#ForceFriday – The Journey Towards The New Star Wars Movie Has Begun

Posted on September 4, 2015 by tokyofox

It’s still a few months until ‘The Force Awakens‘ a.k.a. ‘Star Wars Episode VII‘ gets its worldwide release but for a while now September 4th has been billed as #ForceFriday; the journey towards the long awaited sequel to ‘Return Of The Jedi‘ (1983).

Much of the Star Wars fan community has been getting very excited about today and the release of new merchandise in stores and fan events around the world to mark the occasion. Principle markets like the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Spain have had midnight openings to allow fans to get their hands on all kinds of new figures, toys, stationery, Lego, clothing, masks, lightsabers and other such accessories.

As much as I tried to find out, I got no answers from Tokyo stores regarding them doing anything for #ForceFriday. Eventually I just decided that I’d check out the huge Toys ‘R’ Us store within Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Fortunately, my friend Ben mailed me earlier this morning asking if I was going there and so we agreed to meet up to visit the shop just after it opened at 11am.

It took us a while to locate the Force Awakens goodies but just as we were pessimistically thinking there would be one or two Star Wars toys in the whole place we then saw a sizeable section devoted to all the new Star Wars things.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt VI: Phnom Penh

Posted on August 31, 2015 by tokyofox

On my previous visit to Cambodia at the end of 2006 my travel friends and I didn’t really give the capital city much of a chance and other than a tuk-tuk evening tour and a few drinks in one bar we left the place after just a sole night. I wasn’t too sad about it at the time but back then I was fairly clueless about Asia and still had a lot to learn!

Nearly nine years later and I was more interested in spending a bit of time in Phnom Penh and so, following our tour of places associated with the dark side of Cambodia’s history, we moved riverside for a spot of lunch. After a very sombre morning I was in need of a beer and food-wise I plumped for the Khmer Boran chicken curry.

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Cambodia Filming Locations: City Of Ghosts & R-Point

Posted on August 28, 2015 by tokyofox

Ever since I saw ‘City Of Ghosts‘ for the first time in 2010 I have been interested in the Old Bokor Hill location which appears towards the end of the movie. Further online research informed me that a Korean movie had also been filmed there which I alerted my friend Mostyn to ahead of his visit to the area in January 2011 and thankfully he bought both films on DVD so I was able to borrow and re-watch them ahead of this trip.

Le Bokor Palace a.k.a. Old Casino Hotel is shrouded in history with tales to tell from within its walls since construction began around a century ago. All fascinating stuff but it is the last decade which is of most interest to Tokyo Fox when ‘City Of Ghosts‘ (2002) and ‘R-Point‘ (2004) were filmed there.

WARNING: Contains spoilers!

The Old Palace Hotel first appears on 90 minutes as Jimmy (Matt Dillon) approaches it  from the south-west but sadly whilst we were there I didn’t visit this particular spot which is a little annoying as I had all the screen shots with me! Instead, I include my first glimpse of the place. As mentioned in the previous post the old structure was obscured by mist and fog when we arrived with visibility cut down substantially. A perfect introduction to a place famed for it’s eerie atmosphere!

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Cambodia 2015 Pt V: Bokor Hill Station

Posted on August 25, 2015 by tokyofox

My main reason for going over to Kampot was to visit the Bokor Hill Station area and my original plan was to take a $12 tour bus to see it all. However, the night before the very nice hotel manager at The Columns introduced me to a retired American guy called Benji (now living in Thailand) and we agreed to take a taxi together to allow for more time and freedom at some of the sights.

