Rugby Fans Should “Try” & Visit This Themed Shrine In Kyoto!

Posted on November 22, 2024 by tokyofox

It’s been an incredible rise in fortunes for the Japanese men’s national rugby team over the last decade or so with the pinnacle being at the World Cup they hosted five years ago.  However, the last few years have seen the Brave Blossoms struggle to progress or even maintain those spectacular heights of 2019. Given their recent form they could do with some extra help, and this shrine may offer the answer!

Shrines dedicated to sport are nothing too new in Japan as a baseball one can be found in Saitama, a generic sport one lies in Koto-ku (Tokyo) and there is also a rugby one in Continue reading →

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USA Is Actually Closer To Tokyo Than You May Think!

Posted on November 18, 2024 by tokyofox

The closest mainland American city to Tokyo is Los Angeles at just under 9000 kilometres away but USA is actually much closer to Tokyo than you may think! In fact it is ten times closer to the Japanese capital city than L.A. but how is that so?

Japan’s most southern main island of Kyushu lies around 950 kilometres south-west of Tokyo with the closest prefecture being Oita in the north-east. It possesses a town with the most American of names. This is no American-style themed park though and neither is it anything like Johnson Town in Saitama!

Ever since hearing about Continue reading →

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I Had An Ice Day Watching This Winter Olympic Sport For The 1st Time In Tokyo

Posted on November 14, 2024 by tokyofox

Having attended many summer olympic sports I thought it was time to turn my attention to some winter action but it was actually my lack of attention which nearly resulted in missing this figure skating event!

Only a few days before this NHK Trophy tournament did I even remember it was on and that I had a ticket as it’s not exactly a sport I follow in any way! I purchased the ticket about half a year ago and then forgot all about it. When I found it, I was a bit taken aback by how much I had paid for it all those months ago!! With all the extra fees charged, it cost nearly Continue reading →

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The Traditional Japanese Hybrid Sport You Didn’t Know About!

Posted on November 10, 2024 by tokyofox

There is an ever growing number of hybrid sports out there such as chess-boxing, cycle ball, foot golf, pickleball and slamball. Some of them sound pretty cool and interesting whilst others just seem totally bizarre and ridiculous. As for a combination of horse riding and archery, that surely can’t be real can it?

Surely such a sport is just the work of fiction!

Well actually it is, and it has a long history dating back to 10th century Japan before becoming more established and famous in the Kamakura Period (1192-1334). Whether Continue reading →

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TF Top 5……Public Toilet Designs In Tokyo #3 (Urine For A Treat!)

Posted on November 6, 2024 by tokyofox

To celebrate the unofficial toilet day on November 10th in Japan I have decided to deposit a third compilation of interesting public lavatories in Tokyo. The Tokyo Fox site sure is plumbing to low depths but hopefully you will be bowel-ed over and end up thinking it’s an excrement idea!

Japan is such a backwards country at times when it comes to many things but if they put just half as much effort into those things as they do in coming up with toilet ideas then it really might help move the country more into the 21st century. Most of the toilets included here are of the modern variety which have become more common place in the Shibuya ward area in recent years.

To get to the bottom of the matter, Continue reading →

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The Highs & Lows of This Year’s International Tennis Tournament In Tokyo

Posted on November 2, 2024 by tokyofox

The sports stadium or arena in Japan that I’ve visited most frequently is not actually Hitachi-dai (the home of my Japanese football team Kashiwa Reysol)! Neither is it Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka; the closest stadium to the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre. It’s also not Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground which hosts many top tier rugby matches. Instead it is the home of tennis in Tokyo.

The terribly-named Ariake Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: A Mouthwatering Food Tour of Singapore (2014)

Posted on October 29, 2024 by tokyofox

The late Anthony Bourdain’s food based TV shows really helped me to be a lot more daring when diving into international cuisine and I subsequently gained a much greater appreciation for food-related travel. Going to this particular place soon became far more appetising than it had ever done in the years before when I travelled around much of Asia without much thought for visiting the city-state-island-country of Singapore.

A night flight was immediately followed by a taxi to Continue reading →

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I Met Britain’s No. 1 Female Tennis Player In Tokyo (& I Was On The TV Coverage A Fair Bit Too!)

Posted on October 25, 2024 by tokyofox

Whilst the 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu has taken a lot of the limelight in recent years when it comes to British women’s tennis, there is actually another female player who has been steadily rising through the ranks over the last decade to become Britain’s number one. Perhaps more importantly she is from the same city as me and is a fan of it’s football team!

My 1st selfie with Britain’s No. 1 female tennis player! Can you recognise her?!!

Around ten years ago I began to hear the name of Continue reading →

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Time To Taco ‘Bout This Year’s Mexican Festival In Tokyo……& A Few Other Recent Ones!

Posted on October 22, 2024 by tokyofox

After an absence from any festivals in Tokyo for over a decade, things changed this year as my wife and I thought it’d be a good idea to combine our regular long Sunday morning dog walks with trips to some of these events. For a six month period between March and September we went to five weekend festivals celebrating the cultures of countries from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.

Fiesta Mexicana @ Odaiba, Koto-ku; Sunday 15th September.

The smallest of the five festivals was probably the Mexican one but that is what will be the main focus of this post. On a boiling hot mid-September day we Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations Of Japan #18 – Takio

Posted on October 18, 2024 by tokyofox

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: Takio

Prefecture: Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments