TF Film Review: Skyfall (2012)

Posted on December 1, 2012 by tokyofox

All good things come to those who wait is a very apt phrase given its been four years since ‘Quantum Of Solace‘ not to mention the extra 5 week wait for us movie fans in Japan. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the release of ‘Skyfall‘ which heightened by the fact that its also 50 years since the first Bond film, ‘Dr No‘ was released. That shouldn’t affect one’s judgement of this third film to star Daniel Craig in the secret agent role. However, I have to say that this isn’t just a great Bond film but it is indeed a fantastic film in itself.

First things first though, and one disappointment at the outset is that there is still no traditional gun barrel opener. The pre-titles Turkish scenes in Istanbul and Adana were thrilling and left me short of breath as the opening titles kicked in. Adele’s lovely theme tune is, unlike the last couple (which I do actually like), one where you can actually sing the title of the film.

I was pretty much spoiler free going into this film (albeit not quite to the extent of that of ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ back in the Summer) other than knowing that it had something to do with M’s past coming back to haunt her. Judi Dench’s character comes out from the background of past films to basically co-star alongside Daniel Craig. Together in this I think were both absolutely brilliant with the latter wrestling with both his emotions and his physical and psychological attributes which have served him so well.

Unlike ‘Quantum of Solace‘ the plot of ‘Skyfall‘ is actually understandable and very topical of modern times with its storyline but there are also a few other bits to keep us fans really happy such as the introduction (re-inroduction?) of Q, the backstory on Moneypenny, some of Bond’s family history and the return of the Aston Martin DB5 car (from 1964’s ‘Goldfinger’) which doesn’t make too much sense but it’s a nice nod to the past.

As ever there was a good range of locations taking in the aforementioned Turkey as well as China, England, Scotland and even Japan with Hashima in Nagasaki a.k.a. Gunkanjima (Battleship island) kind of being used as the ‘Dead City’ island retreat of antagonist Silva (Javier Bardem) although in the film it’s off the coast of Macau. The long shots are real but sadly this was all filmed on set at Pinewood Studios. Nevertheless, I’d still love to visit this island one day.

I really did love seeing the scenery from back home of London and the Scottish Highlands or maybe I’m just a misty-eyed Brit living abroad! It was also nice to see BBC News’ Huw Edwards as well as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer perform their cameo news anchor duties within the film.

The name Skyfall refers to Bonds family estate and childhood home in Scotland (filmed in reality in Surrey) where he retreats to with M leaving a trail behind so that Silva can find them and thus turn the tables as they had always been one step behind him up until then. Along with the innkeeper they then basically defend from within with limited resources akin to that of ‘The A-Team‘ or even ‘Home Alone‘! The ending took me by surprise and I was so thankful that I didn’t know what was going to happen beforehand. It is a long film but its 142 minute entirety thankfully passed me by with relative ease.

I’m now just relieved that I can finally read other reviews, listen to a backlog of 007 related podcasts and look into adding to my already substantial list of Bond movie locations visited. Bring on the next installment.

Skyfall_wallpaper  skyfall_image

Tokyo Fox Rating 9/10

Posted in Films, James Bond | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Cycling Tokyo’s Gourmet Snack Track Trail…In One Day!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by tokyofox

The idea of this came up back in May when I was discussing my ‘ten shrines of Tokyo‘ bicycle tour with Asif but it took until October 19th for it to finally take off as we could never find a date when we were both free. Having done 85km only a week before I wasn’t exactly in a rush to do another one but with Asif departing Japan at the end of the month it was the only time possible. Having rained pretty much non-stop in the 48 hour build-up we weren’t even sure this one would take place but thankfully it was fine and quite a pleasant sunny day in the end.

This was not an original themed tour as it was basically copied from this fine site. The idea was to cycle around Tokyo on a mission different to the regular ‘find-it-snap-it-move-on’ type trip I usually undertake. Japan is famed for its great food and this journey took in a handful of its most traditional gourmet food shops.

1) Monaka ice-cream (¥250) @ Mitsubachi, 3-38-10 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku – It’s not everyday that one has ice-cream for breakfast but we were basically waiting for this establishment to open! Can’t say it was worth it though for this flavour was not of my liking but I managed to get through my half of it before passing the rest on to Asif.

