Watching My Baseball Team At Home For The First Time In 9 Years!

Back in 2015 I made the momentous decision to switch my baseball allegiance from Chiba Lotte Marines to Hiroshima Carp. Off the back of a trip with my wife’s parents to watch Carp in action it seemed like the right thing to do and would give me something to talk to my father-in-law about. Given that I don’t really care too much about Japan’s most popular sport though, it really wasn’t such a big deal!

Having had a look around some of the city centre in the afternoon on the day of the game, I decided to take a bus the relatively short distance east to the rather ridiculously-named Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium. Big mistake! Continue reading

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Review: Films Set In Japan – Touch (2024)

Many people have no doubt often wondered what might have been when reflecting on past lovers or near-romances. They can sometimes linger for a lifetime resulting in feelings of profound regret. There are some people though that take such matters into their own hands and vow to get some closure before it’s too late. One of those people is 75-year-old Icelandic man Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson), the main character in this moving romantic mystery set across decades, history and cultures.

Kristófer is suffering from the onset of dementia during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. His doctor advises him to deal with any unfinished business before it’s too late. He was probably talking about bills, taxes and making a will but instead Kristófer wastes no time and decides to track down his ex-Japanese girlfriend Miko (Kôki) who suddenly Continue reading

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Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #18 – Screen

Think of train stations in Japan and the mighty Shinjuku station is sure to come to mind for many people. That is the world’s busiest train station, and Japan monopolises the top 50 list with only five of them not in this country. However, at the other end of the scale are some tiny stations which are usually unstaffed and used by very few commuters.

Station: Screen

Prefecture: Continue reading

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Modern Architecture Outside of Tokyo #7 – Aichi, Gifu & Shiga

 

For over a decade Tokyo Fox has focused on the modern architecture of Tokyo with a long-running ten part series featuring over 100 interesting-looking buildings. During that time I have also taken photos of some unique structures outside of the capital city but had no place to showcase them until now. This is Volume 7 Continue reading

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#WeStopAtNothing! Visiting All The Platform Zero Stations In Kyoto & Aichi

There’s something slightly mystical and Harry Potter-like about a platform 0 and one has to wonder why some stations have them whether it be because it’s been added on that particular side of platform 1 or just because they began their numbering from zero! I’m not sure if I’ll ever visit all of them but certainly hope to tick a few more off as the years go by! The challenge continues with a couple of stations I’ve frequented a few times before but unfortunately those visits were before I was even aware of the platform 0 phenomenon!

1. Continue reading

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TF Flashback: The Pain & Ecstasy of Spending A Week In Tunisia (2009)

On the back of doing a 6-month part time teaching course alongside my full time job at the start of 2009 I decided to treat myself to a long-awaited trip to Tunisia which had been my dream ticket for a long time. I had enquired about flights before but they were always too expensive but on this occasion I decided to just bite the bullet and splash the cash.

Having done multiple overseas trips in the preceding years, this was my one and only foreign vacation in 2009 and it cost a whopping Continue reading

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A Trio of Buddha Statues Hugely Impressive In Size & Wonder In The Same Region of Japan

This region of Japan helped contribute a couple of awesome buddha statues to my ‘top 10 alternative big Buddha statues in Japan‘ compilation post in 2020 but little did I know there was another huge one not too far away.

All three of these unique and impressive Buddha statues are located within 40 kilometres and are well connected by trains in Continue reading

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A Seven-Goal Thriller Is The Reward For One Of My Longest Ever Matchdays!! (+ My 1st Ever Tokyo Derby Experience!)

As a football fan living in Tokyo the idea of going to some of the more far-flung Japanese stadiums is very difficult to justify in terms of time and cost. However, knowing that I’d be based in Hiroshima for the August Obon holiday opened up options to venture over to a neighbouring prefecture for a J2 league match combined with a local sight or two. The choice was either Fagiano Okayama FC to the east or Renofa Yamaguchi to the west.

Neither were particularly close and would each take around Continue reading

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Interesting Japanese Playground Structures #45 – Dinosaur Slides

Many of the parks and children’s playgrounds in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, are quite poor compared to other countries in terms of space, surroundings and a lack of grass. However, a handful of them do tend to possess extremely creative structures and they will be explored in this series.

Nickname: Dinosaur Park (Kyoryu Hiroba)

Location: Continue reading

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TF Top 10……Football Match Day Experiences In 2024 So Far (Part 2)

 

In 2023 I went to 20 football matches in Japan and I’ve already matched that with less than two thirds of 2024 gone. I guess 30 is now the aim for this year so there will be a part 3 in a few months time. This second compilation features a total of eight different grounds in six prefectures including five I’d Continue reading

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