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
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
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
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
Once I’d visited Sapporo Dome for the first time back in 2015, my sights were then set on the next most appealing Japanese stadium that was used in the FIFA World Cup of 2002. Nine years later and that dream was finally realised but was the match I saw live fitting of the occasion and my presence?!
It was 22 years ago that Japan and Korea co-hosted the biggest football tournament on earth. As much as I got into that World Cup, I have to admit that I wasn’t really aware of this particular stadium in Continue reading
Replacing band members like guitarists, bassists or drummers is quite common in the music business and can often be done with minimal fuss and disruption to their look and sound. However, switching the lead singer is a different thing all together. Very few bands have continued after the frontman or woman exits the band for whatever reason whether it be illness, death, scandal or musical differences.
Four years ago, Tom Meighan departed Kasabian as a charge of assault against him was imminent. The band wanted to protect their image and so he was gone. Replacing Tom was a possibility but eventually it was decided that Continue reading
If someone told me they’d eaten ramen in the morning I’d perhaps naturally assume it was either an early lunch or a late night out. A 24 hour ramen restaurant though opens up all kind of possibilities, and given the ridiculously cheap price of this one, it would be insane to turn down the chance of having this noodle dish for breakfast!
On the back of a night in Tosu (Saga Prefecture), I made an early start the next morning and headed north to Fukuoka arriving just after Continue reading
For the first half of my life living in the UK, tennis was something that happened for two weeks a year when Wimbledon came around each summer. There was the occasional foray into other random tournaments thanks to Transworld Sport on Channel 4 early on weekend mornings in the early 90s but basically Wimbledon equalled tennis for me.
When I moved to Australia, and then Japan, other tournaments came more on my radar, particularly the other three Grand Slams. No doubt this was all helped by Andy Murray, the G.O.A.T. of British tennis, who was as successful as could be in an era featuring Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Nowadays I follow the sport pretty much all year round (it really is a long season!) and take up pretty much any chance to watch it live when it’s on in Tokyo. Earlier this year I saw Continue reading
Three of the Star Wars saga films were shot in Tunisia, and by the time I went on this movie pilgrimmage it had been eight years since filming last took place in the country for Episode II which came out a year later in 2002. It may surprise many that to visit these filming locations was actually very difficult when I went there in the late 2000s. The political unrest in the country certainly didn’t help in the intervening years but for a long time after that there were no special Star Wars package tours * and very, very few Tunisians had even heard of, let alone seen the sci-fi saga.
The wheels for this trip of a lifetime were set in motion earlier that summer when I Continue reading
The word overtourism has been used a lot in the Japanese media this year with Kyoto always the city which seems to be the most affected. People taking advantage of the weak yen and coming to Japan for their first visit are likely to hit the major sights though so when my wife suggested going there in August I really wasn’t so enthused.
However, this was for a family visit to see her brother’s family so would probably be a bit different. Admittedly, I was curious to see how crowded some of the busier tourist spots were but not enough to actually bothering with them, particularly in the tense August heat. Instead, we Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 