 

2) Katsu-sando (¥650) @ Mansei, 2-21 Kanda Sudacho, Chiyoda-ku – This box of six small sandwiches was also a shared effort in order to save on costs and appetite. Unfortunate that, as this was absolutely lovely and I could easily have had the whole lot on my own.

     

3) Soba (¥600) @ Matsuya, 1-13 Kanda Sudacho, Chiyoda-ku – This is certainly not the famous Japanese donburi restaurant chain (there is actually one across the road though!) but a place which actually survived WWII and serves soba. It was very nice inside but for me I’m afraid to say that it didn’t taste too different to any other soba. After a misdirection or two on leaving this place Asif had a a bit of an accident with the back of a car at a busy junction which damaged his bicycle a little and also left quite a big cut on the inside of his right thigh but naturally he carried on!

    

4) Liver katsu (¥140) @ Hisagoya Abe, 3-1-12 Tsukuda, Chuo-ku – The address given in the aforementioned website which inspired this trip was found to be empty and we were actually on our way to the next location when Asif suggested we could get liver katsu at a place we passed. They didn’t have any but pointed us in the direction of across the road where we bought a couple of delicious liver katsu’s which surprised me as I thought this would be the least appetising of the treats. In looking for the address of this ‘new’ place for this site I took a business card and was most surprised to discover that this was the place we originally wanted but it had moved!

     

5) Monja-yaki (¥1500) @ Monkichi 3-8-10 Tsukishima, Chuo-ku – The place of our intended visit was closed down but just a stone’s throw from there was Monkichi which was a busy place where pictures of Japanese celebrities don the walls giving recognition of their visit. Monja-yaki is basically a pan-fried batter with various finely chopped ingredients mixed into it which is then eaten with a tiny spatula. The Tsukishima area is where the dish is said to have originated. Usually we’d have eaten another one or two of these dishes but as we had a few more gourmet snack stops to go we had to move on.

     

6) Taiyaki (¥140) @ Wakaba Taiyaki, 1-10 Wakaba, Shinjuku-ku – Whilst I went through a short phase of buying these fish-shaped sweets a few years ago I soon stopped. This  traditional shop near Yotsuya Station is supposedly one of the best three taiyaki shops in Tokyo. Its basically a waffle sandwich baked crisp and full of Anko (sweet beans) which is often used in traditional Japanese sweets.

      

7) Nikuman (¥360) @ Gojuuban, 3-2 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku – The final stop on our gourmet tour of Tokyo was this place which had a wide range of these steamed buns. We went for the large sized original nikuman which was filled with hot and juicy meat.

 

We washed down the nikuman with a couple of beers from the nearby ‘7-Eleven’ convenience store. Rather than go for the cheap ones we thought we should keep in with the theme of the day and get a Grand Kirin in a fancy bottle and then consumed it all within the luxury confines of a backstreet! It was a bit disappointing that our intended sushi place in Ginza had closed down but we still visited seven food places. It was great fun for me to do such a ride with a good friend whilst doing far more at each place than just taking a photo.

  

Distance: 53.26 km   Time: 8.29 hrs   Calories Burned: 2884

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Tokyo Daytripper: Tackling Takao From The Bottom

Posted on November 25, 2012 by tokyofox

Since climbing Mount Fuji five years ago I have had the idea in mind to climb the 3776m mountain from the very bottom rather than the fifth station which is located about half way up. However, with a limited climbing season (only July & August), very few back-to-back days off and overseas trips during my long August holidays I am still yet to get round to that but as ever I’m hopeful about next year being the one.

In the meantime I thought I’d take the much shorter trip out to Mount Takao which is an hour away from Shinjuku and standing tall at a whopping 599m!! The idea was to climb it rather than taking the chairlift or cable car which about 98% of people do. Furthermore, it was the “koyo” (Autumn foliage) season so I thought it would be nice to climb it whilst seeing the beautiful red, brown and yellow leaves.

 

My girlfriend and I took the #6 route which begins down the road to the left of the Cable Car station and it wasn’t long until we were at Biwa Falls which I’m very interested in as it’s basically a place for self discipline. One uses all their spiritual inner strength to remain under the cascading water for as long as possible in a challenge which shows strength of a different nature compared to the high-adrenaline ones I usually prefer. I first saw Jack Osbourne do such a thing on his ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ show a few years ago and Anthony Bourdain also experienced it on his ‘No Reservations’ show. Maybe next Summer for me!

