Coming off the back of a lengthy round-the-world backpacking trip, the 2002 World Cup Finals happened at a great time for me as I was free to watch pretty much every moment of the tournament and it made such an impression on me that I even moved to Japan. During that World Cup, England played their five games at the following:
* Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama (52,721): 1-1 vs Sweden (2 June 2002)
* Sapporo Dome, Sapporo (35,927): 1-0 vs Argentina (7 June 2002) Continue reading
Prior to our arrival in the area of Lake Toya neither Ethan or I were unaware of the volcanic lava-dome that is Shouwa-shinzan until we drove by it with a look of bewilderment on our faces. Intrigued by it we set off the next day to see it up close and then climb Mount Usu but having spent longer than expected looking around the remnants of the 2000 disaster we were short on time so had no real option but to take the Usuzan Ropeway up to the crater rim walk. Continue reading
Having been unable to get any accommodation on our first night in Hokkaido we learned our lesson from thereon (not that either of us particularly minded spending a night or two in the car!) and booked a place to stay a night in advance each time. To mix up things a bit we decided to stay at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Toya-ko following our ascend of Mount Tarumae. Continue reading
Prior to this trip to Hokkaido I was told time and time again that the end of June was the best time to visit and that there is no rainy season there. That may be true but it certainly doesn’t mean that there is no rain! Far from it, as it rained on pretty much every day of our trip to Japan’s most northerly main island!
The rain was fairly relentless as we spent a few hours at Shikotsu-Toya National Park climbing Mount Tarumae and it didn’t take us too long at all to have some wonderful views looking back over the Lake Shikotsu with the mountains in the background. Continue reading
A short while after booking this trip to Hokkaido, Ethan and I realised that collectively we knew very little about the island but one thing that I did know about however was the seasonal Lavender Farm. I was quite surprised to discover that the usual blooming season would coincide with our trip and so our plan was to head off there straight away once we’d picked up the rental car in Chitose near the airport. However, the recent weather meant that this season was to be a late one! Continue reading
Less than a month since I last saw him and I was again with Ethan for a road-trip around Hokkaido; Japan’s most northerly main island. It was my first time to visit Hokkaido and after meeting up at New Chitose Airport early afternoon we were soon in our rental car driving east with a boot full of bottled water supplies towards our destination of Obihiro. With no accommodation booked for the whole trip we were just thinking that we could roll up wherever we like and get some kind of room! Wrong! We tried about seven or eight hotels and all of them said there was no room at the inn! Continue reading
One of the presents I got last Christmas was ‘Got Not Got! The Lost World of Leicester City‘ which is co-written by Gary Silke who is the editor of ‘The Fox‘; the long running City fanzine that’s been going for 27 years! This excellent book is crammed full of pictures and stuff from a time before Sky Sports and modern-day football when things were more simple. I was so impressed that I fairly quickly purchased the Norwich City version for my dad for his birthday. Continue reading
The Izu Hantō Peninsula is an area possessing some splendid coastlines, beaches, mountains which is home to larger cities such as Atami; famed for it’s many hot spring baths and less so for the “Adult” museum which I visited back in March 2010.
Back on the 12th of August in 2004 I went on a day trip of sorts to the Izu Hantō Peninsula which was a very exhaustive 100km+ drive southwest of Tokyo in Shizuoka Prefecture. Setting off from Minami-Urawa station in Saitama just after 1am, my girlfriend of the time and I arrived shortly after 7am at the port harbour. Continue reading
This mini-break (three days, two nights) was not really about experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of Seoul this time. Sure, we did that a bit by sampling local food a few times and visiting the Memorial of Korea museum but generally this trip was just about hanging out with Ethan, Kaori and particularly their daughter Kaylee who I really enjoyed messing about with. Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 