Star Wars Fan Museum In Tokyo

Posted on April 1, 2013 by tokyofox

I recently came across this little-known Star Wars fan museum in Tokyo which is a small, but sizeable exhibition belonging to a collector. Among the exhibits on display are a wide range of figures, a lightsaber, toys, masks, trainers, t-shirts, pens, magnets, collectibles, framed pictures, DVD’s, books, magazines and so on.

There were also some much sought-after Japan exclusives like the traditional Japanese hand print tenegui (thin hand towel made of cotton), Japanese chirashi movie posters/flyers, an R2D2 Mount Fuji poster, lightsaber chopsticks and ‘Star Wars Celebration Japan‘ items, some of which can be seen in the photo below.

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The photo above shows the section focusing on some other Japanese memorabilia such as the local releases of the 1980’s cartoon shows ‘Ewoks‘, ‘Droids‘ as well as the original ‘Clone Wars‘ series. One other notable exhibit is a programme for the ‘George Lucas’ Super Live Adventure’ which was some rare 1993 show blending the likes of Indiana Jones, Willow, Tucker, American Graffiti and of course Star Wars into one performance of something or another.

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Amongst the other stuff is the Vader collection, Star Wars shooting locations books (above) and magnets (below) and a replica of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber (or is technically Anakin Skywalker’s as Obi-Wan gave it to Luke in ‘A New Hope‘ (1977) which you can have a quick play with.

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Posted in Quirky Japan, Star Wars | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Shanghai Filming Locations: Empire Of The Sun (1987)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by tokyofox

Once I’d booked the trip to Shanghai a couple of months back I started to take a much closer look at movies filmed in Shanghai and was quite surprised to find that very few films were actually shot in the Chinese city. One that was though was Steven Speilberg’s 1987 epic ‘Empire Of The Sun‘ which featured Christian Bale a long, long time before he became the Dark Knight of Gotham City in the Batman flicks.

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The early scenes of the movie were shot in Shanghai with a brief glimpse across the Huangpu River of the famous Peace Hotel next to the Bank of China building appearing two minutes into the film to the tune of the boys choir. This hotel was once the most luxurious hotel in the Far East and its lobby is supposedly still a great example of Art Deco interior. It stands on the Bund at 20 Nanjing Donglu and made an impression on me for its pyramid roof as well as old-style look which is a great reminder of Shanghai’s past.

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Seconds later, as the sound of the choir continues, we see St. Ignatius Cathedral (also referred to as Xujiahui Cathedral) on Puxi Road in Xujiahui in the Xuhui District. This is where viewers first see a very youthful Christian Bale hitting the high notes as Jamie “Jim” Graham who is a young boy living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai. I wanted to visit this church but a mixture of being short on time and being unable to access the internet meant I was sadly unable to get the match-up photos I craved. For the record the nearest station is Xujiahui Metro station on Lines 1 and 8 and as I’m researching this after my trip I now realise how close I actually went to this area of the city! Oh well…

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The colonial home of Jim and his family was actually filmed in the city’s English settlement with the interiors shot back in Britain in a bungalow at Sunningdale in Berkshire. The family are on their way to a fancy dress party 10 minutes into the film where the enormous crowd scenes of mass tension and unrest on the Bund were somehow coordinated by Speilberg. The former Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (which I never knew until this trip was the acronym HSBC despite banking with them for most of my life!) building features prominently and today holds the Pudong Development Bank and some offices.

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The view across the river with the Oriental Pearl Tower in the background (above) doesn’t feature in the film but shows the view in the opposite direction.

The bridge seen on 12 minutes is the Waibaidu Bridge (Garden Bridge) which is adjacent to the Bund and connects the Huangpu and Hongkou districts. The present bridge (below) opened on 20th January in 1908 and was just round the corner from our hotel.

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Jim later signals to the Japanese Zero aircrafts flying above and some 25 years later the shot is pretty much identical which is always a delight for movie location geeks like myself. The building on the right is the aforementioned Peace Hotel and the one on the left is the Peace Palace Hotel which is also commonly known as the Peace Hotel South. Its location is 23 Nanjing Donglu (Nanjing Road).

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The rest of the film was made in Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, Knutsford in Cheshire and Trebujena in Cadiz, Andalucia (Spain) was the setting of the prison camp set.

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Shanghai Filming Locations: Mission Impossible III (2006)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by tokyofox

The third instalment in the ‘Mission: Impossible‘ film series takes place in Germany, Italy, The USA and of course China where scenes were filmed in Shanghai and Xitang. The latter is a beautiful sight in itself and one worthy of a visit to anyone who happens to be  in or near Shanghai.

Following his rogue actions at the Vatican, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is captured by the IMF and interrogated but fellow agent Musgrave discreetly mouths instructions for Hunt to lip-read about Shanghai where a mysterious object called the Rabbit’s Foot is located, and provides him with the means to escape. There are brief scenes of the beautiful Pudong New Area landmarks including the Oriental Pearl Tower around 83 minutes with Hunt running and jumping off the an 88-story Jinmao Tower three minutes later. Like a lot of Shanghai this area looks so much better when its neon-lit which means that my photo taken on a pretty grey and bleak looking afternoon doesn’t really do it justice.

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The Bund is briefly seen in all its night time glory 93 minutes in and yet again the difference in the day and night appearance of the area can be seen in the screenshot and real shot below.

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After Musgrave is revealed to be the mole having arranged for Davian to acquire the Rabbit’s Foot to sell to terrorist groups he dials his phone for Ethan to hear his fiancée Julia’s voice. Ethan bites on Musgrave’s hand and beats him up, stealing the phone in the process to track the location of that call with the help of IMF technician Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) which happens to be in Xitang not that its name is mentioned.

This small ancient Chinese town first appears on 104 minutes and getting to this scenic town in Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province proved to be one hell of a struggle as I had no idea of how to get there. I started off at Shanghai Train Station but after a couple of enquiries there I was told to go to Shanghai South Railway Station. I headed for the long distance buses station not that I had any idea how far away Xitang really was. I was quite surprised to find out that it was only one bus journey away although the first lady on the information desk said it was two hours away and the next one wasn’t until 14.17 (which was well over an hour away). After much thought and deliberation I went back and asked a different lady who said it was 90 minutes away so I thought I’d take the risk without even knowing if I’d ever get back that evening. In the end I was delighted that it only took one hour to get there.

The next problem was knowing where the river town was and how to get to it. First I played safe and booked my ticket back to Shanghai which was at 5.28 pm meaning only two hours to do it all. I then took a cycle rickshaw paying a ridiculous 40 yuan to the driver for what was a five minute journey! Still, it was only about £4 so no real loss and it was a fun way of getting there as once he’d parked the bike he guided us through a narrow maze of alleys which ultimately led to the town.

First impressions made it all worthwhile and I was so relieved to have made it as this was one of the things I most wanted to do whilst on this trip to China. There are a few poster boards dotted around the place letting visitors know that ‘Mission: Impossible III‘ was filmed there but as they were only in Chinese I couldn’t read them. In retrospect they may have been placed at points where they filmed but I certainly can’t verify that.

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The screenshots below show Hunt’s first panoramic view of Xitang from a rooftop so I obviously couldn’t replicate that. My photos beneath the screen grabs show the bridge he first runs over from a different angle.

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With the guidance of Benji via mobile phone, Hunt runs the length of the river before taking a short right turn where he goes past the parked boats seen from slightly different angles in the screen grab and my photo below.

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Another left turn takes him up a few steps (below) passing through the white building and out the other side via steps down.

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Having found Davian in Xitang, Hunt kills him, frees Julia and is electrocuted in order to deactivate an explosive for some reason or other. Of course, he is revived and as the film draws to a close on 116 minutes Xitang appears again as Hunt explains his true IMF career to Julia as they walk around. As my time was limited I sadly didn’t have as long as I would have liked to really look around and get the exact match-ups of the screenshots featured in this post.

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Below are a few more photos of Xitang which were not seen in ‘Mission: Impossible III‘ but are worthy of inclusion in this post as they show how, even on a wet and rainy day, that the place is still an awesome sight.

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How to get to Xitang: Take a bus from Shanghai South Railway Station. It takes about one hour if traffic isn’t bad. Account for another 30-60 minutes journey time if the roads are busy. Once you exit the Xitang bus station you should see a load of cycle rickshaws like in the picture below and at the bottom of that same picture you should be able to look left and see the arch in the distance seen in the other photo below.

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Click here to read ‘London Filming Locations: ‘Mission: Impossible’ (1996)’ 

Click here to read ‘Prague Filming Locations: ‘Mission: Impossible’ (1996)’

Click here to read ‘Australia 2012: Mission Impossible 2 Filming Locations’

Click here to read ‘Shanghai 2013: Mission Impossible III Filming Locations’

Click here to read ‘Italia 2009: Mission Impossible III Filming Locations’

Posted in Asia Travel, Movie Locations | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Shanghai 2013 Pt II: Eating And Sightseeing

Posted on March 24, 2013 by tokyofox

Shanghai is said to be home to the best and most authentic xialongbao (dumplings) and the number one place to sample such a delicacy has to be Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant in the Yuyuan Bazaar area which has been around for about 100 years and almost constantly has massive long queues outside. A mix of out-of-town Chinese tourists make up the majority of the lines with a fair few foreigners in line too.

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A year ago I would never ever have queued up for an hour to get some food but my tastes have become far more appreciative of good food since then. Accept poor imitations at your peril as this is the best and was brought to my attention by Anthony Bourdain in his ‘No Reservations‘ TV series which I watched a lot of last year.

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The steamed buns are famous for the special gravy-type taste of the first bite and is a superb mix of pork stuffing, soup and thin dumpling skin. It has to be said, they were absolutely delicious and to quote Bourdain himself you really will have a hard time finding a more perfectly constructed food item. Next up was the steamed bun with crab roe soup stuffing which is incredibly hot and has to be consumed through a straw. This was also awesome and way better than I thought it may be. A shame it had to to all be eaten outside but it was just so chaotic inside. Still, at least they were consumed amid fine views of the Mid-Lake Pavillion Teahouse.

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This Shanghai institution was actually found by accident having given up on finding it only 30 minutes prior to locating it. Having just had lunch at a very, very local place on a back lane nearby where a funny but pushy lady persuaded us to sit down and eat even though neither of us could communicate with the other at all! We had some pork, tea eggs (eggs soaked in soy sauce) and noodles at a dirt cheap price and glad of the experience I was!

French Concession was up next and a place I went to without knowing too much about it. I still don’t to be honest! It seems to be a big wide tree-lined street with a host of restaurants and shops. The area is supposedly given its name for the tudor mansions and French-influenced architecture. I can’t say I was too bothered by it all although the former Russian Orthodox St Nicholas Church (below) was quite impressive.

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Seeing a C&A department store (above)was a nostalgic reminder of my youth. The Shanghai Metro was cheap, efficient and easy to use and truly lived up to the stereotype of people pushing to get on the train as soon as the doors opened and before others were allowed to even get off! There is also a scan machine for bags at all stations as can be seen in the picture below left. People’s Square was the next destination via metro but the rain, which had been prevalent all day, started to get harder. The cherry blossoms in the park there were rather nice with the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center looming above in the near distance.

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Nanjing Road East rounded off the evening as it did indeed on all three of my nights in the city. This was another long shopping street with bright neon lights everywhere and an example of how modern parts of the city are in contrast to the more run down parts. I dined out on the same street most of the nights and after unwrapping all the plates and cups (which is something I’ve only ever seen in Shanghai. Very hygienic indeed!) each time I had my regular holiday fix of beer and dumplings along with a few other dishes.

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Posted in Asia Travel, Food & Drink, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Shanghai 2013 Pt I: Meeting Up With My Mate Michael

Posted on March 22, 2013 by tokyofox

It may be one of the shortest, easiest places to fly to from Tokyo but I had never visited Shanghai until this last weekend when I spent three nights across the pond in China’s most modern city. I don’t really count Hong Kong as proper China so Beijing in October 2007 is the only other time I’ve been to the worlds fastest growing economy. Memories of that trip seemed very distant as I arrived back in the city where I did a transit all those years ago. This time though I was all set to actually leave the airport!