 

There was a steady flow of hikers taking this route akin to a kind of conveyor-belt tourism. Winding up a valley, this trail was an interesting one which took us past small streams and also included stepping stones at one stage too.

 

I’ve lost count of how many times I have been up Mount Takao but I have to confess that a fair few of those times have been just to experience the “Beer Mount” which is the absolutely fantastic all-you-can-eat-and-drink beer garden observation deck. Sadly that is only during the Summer months so we couldn’t enjoy that and had to settle for a solitary stick of ‘dango’ which was fine but not worth the wait.

 

Tengu is a character I was interested in seeing more of since I heard about him whilst doing my research for last months ‘Cycling Tokyo’s Most Haunted Sights…In One Day’ challenge. These Tengu creatures are a common part of Japanese folklore and naturally they are rumoured to still hang out on the peaks of Mount Takao though we never spotted these ferocious masters of martial arts! Surprising that! According to the travel CNN site “the humble and pure of heart have nothing to fear from the Tengu, but woe betide the pompous and arrogant.”

          

We didn’t spend much time at the top as it was only back in September that we last came and were about the only ones on the mountain top! Not so this time as the amount of people was a ridiculous number for any place let alone a mountain! It really was more packed more than Shibuya Crossing. I included this in my list about whats great about living and working in Tokyo back in March but having experienced the chaos of this “koyo” viewing season I may take it off that list!

     

The descend wasn’t really enjoyable as it was basically just a quick, steep, winding road rather than an actual hiking trail and it was packed too as many decided that it was a better option than joining the huge lines for the cable car and chair lifts. Overall, the #6 trail up is highly recommended for a truer taste of nature but the koyo was actually at its best at the summit and down at the bottom and as nice as it was it wasn’t quite as nice as what I saw last year in Chichibu.

 

Posted in Japan Travel, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

TF Interview…..With Author Tim Andrewartha

Posted on November 22, 2012 by tokyofox

When he’s not eating pickled plums, grooming his sideburns or teaching the future perfect continuous Tim Andrewartha is a Tokyo-based writer who had his first novel ‘Vitality‘ published earlier this year. TF caught up with the man we call Tim Andrewauthor (see what we’ve done there?!) last week over an Earth beer or three and probed him deeply about his book.

 

Talk us through the process of how this book came about then. The idea of Vitality started off as a short story that I wrote many years ago. It was inspired by reading Philip K Dick and cynically speculated about the extent in which a giant soft drink corporation might be willing to go. Originally the liquid was black rather than purple. When I decided to write a novel I thought this idea was worth exploring further.

So how far are you willing to go to publicise your book? Well, only so far really. I certainly wouldn’t be prepared to change my answers so as to promote an interviewer’s website if that’s what you’re getting at!

‘Vitality‘ actually came out on Valentines Day this year didn’t it? Do you think many couples used your book as foreplay? Well, my publisher’s intention for releasing it on Valentine’s Day was to offer an alternative for those readers who aren’t interested in the fluffy mainstream fodder that’s churned out on this day and would rather open their mind to a mind-bending alternative reality. So I think it’s unlikely that it’s been used for foreplay, but you never know.

Do you have an idea in mind for a sequel, prequel or a stand-alone novel? I’ve written another novel which I’m now editing. It’s set in Tokyo and it’s about a missing girl who reappears in a comic. The protagonist sets out to rescue her with a machine called The Reality Converter.

Oh, so this could be an opportunity for me to expand my Tokyo film and book locations further? Actually I haven’t mentioned any specific places by name, other than some of it taking place somewhere in Shinjuku, so that might be a bit tricky.

I do actually think ‘Vitality‘ would work well as a film so if miracles happen who would play Stylo Green and Emulla? I reckon Edward Norton would be good as Stylo Green, the paranoid graphic designer, and Scarlet Johansson would be good as Emulla, the rebellious redhead with a sexy voice.

What kind of reader do you think would be interested in reading ‘Vitality’? I think it would mainly appeal to readers who enjoy dystopian sci-fi (such as Philip K Dick, Jeff Noon or China Miéville).

There’s some stuff early on in the book about dirty phone calls. What research did you do on this matter? I never really do any research for my stories actually. I think that’s one of the advantages of writing this kind of imaginative fiction.

What have you yourself been reading recently? Some of the best books I’ve read recently are Channel SK1N by Jeff Noon, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, Railsea by China Miéville and Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox.

