Hokkaido Pt IV: Lake Toya

Posted on July 9, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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Hokkaido Pt III: Mt Tarumae

Posted on July 6, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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Hokkaido Pt II: Lavender Farm

Posted on July 3, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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Hokkaido Pt I: Mt Meakan

Posted on July 1, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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My Leicester City Memorabilia

Posted on June 30, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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TF Flashback: An Epic One-Day Trip To Izu Peninsula

Posted on June 27, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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Japan: Earth’s Enchanted Islands

Posted on June 24, 2015 by tokyofox

There have been plenty of TV programmes about Japan over the years but they only really ever focus on Tokyo and Kyoto so it was refreshing that this three-part BBC documentary series exemplified that there is plenty of life beyond those two particular cities.

In the land of noisy, dumbed down terebi it was so nice to see Continue reading →

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South Korea Pt III: Exercise, Games & Activities In Seoul

Posted on June 20, 2015 by tokyofox

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 →

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Avengers Age Of Ultron Filming Locations In Seoul

Posted on June 17, 2015 by tokyofox

Over the years Seoul has lived very much in the shadows of neighbouring places like Tokyo and Hong Kong when it comes to Asian locations being featured in western movie productions. This time though, Marvel Studios agreed to portray South Korea as a high-tech, modern country during its 15 minutes of air-time. Mind you, it did cost the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism nearly £2.5m for it to be shot there on the condition that it showed the city in a positive light. Continue reading →

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South Korea Pt II: Dining Out & Other Such Cultural Stuff

Posted on June 14, 2015 by tokyofox

Our first taste of Korean food came in the wake of our trip to the War Memorial Of Korea museum. From there we took the train the short distance to ‘Meat-ing’ in the university area of Hongdae to go out for a yaki-niku (grilled meat) meal that would please everyone. With no-one able to speak the local language this was a reasonable choice as signs were in English and some of the staff could speak it. The choice of meats, vegetables and so on was varied enough in my opinion and we were all very happy with it though I get the feeling some locals may look down on such a place for its cheap and cheerful style. Continue reading →

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