Hiratsuka was the location for our second match of the day in Kanagawa prefecture. I hadn’t really considered it’s actual distance from Yokohama for it actually took another hour from there and I was quite shocked at it’s geographical location when I later looked at a map.
Regular buses to the Shonan BMW Stadium were thankfully on hand (it would’ve been a 40 minute walk otherwise) from bus stop #11 (I think!) and about ten minutes later we were dropped off in Continue reading
Multiple matches on television has long been a common way of life for many football fans. It used to be just the World Cup when you could consume 2-3 games on the telly in one sitting but these days it’s possible to do such a thing on most days of the week if you so wish.
Watching back-to-back matches on the TV is one thing but taking in two live games on the same day is another. That is exactly what Scottish Neil (he of Shirokuma blog fame!) and I did recently though. Continue reading
When catching up on the hours and hours of Star Wars Celebration footage on YouTube last year I was a little surprised to see a Japanese guy feature in the coverage from Anaheim in the USA. He was on one of the fan panels with a talent for carving all manner of Star Wars characters and starships from vegetables and he spoke pretty good English too!
His name is Oki and, following his Star Wars-related appearance, I did a bit of online stalking and made contact with him via Twitter. I often re-tweet his pictures and because of that we have messaged each other a little bit. Once I knew I was going to be in Osaka with my family in the Golden Week holiday season I got in touch with Oki and said I’d like to Continue reading
For the last couple of years this wonderful place has been voted by foreign tourists as the number one site in Japan and it’s quite easy to see why but it hasn’t always been that way for this is actually a fairly recent addition to the essential Kyoto sights. When I first went there though there was Continue reading
Going to Kyoto in the Golden Week holiday season was one event that was filling me with dread ahead of our trip to the ancient city, and though it was inevitably busy it was never quite as bad as I had imagined it would be. The original idea was to do Kyoto on May 4th but once we extended our hotel stay by another night the better day was to be the 5th as that was the last day of the holidays and therefore many people would be travelling that day.
Within minutes of arriving at Kyoto station we had boarded the #205 bus and was on our way to Kinkakuji a.k.a. The Golden Pavilion (below) not that we had any idea how long it would take to get there! It was basically a one-road journey but due to the traffic (which actually wasn’t anywhere near as it can be in this city) it still took about 20 minutes to reach. The actual name of this place is Rokuon-ji Temple and, despite the crowds and the conveyor-belt nature of walking around it, it never fails to impress. Unlike other places in Kyoto though, this tends to be a fairly short stop on the tourist trail.
It was quite easy to take a bus back to the station after that and from there Continue reading
Although Kyoto was the main place to see in this area I decided that Shin-Osaka would be a more convenient and cheaper location to base ourselves in case we wanted to go to Nara, Kobe or Himeji which are all slightly easier to get to from Osaka. Our hotel was only a short walk from Shin-Osaka station but we didn’t discover that till the second day as on our arrival we struggled to locate our hotel. The rooms were tight to say the least but naturally included everything one could possibly need.
We headed out locally on the first night to see what Shin-Osaka had to offer. Not much it would appear but there were a few options and we eventually settled on a restaurant (below) specialising in kushiage (deep fried skewered meats and vegetables dipped in tonkatsu sauce) washed down with a few beers to celebrate the most momentous of days for any Leicester City fan.
It was an early start for me the following morning as I Continue reading
Both my parents agreed that, family stuff aside, the highlight of their holiday to Japan was our day trip to Miyajima where we all climbed Mount Misen. On my last few visits to see the in-laws I’ve been seeking out alternative sightseeing spots to the obvious ones but this time there was no need for Continue reading
The start of the Golden Week holiday season in Japan coincided with my parents coming to visit us for the first time in over a decade. Nothing more than dinner at our new-ish place on the first day and the following day began with a longer than expected walk around the Imperial Palace (above), past the National Diet Building and on to a rather expensive lunch at the Hotel New Otani (below) in Akasaka-Mitsuke.
After lunch we left via Yotsuya station and went a couple of stops on to Continue reading
Believe it or not, I actually had no input when it came to making a reservation for lunch at Hotel New Otani which has an association with James Bond having appeared in one of the Sean Connery films back in the 1960’s. Needless to say, I was fairly happy for us to take my parents there when they were back in Japan recently after a 11 year gap. My original thinking was for us to all have lunch at the Shinjuku Park Hyatt where we went on the day we got married and which was also a filming location in ‘Lost In Translation‘ (2003). However, that was all booked up so I left it to my wife to sort out and she ended up making a reservation for Hotel New Otani not that she had any idea about the 007 connection!
Continue reading
Watching J-League matches close to home is hard enough at the best of times due to work, family and kick off scheduling so to take in a game whilst away from Tokyo needs a fair bit of luck. Fitting in games around sightseeing, travel and other commitments is never easy but somehow I’ve managed to get lucky in Hiroshima (last year in Golden Week), Sapporo (last June) and Kobe this Golden Week can now be added to that list.
Under it’s former name; the Kobe Wing Stadium, three World Cup group games (Russia 2-0 Tunisia, Sweden 2-1 Nigeria, Brazil 2-0 Belgium) took place during June 2002 and furthermore it has been announced as one of the venues for 2019 Rugby World Cup. This was a bonus for me as I have Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 