Bokor Hill National Park is about 45 minutes drive from Kampot and accessed by a road which is perhaps the best road in Cambodia in terms of its condition and state. Domnak Sla Kmao was the first point of interest and set a prescedent for what was to come. I love to be able to roam around abandoned buildings which offer glimpses of yesteryear and this former royal residence was a good appetiser for what was to come.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt IV: Kampot

Posted on August 23, 2015 by tokyofox

Put off by the seven hour bus ride that took us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap we decided that time was of greater importance than money and so took a Bayon Airways flight ($80) on the return journey. That was quickly followed by a taxi ride to Kampot ($45) and so we were already in the river town before 1pm whereas with a couple of buses it would have probably been late night! Continue reading →

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Cambodia Filming Locations: Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001)

Posted on August 20, 2015 by tokyofox

This film adaptation of a popular video game has probably been forgotten by many but it’s legacy certainly lives on in Cambodia where it is mentioned day in-day out by the thousands of tourists who descend on main location Ta Prohm to see it’s fascinating tree roots which have swallowed up parts of the temple complex.

The action in Cambodia starts on 40 minutes as Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is on a mission to retrieve half of the triangular MacGuffin. Before Ta Prohm though, there are a couple of other temples playing cameo roles. Having called in a favour from the Special Forces, she is parachuted down (in her Land Rover no less!) and waves goodbye to the plane which helped her from the Central Sanctuary at Phnom Bakheng.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt III: Lesser Temples Of Angkor

Posted on August 17, 2015 by tokyofox

As nice as the previous days cycle tour of the main temples was, it didn’t really offer anything too new so I was more excited about taking a tuk-tuk around what is known as the Grand Tour Circuit. I may have titled this piece as the lesser temples and though they are less popular on the tourist circuit than the Small Tour Circuit ones they are all still very impressive.

It felt good to be able to just drive on past the crowds at Angkor Wat on our re-visit to the Angkor Thom vicinity which we both wanted to see again as we didn’t have enough time the previous day to explore much beyond Bayon. It was still nice to take another look around that temple’s gothic towers which are decorated with over 200 faces.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt II: Main Temples Of Angkor

Posted on August 14, 2015 by tokyofox

The main reason tourists go to Cambodia is of course to see the temples of Angkor and there are three main temples which are considered a must on any travellers itinerary. They are Angkor Wat itself, Bayon and Ta Prohm a.k.a. the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple which we did on our first day in Siem Reap along with one other place.

Having been to many of the places I want to visit in Asia, I am now starting to repeat a few countries (which I never used to do) in order to show my wife around some of these great places and Angkor was one area I wanted to show her. On the back of a seven hour bus journey the day before and a long cycle ride from our hotel in Siem Reap she may not have been too keen at first though!

We didn’t get on the road till 10:45 am and, having got our passes ($40 for a three day pass not that we would be using it beyond two days!), we arrived at Angkor Wat about an hour later. This is the world’s largest religious building and the first stop for many visitors not only due to it’s fame but also because of it’s location.

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Cambodia 2015 Pt I: Killing Fields & Tuol Sleng Museum

Posted on August 11, 2015 by tokyofox

After an absence of 8.5 years I finally returned to Cambodia with my wife in tow and first up on our itinerary was Choeung Ek a.k.a. the Killing Fields. Ideally, not the greatest way to spend my birthday but as this was to be our only full day in Phnom Penh, there wasn’t much choice.

One of my only regrets from spending so little time in the capital city all those years ago  was that I never got to go to this grim place where such monstrosities took place in the late 1970’s under the Pol Pot regime.

Warning: Some readers may find some of these pictures and stories disturbing. 

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30 Years On And Not Much Has Changed!

Posted on August 8, 2015 by tokyofox

It was exactly three decades ago on August 8th, 1985 that I bought my first ever Leicester City replica shirt for the sale price of £5 from a local sports shop. The shirt had already become obsolete at that point but that kind of thing didn’t register then and besides I bought the new home shirt for double the price only a few days later.

30 years on I tried to take a similar photo of myself at the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre, albeit one with a slight Japanese twist. The price of cakes is very high here plus it’s a bit sad to buy yourself a birthday cake so that has been replaced by a bowl of (much cheaper!) udon noodles known as kitsune which just happens to also mean fox!

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