Hiroshima-ken 2015/16 Pt II: Ini No Tanada

Posted on January 12, 2016 by tokyofox

Ever since I saw this place featured in a CNN article (31 most beautiful places in Japan) I have wanted to see it. After our wedding ceremony in Hiroshima in November 2014 we were pretty close to doing so but instead opted for some hiking in Sandankyo which is also located in the same area.

My father-in-law wanted to go to a hot spring bath so prior to that we drove to Ini No Tanada to see the picturesque rice terraces. Accessed through a fairly length narrow, single road tunnel this countryside area is there for all to see in its natural splendour.

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Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hiroshima-ken 2015/16 Pt I: Bringing In The New Year Japanese-Style

Posted on January 9, 2016 by tokyofox

For the first time in a decade I saw in the New Year in my adapted country and whilst it may be lacking in the fun, excitement and jovial partying of other countries it was nice enough for a miserable git like me who has very little interest in celebrating such calendar dates. Instead, I was with a loving family eating lots of great food, consuming fine drinks whilst generally just sitting around and chilling amidst a few Japanese rituals.

In my absence from Japan at this time of year I have experienced NYE in the likes of Cambodia, Iceland, Hungary, Honduras, Thailand and of course the UK. I can’t say that any of them have been particularly amazing or anything as the date for me is synonymous with disappointing nights though I should say that I have never really put too much effort into them as I long gave up on it as everyone is chasing a good time and it just doesn’t work out like that.

At around 10:30 pm on New Years Eve we all ate toshikoshi soba and I was expecting to go to bed after that but surprisingly my mother-in-law and wife said we were going to a temple called Taikoji to bring, or rather ring in 2016!

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Posted in Japan Life, Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Meeting Two Sith At The Tokyo ComicCon Launchpad Event

Posted on January 6, 2016 by tokyofox

IMG_3419  Ian McDiarmid is the Emperor in Return of the Jedi

As fun as the cosplay side of things was at this event, that wasn’t the main reason Tokyo Fox was in attendance. My priority was to meet the two sith who organiser (and Apple co-founder) Steve Wozniak brought along to make the announcement of next year’s inaugural ComicCon event at Makuhari Messe in Chiba.

As I said in my previous Tokyo ComicCon post, this years event was a kind of taster for what is to come in December 2016 and the two special guests were from the UK. They were doing a dual photo session in the morning but I was down for individual photo’s with both as it was the same price and I wanted two pictures rather than one! Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Life, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Cosplaying At The Tokyo ComicCon Launchpad Event

Posted on January 3, 2016 by tokyofox

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The San Diego Comic-Con has been going since 1970 and has inspired many other similar events and Tokyo appears to be getting in on the act with this convention which was organized by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who was in town recently to announce ComicCon 2016 which will be the inaugural event.

It seems that this particular ComicCon was something of a trial and a launchpad for next years which is quite a step up in size as it’s taking place at Makuhari Messe convention centre in Chiba which actually played host to ‘Star Wars Celebration Japan‘ in July 2008. It has also hosted many other annual events like Tokyo Motor Show, Tokyo Game Show and the Summer Sonic music festivals. Continue reading →

Posted in Films, Japan Life, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

TF Top 20……Tokyo Fox Hits Of 2015

Posted on January 1, 2016 by tokyofox

So 2016 has only just begun and already Tokyo Fox is looking back!! For about six years now there have been exactly ten new posts on here each and every month and these are the twenty from 2015 which got the most hits. I have excluded all TF Top 10…….list entries from this feature. Of course those entries from earlier in the year had more time to accumulate hits which may explain why so much of the top 10 is from the first half of 2015. A couple of posts from the latter half have sneaked in though…

1. New Hachiko Statue In Tokyo

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The fact that this received more hits than any other really is quite surprising for me as there was already other stuff on the net about it and I took the pictures with the wrong setting on my camera! More details here

2. London Filming Locations: Paddington (2014)

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Posted in Movie Locations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TF Top 20……Filming Location Trips For 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by tokyofox

Filming location entries on Tokyo Fox have been dwindling the last couple of years but somehow 2015 has been a bumper one for movie location blogs. It’s a little London-centric at times and has in the main included just topping up pre-existing entries but there are also a handful of completely all-new Japanese locations as well as a few from Cambodia and Korea.

