The fire-walking festival near Takaosanguchi last Sunday may have been our main goal for the day but before that I thought we might as well climb Mount Takao with the idea being to take a different trail to what we did back in November 2012.
There are all manner of hiking routes up Takao-san and back then we took the #6 route but this time we ascended via Continue reading
This time of year is a particularly good one for the slightly more quirkier of the many, many festivals that take place in Japan throughout the year. A great deal of the ones featured in the recent Tokyo Fox ‘Top 10……Quirky Japanese Festivals‘ post take place between February and April and last Sunday my wife and I attended (and indeed participated!) Hiwatari Sai a.k.a. the fire-walking festival in Takao.
This festival is basically a cleansing and purification event where monks offer prayers for the usual things like world peace, protection from misfortune and good health. Starting at 1pm this one certainly took a while to get going. You could even say it was a slow-burner! Continue reading
Very slim pickings here but in true Tokyo Fox style this post is bulked out by a few bonus locations and other bits and pieces relating to this 1987 film. Roger Moore was long past his best and after seven movies at the helm he made way for a new James Bond. Enter Welshman Timothy Dalton; the man designated with breathing a bit of new life into the 007 role. The raised eyebrow would be no more for Bond as Dalton’s interpretation of the fictional British Secret Service agent was more earnest.
The MI6 Headquarters have never really settled for just one consistent home over the years and for this film (and this film only!) Malaysia House at 57 Trafalgar Square plays the part of MI6 HQ. The nations capital appears on 22 minutes as a brief glimpse of Charing Cross tube station is shown before the “Universal Exports” sign (often used as the cover name for MI6) is shown hanging above the door to the Malaysian Tourism office (below) on the south side of the Square.
Ever since my 8th birthday I have regularly been getting the latest replica Leicester City replica shirts as worn by my heroes….as well as some less-liked players of course! Back in 1985 I spent £5 on what was already a dated Admiral away shirt (below) by the time I got home!
Days later I got the new home one (below) for £ Continue reading
It’s a well-known fact that things are done differently here in Japan, far different to Western countries, and this is particularly apparent by way of the the many, many festivals that take place around the calendar up and down the country. There are thousands of local festivals featuring traditional dances and so on which are interesting but as ever it’s usually the quirkier ones which attract the interests of the foreign community. The ones in this list are all within (relatively) easy travel distance from Tokyo metropolis which includes surrounding prefectures Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.
Here, in no particular order, is the Tokyo Fox top 10……quirky festivals…
1. Kanamara Matsuri @ Kanayama Shrine, Kawasaki-daishi (Kanagawa)
This is the quintessential quirky festival to attend on the first Sunday each April. Of course there’s some meaningful message behind it all about AIDS and fertility but that seems to get lost amongst the huge crowds that pack this small shrine. More details here
2. Nakizumo @ Senso-ji Temple, Asakusa (Tokyo)
It’s time to introduce you to my latest niece as baby Alice was born at home in the morning on Saturday 27th February in the UK. Big congratulations to Stuart and Lorna on child number two. The all-important weight was alb 7oz and now George has a little sister to play with.
Click on the links below for past stories about my nephews and nieces:
Japan is one of those places which really seems to spark an interest in many people and then there are the true Japanophiles who have a real strong obsession with a certain part of Japanese culture. Back on Jan 10th there was a programme on the TV Tokyo channel which featured a young Hungarian guy called Lazlo who had never been to Japan but absolutely loved the Tokyo Metro. The TV company paid for him to come to the county of his dreams and shadowed him as he went about his otaku business. (Watch it here – Japanese language only)
This film, which is now over 50 years old, starts off with the fabulous four being pursued by fans at Lime Street Station in Liverpoool…except for the fact that it was actually shot at London’s Marylebone Station; a station which has featured on screen many times over the years with it’s most recent appearance in ‘Paddington‘ (2014).
Paul’s grandfather John McCartney goes gambling on 20 minutes at Les Ambassadeurs Casino which is a five minute walk away from Hyde Park Corner Underground station on the Piccadilly Line.
In many ways February 6th really was a landmark day in the history of Leicester City Football Club as, following their crushing victory away at Manchester City, the world sat up and took notice of what has been happening to a club that 12 months ago were pretty much dead and buried at the foot of the Premier League.
It really has been a miraculous turnaround in fortunes and the aforementioned game just happened to coincide with the inaugural LCFC Japan supporters club meet-up. Ever since then the media have been lapping up just about everything concerned with the club. No stone has been left unturned and even a certain Tokyo Fox has been in demand. In the fortnight following that game (including the heartbreaking injury time defeat to Arsenal) I have done two radio interviews as well as Continue reading
It’s hard to believe that the Tokyo Fox blog has been up and running for a decade now. It began in February 2006 as a fun pun-based place to keep an online journal to let friends and family back home know what things were like for me living and working in Japan.
Forgive the pretentiousness of this post but to have kept this site going for a decade is no mean feat given that so many others have come and gone in that time. Furthermore, this blogging business all started in an era before social media had become the beast that it is today. Though it moved away from your typical online diary the person that it’s most aimed at is actually myself and if anyone else cares to read it then that’s just a bonus. Continue reading
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