I stayed at Piaoying Bund Hotel Shanghai in the Hong Kou District and was immediately impressed with what I got for the cheap price paid. However, the view was almost laughable, and while some people wouldn’t have been impressed, I was very content as the huge mud area outside the window (below) meant very little noise. I subsequently slept in on my first morning till quite late which probably wasn’t such a good thing.

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Before that though I saw a pretty grey and bleak looking (cloudy? polluted?!) skyline as you can see in the picture below which was taken close to my hotel. I went to meet up with my Canadian friend Michael who I did the TESOL course with back in 2009. I had no idea how to cross the river to get to Lujiazui so after seeing there was a ‘Bund sightseeing tunnel’ I went for that option thinking it was probably just a free tunnel to walk along with some exhibits on the walls along the way.

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I was wrong as it was a cheesy train ride amid a load of flashing lights (above) and vague-related themes. It cost me 50 yuan but actually did save time in meeting Michael who has been living and working in Shanghai for just over a year now. He pointed out the Jinmao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center (I didn’t know which was which beforehand) and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which is a symbol of Shanghai’s skyline. After that we went to eat.

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I had thought we would just be eating some night market food whilst sitting around on some cheap plastic stools but instead we ended up dining out at a restaurant called ‘South Memory‘ (Hunanese food) which had some very impressive views of the Bund skyline which sure is a sight to behold once its dark.

Whilst the service was nowhere near as good as in Japan (very few places are!) it was sufficient enough and the dishes kept on coming throughout the evening even if Michael did have to keep reminding the staff to bring our beers to the table! Over the night we tried all manner of weird and wonderful dishes which were expensive by Chinese standards but still very reasonable when compared to Japanese prices and the total cost was way cheaper than an average night out.

Some of the dishes we sampled were river-fish head with peppers & noodles (below), mabo dofu, duck tongue, a chicken dish, stinky tofu (a Hunanese delicacy), very spicy eggplant, pigs fingers, mushroom salad, egg plant and red peppers and some other stuff which I can’t remember!

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Dining out with each other certainly wasn’t anything new to us as we had previously been to some restaurants in Tokyo most notably the eating locations in ‘Lost In Translation‘ (2003) and ‘Kill Bill‘ (2004). We had a great night catching up and reminiscing about our past trips the aforementioned restaurants as well as day trips to Enoshima, Sarushima and the cycling the Yamanote Line and A-Z station ventures of 2009-2010.

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We had a quick walk along the river after dinner enjoying the fine views as well as a McDonalds kiosk-sized place which was a new thing for me. Sadly we couldn’t meet again as had hoped due to the lack of internet and wi-fi possibilities for me in a country where my usual means of communication are all blocked.

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Review: Films Set In Japan – Tokyo Raiders (2000)

Posted on March 20, 2013 by tokyofox

If you were to ask me who my favourite Chinese actor is then I’d probably have to say Tony Leung. Don’t read too much into that though as its only because he has appeared in nearly all of the (very small amount of) Chinese films I’ve seen such as ‘Chungking Express‘ (1994) and ‘Infernal Affairs‘ (2002) as well as this film which is famed for being the last film ever released on LaserDisc in Japan.

Anyway, its time to take a little detour from the usual western productions ‘set’ in Japan which are predominantly covered in this category. Running out of films to review? Nope, just padding the series out a bit!! The film starts, as it continues throughout, with some fun, fast paced action in Shinjuku outside the Tokyo Milano building where a fairly ridiculous action scene with Leung using his umbrella to fight off a gang uses up nearly nine minutes.

The film then flicks to Las Vegas where Macy (Kelly Chen) is jilted at the altar on her wedding day by her fiancé Ken and so she journeys to Hong Kong to find him. However, she only meets interior designer Yung (Ekin Cheng) who decorated their apartment (and who also happens to be pretty good at kung fu too!) and is wanting his payment. Together they head to Tokyo to track down the guy but they aren’t the only ones!