Here then, in no particular order, is the TF Top 20……filming location trips for 2015…

1. Paddington, 2014 (Click here)

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2. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999 (Click here)

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Countdown to Christmas 2015 in Tokyo

Posted on December 27, 2015 by tokyofox

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It may come as a bit of a surprise to know that this year was the first time I have ever stayed in Tokyo for Christmas. Back in December 2003 I worked on December 25th for N*va (and had a cup noodle for my dinner just so that I could tell the story one day!) but technically that was in Chiba. Two years later I was again in Japan for the festive season but that was in Fukuoka and that was the last time I dared to stay in the country at this time of year.

Since then I have spent the latter parts of December in my home country half a dozen times and in the likes of Myanmar, Guatemala and Vietnam. With my wife working up to (and including) Christmas Day this year I felt a bit of pressure to fill the first four days of my holiday before we were to shoot off to Hiroshima for the remaining days. Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

TF Flashback: Christmas In Australia (2001)

Posted on December 22, 2015 by tokyofox

Over recent years I have spent Christmas in the likes of Myanmar, Guatemala and Vietnam but none of them really felt like the festive season as was the case the first time I spent it away from home. That was in December 2001 when I was in Perth (Western Australia) coming towards the end of my 12 month working holiday down under.

It may have been my first Christmas away from my parents but amazingly it was my 24th consecutive one with my sister Lorna, who had arrived in the world’s most remote city a month earlier and thanks to the journal which I kept (now available online here) at the time it is now possible to recall the events of both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

After an absence of almost ten years I made my return to skateboarding when I went to the small half-pipe ramp in Subiaco with Kenji. Using his board I couldn’t perform any stunts but it felt good to just keep rolling back and forth. We stayed there longer than expected and then went to do our weekly food shopping in Woolworths before getting back for the Christmas Eve party in the bar at The Globe hostel which started at 7pm and included jugs of punch for $5 and a free BBQ which was strikingly similar to the usual Thursday night sausage sizzle but with added salad! As it was free though I couldn’t complain!

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Posted in Australasia Travel, Family | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TF Top 10……Japanese Star Wars Snacks

Posted on December 18, 2015 by tokyofox

The much anticipated 7th Star Wars film is finally here and it really is hard to escape the merchandising frenzy which has long been associated with the saga. Over the years it seems that just about every conceivable product has had the Star Wars logo attached to it and recently in Japan there has been a fairy wide range of confectionary on sale. Far too many products to mention them all so here, in no particular order, is the Tokyo Fox top 10……Japanese Star Wars snacks….

1. Mets Soda – 12 characters don the bottles which come in two different flavours known as Blue Force (the light side) and Red Force (the dark side). Neither taste particularly  nice but the dark side one tastes a bit better in my opinion.

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Posted in Food & Drink, Quirky Japan, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Dining Out: Safari African Restaurant Bar (Ethiopia)

Posted on December 14, 2015 by tokyofox

It’s a little sad that for over three decades now my only images of Ethiopia are the ones from its famine in the early 1980’s which featured in the Band Aid video ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas Time?’ (1984). That song, which has been recorded in four different guises now, has undoubtedly done a lot of good and raised millions and millions of pounds for good causes but there is the feeling among many that it’s lyrics perpetuate stereotypes of conflict, poverty and diseases as the single story of the whole of Africa.

Back in October though, I saw ‘Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown‘ (S06E06) on CNN which showed the country in a completely different light to those African images portrayed by Band Aid. It really opened up my eyes to this country and with it being a show focusing on food, I set about finding a restaurant in Tokyo which specialises in Ethiopian cuisine.

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Posted in Food & Drink, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment