A Double Dose of Lower J-League Action

Posted on November 11, 2016 by tokyofox

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There’s something alluring for me about visiting lower league grounds as this is the true spirit of football which is often lost amidst the glitz and glamour of the Premier League and the Champions League. Watching FC Ryukyu in Okinawa among so many nice, friendly supporters was a wonderful experience and when Hiro said he’d be in Yokohama for a match two weeks after that I thought it’d be nice to meet up with him again whilst adding another ground to my list!

Thinking the match kicked off at 12 noon I then set about combining it with another match and it became apparent that Continue reading →

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My Wife & I Actually Went to Tokyo Disneyland!

Posted on November 8, 2016 by tokyofox

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Disneyland is one of those places which has long mystified me regarding its popularity, especially in Japan where it is widely loved and regarded. Even your coolest looking hip-hop-type guys can often be seen over here sporting a Disney accessory of sorts amongst their apparel! Maybe it’s because us Brits generally think of Disney stuff as being something of a joke and we often use the phrase “it’s a bit Mickey Mouse” to summarise seemingly unimportant things.

Despite all that, I did take my two sisters and brother-in-law to Tokyo Disneyland back in 2004 and I have to admit that I didn’t see much reason for me to ever return there. However, a few years ago I learned that there was a Star Wars ride called Star Tours and as time went on my stance on going back changed a bit and that was further heightened when Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012. Some free tickets on top of that helped push along the idea and so a few days after returning from our (extended!) trip to Okinawa we Continue reading →

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The Godzilla Bathhouse

Posted on November 5, 2016 by tokyofox

Japan is very good at coming up with movie tie-ins in unconventional ways and that is certainly true where one of its most famous sons is concerned. The “Godzilla Hotel” in Shinjuku is one such example of that and a recent addition has been to transform this traditional Japanese bathhouse into a Godzilla-themed one.

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Kamata Onsen has actually been a place I’ve been interested in visiting for a couple of years now as it is famed for its kuroyu (black hot spring water). We never quite Continue reading →

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Dining Out: The Godzilla Hotel in Shinjuku

Posted on November 2, 2016 by tokyofox

No sooner had I cycled round what I thought was just about every Godzilla-related location back in 2014 and it was announced that a Godzilla hotel would be built in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku. At the start of March last year, a Godzilla head could be seen poking out of the top of Hotel Gracery (below) and by the of the next month the hotel, incorporating Toho Cinema, was finished.

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Reception to the hotel is on the 8th floor and a cafe can be found there with means of entry to the Godzilla head. It is also accessible for Continue reading →

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A Spook-tacular Halloween (2016)

Posted on October 30, 2016 by tokyofox

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The 60-90 minutes before the first kids Halloween party is always a fairly frantic and stressful affair for me as tables are dismantled and moved out of the classroom along with the chairs and pretty much any sign of regular school activity such as posters and so on. It’s also Continue reading →

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Tokyo Filming Locations #15 – The Grudge 2 (2006)

Posted on October 27, 2016 by tokyofox

‘The Grudge‘ (2004) may have been a carbon copy of the Japanese movie ‘Ju-on‘ (2002) but this American sequel was not a re-make and follows a different storyline to that of ‘Ju-on 2‘ (2003). To date there have been 11 movies in this franchise (8 Japanese and 3 American) and amazingly all of them have been directed by Takashi Shimizu.

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Just reading the blurb on the back of ‘The Grudge 2‘ DVD gives you an idea of how lazy the storyline is. Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is back albeit in just a cameo role (just over five minutes in total) to help connect the two films in some vague way. Having failed to Continue reading →

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Watching Football at Japan’s Most Remote J-League Club

Posted on October 23, 2016 by tokyofox

Going to watch the local football team wasn’t in my mind when I booked this trip but as soon as I found out they had a home game on that weekend I couldn’t deny myself the chance of seeing the match. After all, it’s not everyday that one is in Okinawa!

Chizu said she’d hook me up with a football bar owner called Hiro who is a huge FC Ryukyu fan that would take me to the game. Along with another guy called Austin, who we met in Hiro’s bar the night before, we were driven up to Okinawa city to the home stadium of FC Ryukyu. I don’t think I’ve ever parked anywhere near a stadium car park on a match-day before but that is what you can do in Okinawa and when he opened the car boot I was surprised to see that he had a drum in there for he is one of those fan leaders! Soon after that we met up with the other Ryukyu fans in their supporters group including Chizu’s friend Aika who I met the night before.

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As there were still a couple of hours till kick off (we left Naha three hours before kick off!) Austin and I walked round the outside of the stadium before Continue reading →

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Dining Out in Naha (Okinawa)

Posted on October 20, 2016 by tokyofox

Mention any part of Japan and it’s fairly likely that a Japanese person will be able to tell you the food specialities of that area. Food really is something of an obsession here and it took me a fair few years to find any appeal in travelling for food reasons. Okinawa is famed for it’s cuisine as it’s quite different to mainland food due to differences in culture, historical contact between other regions, climate, vegetables and other ingredients.

Even though I know I sampled some Okinawan food during my original trip to the islands  in 2006 I don’t really remember any of it so it wasn’t till last years ‘Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown‘ about Okinawa (s06E03) that I had any real idea about the local specialities. This particular episode of his CNN show sparked some kind of online conversation with an ex-student of mine who I knew lived in Naha.

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The plan to meet up with Chizu was inevitable as soon as we got round to Continue reading →

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Sightseeing Okinawa’s Capital for the 1st Time!

Posted on October 17, 2016 by tokyofox

Even though it was not actually filmed in Okinawa the ‘Karate Kid Part II‘ (1986) actually gave me my first glimpse of Japanese life back in the eighties. I actually wrote about this ten years ago when I went to Okinawa-prefecture for the first time to do some island hopping taking in the likes of Taketomi-jima and Ishigaki-jima.

A decade on and my wife and I were very much looking forward to experiencing Okinawa as she had never been there and I had never done anything more than transit on the main island. Naha was to be our destination for a three night break but due to the typhoon it was extended. We were supposed to be flying back on the Monday (3rd October) but my wife received an e-mail from the airline the day before saying it had already been cancelled. This wasn’t the first time though that I had missed a day at work due to flight problems!

We flew over Yoron-jima (actually part of Kagoshima prefecture) as we came into land and things had been going well although it was something of a dark start. ‘Joanna Lumley’s Japan‘ on ITV came at a good time for me as I hadn’t done too much research. In the third and final part of her travelogue series she visited the former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters and though she said the tunnels were unbearable I felt we should visit them to get an understanding of how the Okinawan people fought the war.

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The Memorial Museum costs nothing but it’s the Continue reading →

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On the Fox Trail……at Toyakawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin (Tokyo)

Posted on October 14, 2016 by tokyofox

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Making this ‘On The Fox Trail…’ stuff into a series was never really my intention but dipping in and out of ‘The Fox And The Jewel‘ (1999) by Karen A. Smyers has certainly increased my knowledge about this topic. As I had a few hours to kill between lessons in Shibuya recently, I got on my bicycle and headed the 4.2 kilometres distance to Toyakawa Inari (1-4-7 Moto-Azabu, Minato-ku) in Akasaka and it took just 15 minutes to reach  along route 246 with the place located not too far from the likes of Hotel New Otani and Hooters!

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Toyokawa Inari is one of the major centres of Inari worship and, unlike  Continue reading →

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