They soon discover that Ken had many underworld connections and that some very bad men are after him and they want to use her in order to help find him. For some reason, private investigator Lin (Leung) and a bevy of Asian beauties are on hand to help them as everything converges in Tokyo (and Yokohama) amid endless contrived fight scenes with acrobatics.

The slow motion and rotating camera work is all very much in the mould of your typical John Woo movie and I can’t say that these editing techniques are really my thing. This is all accompanied by some frenzied Spanish sounding latino music which I also wasn’t such a fan of as I didn’t feel it really suited the action on screen.

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This film features Hiroshi Abe who is a rarity for me, a Japanese actor that I actually know and recognise having seen him star ‘Thermae Romane‘; a Japanese time travelling film which I saw on a plane sometime last year. All I can say is that his acting has sure got better over the last decade! In this film his gang boss character Takeshi Ito tries to be intimidating but ends up coming over as a nervous, foolish person with a bad cold! He wasn’t the only one I didn’t take to as I felt the main man himself Tony Leung (my favourite Chinese actor remember!) came up short and was maybe not as smooth and charismatic as one would hope for such a role.

A sequel called ‘Seoul Raiders‘ followed five years later which could have paved the way for a ‘…Raiders‘ movie to be made in a load of other Asian (or even world) cities but thankfully that never happened. For the 99p I paid for it I think I got value for money!

Tokyo Fox Rating 5/10

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Tokyo Daytripper: Jougan-ji a.k.a. The ‘Lost In Translation’ Temple

Posted on March 16, 2013 by tokyofox

When I first compiled the filming locations for ‘Lost In Translation‘ (2003) four years ago (and subsequently updated them in 2011) there was already much written about the Park Hyatt Hotel, Shibuya crossing and the karaoke room which Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johanson) sang in. However, some of the other locations were pretty limited in detail such as the shabu shabu and sushi restaurants as well as the strip club scene place, the nightclub and the temple where Charlotte is seen walking around in the rain.

Jougan-ji is that very temple but as its not famous there’s still very little about it on the internet. It is actually quite a difficult place to find as its located on a highway (route 317)  just inside Nakano-ku bordering Shinjuku-ku. The temple gets a massive 38 seconds of screen time!

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The two screenshot match-ups above were taken four years apart and whilst my jacket is still the same old one there is a bit more hair on top now! As for the two match-ups below they were taken at the main hall which I’m sure you can enter but I tend not to go in such places as I don’t like to interfere with religion in any way!

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So thats the movie locations out of the way and now for the rest of the temple which is quite an interesting little place. The actual address is Honcho 2-26, Nakano-ku and the closest station is Nakano-Sakaue on the Marunouchi and Oedo lines. It’s a seven minute walk from there and once you pass a fairly big 100 yen shop you’re nearly there. It’s on the right hand-side if you’re coming from that station. The photos below show what its like from the outside coming from the other side.

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Once you’ve gone through the white arch there’s a big open area for parking and all around, the place is dotted with little statues and temple buildings. You can get a free pamphlet about the beginnings of Jougan-ji at the main temple and it even includes a whole page in perfect English featuring an interesting story from over 600 years ago.

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A cemetry can be found behind the view below which we first see in ‘Lost In Translation‘ after 11:58 minutes. Overall, its a nice place but not quite as tranquil and spiritual as in the film where the moment was further aided by the ‘Air‘ soundtrack.

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You can see the complete ‘Lost In Translation’ filming locations here.

Posted in Japan Filming Locations, Movie Locations, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Tokyo Daytripper: Tama Dobutsukoen Zoo

Posted on March 13, 2013 by tokyofox

Having been on my list of places to visit for about seven years I finally made it to Tama Dobutsukoen zoo last Sunday. I have to admit that I did make it to the entrance gates back in 2010 when my mate Hugo was in town but little did we know that the place was closed on Wednesdays! This time it was an incredible 25 degrees celsius in the early afternoon and the journey there on the Keio line was pretty amazing in that on looking out the window around the Fuchu area the Tokyo skyline was a yellowy-brown colour due to a freak sandstorm.

