →

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Taiwan 2016 Pt III: Jiufen

Posted on July 13, 2016 by tokyofox

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You’d think that getting out of a busy city and going to the mountains would result in a quiet break but that’s certainly not true of this place on the north east coast of Taiwan. Jiufen is an old town decorated with old style teahouses, Japanese-style inns and traditional narrow lanes amidst a beautiful backdrop of emerald mountains and the ocean. Its close proximity to Taipei means that it’s absolutely teeming with Continue reading →

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Taiwan 2016 Pt II: Modern Toilet Restaurant

Posted on July 10, 2016 by tokyofox

Who on earth would want to eat their food from a toilet bowl?! There are many people out there who would turn up their nose at the notion of this very quirky themed restaurant located on a backstreet of young persons shopping district Ximending. Not me though, that’s for sure! You can’t beat a bit of toilet humour and this place is full of it.

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There’s a giant toilet hanging on the restaurant exterior, actual western-style toilets are used as the seats, the walls are tiled and donned with animated poo characters, the lights are turd designs, the tables are sinks with thick glass laid on them and all manner of Continue reading →

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Taiwan 2016 Pt I: Dining Out In Taipei

Posted on July 7, 2016 by tokyofox

In the early days of our relationship, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed watching a food travel programme about Taipei and vowed to one day go there together to enjoy the many culinary delights which the Taiwanese capital city has to offer. It took longer than expected to get round to taking the three hour flight from Tokyo but it finally came to fruition at the end of last month when we took a short break in Taiwan.

A decade on from my first visit to Taiwan and how things have changed since then. Food certainly wasn’t a major part of that trip as I spent the majority of my time outside of Taipei amongst the more natural parts of the country. This time we were in town to sample a good amount of tasty treats and the number one spot (other than the Modern Toilet restaurant!) has to be Din Tai Fung; the legendary soup dumplings place with four restaurants in Taipei and a number of others in many Asian cities.

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Neither of us were particularly hungry when we found ourselves in the Zhongshan district but opportunities are scarce when on such limited time so we had to Continue reading →

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Another Live Rugby Match: Sunwolves Vs Waratahs

Posted on July 4, 2016 by tokyofox

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Ever since that momentous late win for Japan against South Africa in the 2015 World Cup, rugby has been on the rise in the land of the rising sun. It’s that nickname combined with the wolf (representing bravery, strength and an ethos of teamwork) that results in the name of Japan’s representative team in the 2016 Super Rugby competition.

Little did I know that the hat I found myself wearing (below) back in April at our cherry blossom party was actually a Sunwolves one. The penny finally dropped as I rolled on up to the stadium (from the nearby Gaienmae station) and saw a load of people wearing them. It certainly wasn’t the day for wearing such head ware as it was a sweltering afternoon (35 degrees celsius!) at Chichibunomiya; the kind of conditions which Continue reading →

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TF Top 10……Jason Bourne Filming Locations

Posted on July 1, 2016 by tokyofox

The self-titled Jason Bourne movie hits cinema screens at the end of this month (in most countries but not Japan of course!) and marks the return of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass for the first time since 2007. In the meantime there has been ‘The Bourne Legacy‘ (2012); a story taking place at the same time as ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007) with Jeremy Renner in the main role.

‘Legacy‘ was fine but didn’t really feel like a Bourne movie, try as much as it did to build a story round ‘Ultimatum‘. It is the original three which are the true heartbeat of the Bourne films and so I have cobbled together ten locations from that trilogy (plus a bonus one from ‘Legacy‘) which were filmed in the likes of New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Prague and Tangiers.

Here then, in no particular order, is the TF Top 10……Bourne filming locations…

1. Bourne’s Paris Apartment @ 104 Rue du Jardin, Paris (France): The Bourne Identity (2002)

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Bourne and Marie arrive at Bourne’s apartment which is 104 Avenue Kléber and not 104 Rue du Jardin as portrayed in the film. It’s here that Continue reading →

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On The Trail Of John Rain (雨) Part X – Paris

Posted on June 28, 2016 by tokyofox

Throughout the Rain series of feature-length books, anti-hero John Rain is the principal persona but he has often been ably assisted by a supporting cast, and some of those characters have been the main feature of short spin-off stories. These have followed Larisson, Delilah and Dox; the latter of which I covered last year when I was in Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

Delilah stars alongside the main man himself in a download-only (Kindle or audiobook) story called ‘Paris Is A Bitch‘ (2011) having first appeared in the 5th Rain book ‘Extremis‘ (originally published as ‘The Last Assassin‘) in 2006. She is a smart, sexy and sophisticated Mossad operative fluent in Hebrew whose profession is to seduce potential terrorists and help attain information about them before they are assassinated.

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She and Rain were bound by a mutual understanding of Continue reading →

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The Rise Of Rugby In Japan! The Brave Blossoms Play Scotland In Front Of A Record Crowd In Tokyo

Posted on June 25, 2016 by tokyofox

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Japan’s Brave Blossoms late injury time win over the giants of South Africa last year was undoubtedly the greatest shock in the history of the Rugby World Cup. Not only that but it was one of the biggest giant killings in sport and it is one that I never tire of watching. It rarely fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end whether I’m watching the last few minutes on YouTube or listening to the radio commentary clips.

Since then rugby has taken off and grown in popularity a fair bit. It now Continue reading →

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London Filming Locations: Mike Bassett England Manager (2001)

Posted on June 22, 2016 by tokyofox

Leicester City are playing Norwich City in the Mr Clutch Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. From the film’s opening scenes it’s obvious that those teams playing in a final can only be the work of fiction!! (*) Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson) is in charge of the latter as they triumph 3-2 propelling him to fame and eventually the England hotseat.

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(*) Now that opening line was actually drafted a couple of years ago when I originally compiled these limited filming locations for this fly-on-the-wall mockumentary. Who on earth thought that my beloved Leicester City would ever go on to win the Premier League of all things. The kind of thing that no film scriptwriter would even come up with!!

There have been many football films over the years and to be fair they’re usually pretty Continue reading →

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