As its on the outskirts of Tokyo there is far more space at this zoo than the one in Ueno Park and the place is perhaps most famous for its lion bus ride which takes tourists into the heart of the lion garden where they roam freely. For 350 yen extra (on top of the 600 yen admission fee) its a very short ride lasting under ten minutes but with Kenya a long way away this is about as close to going ‘on safari’ as most visitors will ever get! It was pretty cool to see them up close particularly one lion which was licking the side of the bus which I assume was because they put some kind of meat on the sides of the bus.

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After that the list of animals we saw was pretty impressive and it was good to see most of them without too much fencing in the way. Usually they were on a kind of island with some moat surrounding them. African elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, chimpanzees, zebras, asian elephants, oranguatans, snow leaopards, buffalos and many many more were seen in the zoo which is divided into three zones; African, Australian and Asian.

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I may have spent a fair bit of my time in Australia over the years but I was still keen to see its two most iconic animals. The koalas are, according to news reports, a bit of a luxury at Tama Zoo as their dietary needs cost way more than all the other animals combined. However, with the Japanese loving all things cute and as koalas definitely fall into that category I guess the owners think it is money well spent. I’m not too sure though as they are in an inside area and are inevitably asleep most of the day anyway! Far more fun was seeing the kangaroos bouncing around the steps in their pen.

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Ever since ‘Kung Fu Panda‘ (2008) came out in cinemas a few years ago I have had a fondness for the Red Panda (I don’t like the name lesser panda) as I particularly liked the Master Shifu character. This was one of the last animals we saw as time was running against us and with it gone 4pm some of them were starting to disappear from show.

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Overall, the zoo is a huge place and one has to do a lot of walking if he or she is to get round most of the place but it’s rewarding enough and is probably worth the extra effort which it takes to get there compared to Ueno Zoo.

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Sandstorm In Tokyo And A Lot Of Kafunsho (Pollen)

Posted on March 10, 2013 by tokyofox

Almost two years to the day of the big earthquake there was a sandstorm in Tokyo earlier this afternoon which I witnessed first hand from the inside of the Keio line train around the Fuchu area of west Tokyo. With temperatures at a soaring 25 degrees celsius I was on my way to Tama Zoo and checking Facebook on my phone when friends pictures started to emerge online showing the skyline. I didn’t think too much until moments later I began to notice that the outside view was not that of its usual colours. I initially thought, in my not-looking-too-closely-state, that it was just a huge sandy coloured building when it suddenly dawned on me that we were experiencing a sandstorm which left me a bit shocked as I have never seen such a thing first hand. I felt like I was in a movie scene for I did not know what was going to happen next. This was certainly no Universal Studios type-tour and it reminded me of when young Anakin Skywalker took Padmé , Jar Jar Binks and Qui-Gon Jinn back to his home (below) in ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace‘ (1999) to seek refuge from the oncoming sandstorm.

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Whilst it may be a common sight on Tatooine a yellow-brown sky blurring visibility is not something you expect to see in a concrete jungle like Tokyo with no desert anywhere near. Thankfully by the time I reached my intended destination it had all erm pretty much blown over and normal life quickly resumed. Naturally the government denied that it was a sandstorm and maybe it technically wasn’t but as far as most locals are concerned it was. As I didn’t capture the moment on film myself I have nicked the photo above from my friend Misaki!

In other such wind-related news the pollen levels have been so bad this year that they actually went off the scale this weekend and were as high as all of last year which really is incredible. Although I suffered with hayfever as a child I had been fine for many years before suffering a little last year but this year has been horrible with constant sneezing and the frustration that comes with it as it seems like its never going to end.

Posted in Japan Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Fate Of Ahsoka

Posted on March 5, 2013 by tokyofox

The fifth (and final?) season of ‘Star Wars The Clone Wars‘ came to a dramatic and deeply moving conclusion last weekend when, after years and years of speculation, the fate of heroine Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) was finally known.

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Episode 20’s ‘The Wrong Jedi‘ brought about the end of a quadrilogy arc of episodes which saw Ahsoka framed for a list of murders and crimes she didn’t commit. To cut a long story short, she was Continue reading →

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