Are you sure you don’t mean Tokyo Fox?! Look, I’ve told you already, I’m just not willing to sink so low as to shamelessly endorse your site in this interview.

Every Tom, Dick & Willy has a book out at the moment ready for the Christmas market so why would anyone want to buy your book?! So they could submerse themselves in a strange world where the hinges of reality are loose and about to come apart at any moment. If that’s not the ideal escape from the tacky lights and shopping kerfuffle, then I don’t know what is.

How would you describe your book in a single tweet? A man who works for a “life-changing” soft drink company starts to suspect the truth that lies beneath their marketing subterfuge.

 

Tokyo Fox Review: Anyone who has seen ‘The Truman Show‘ (1998) will probably be able to empathise with Stylo Green; the main protagonist in this debut novel by Tim Andrewartha. Stylo works for ‘Vitality‘ which is a soft drink company promising to change peoples lives but as he is warned about their evilness by girlfriend Emulla it seems that, like Truman, there is no escape once he discovers something peculiar going on regarding his colleagues behavioural changes.

Andrewartha’s first book offers a hint of horror but naturally it’s mainly a science-fiction story set in an alternative version of the present day and whilst the fairly original plot is a stretch of the imagination it’s not so far removed that you can’t believe it wouldn’t happen somewhere in the world.

The nameless city where the hero Stylo works is an interesting place full of strange characters reading like a scene straight out of the Cantina Bar in Star Wars. There are some interesting quirky references throughout such as a woman being able to get favours for the simple reason that she speaks or the barman of a bar being a prune.

As someone who is not exactly a bookworm this novel admittedly took me a while to get really into but once past the background half I soon lapped it up and it was a real page-turner and no I don’t mean I was thankful of flicking through the pages just so I could get to the end!

You can follow Tim on Twitter here.

‘Vitality‘ is avaiable now on Amazon. Don’t delay, order today…or something like that!

Posted in Books, English Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A New Addition To The Family #4 – Sioned

Posted on November 19, 2012 by tokyofox

Sioned Poppy Evans was born on the 13th November at 5.27am (Melbourne time) weighing in at 8Ib4. Congratulations to my eldest sister Ruth and her husband Carl for their third child and below are a handful of pictures taken with all their family present. The name is pronounced /ʃɒned/ and is Welsh (for that is where my brother-in-law is from) for Janet or Janey although my nephew Eifion seems to think she’s been named Sonic! My niece Anesta’s still not sure whether they should keep Sioned or not!

                   

Posted in Family | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dining Out: Croc-ing Out At A Cameroon Restaurant

Posted on November 16, 2012 by tokyofox

It’s fair to say that I have been to a wide range of international restaurants in Tokyo recently. Of course there are many, many French, Indian, Italian, Thai, Spanish restaurants among other popular ones but I have been seeking out the rarer ethnic places and one such place was ‘O Village’ in Ikebukuro which my girlfriend and I visited on one wet Sunday back in September. With CNN blaring out of the TV screens the very nice, chatty owner greeted us and was only too happy to answer our basic typical questions about the place.

  

O Village is actually a Cameroon and Jamaican bar & restaurant which serves up some very cheap 500 yen lunch meals such as peanut-flavored fish and chicken curry and staple North African dish couscous. And yes I do know that Cameroon is actually in West Africa.

  

Until they burst onto the football scene at the Italia ’90 World Cup Finals Cameroon were very much an unknown entity but boy did we know about them by the end of that tournament! Despite qualifying for many world cup finals’ since then they have never lived up to the exploits of Roger Milla, Oman Biyick and co in 1990. The Lions, as they are known, were a hit with the public at that tournament and will always have a special place in my heart too. Thankfully though they never quite made it past England in the quarter finals but they didn’t half give us a scare.

  

As you might expect the cheap-eats (there are four in all) are not so filling so we had a couple of other home-style cooking dishes of which one really stuck out! That was the Crocodile BBQ set (the menu also features a BBQ rabbit set) which seemed a little over-priced at 1500 yen but then again how freely available is crocodile in this country?! To be fair, it was very nice albeit a bit rubbery and quite chewy and I don’t really know why I never tried it whilst travelling around Australia which is perhaps the most famous place where crocodiles are concerned.

 

The bar is overlooking a street running parallel to the overly-crowded Sunshine Street and its 3rd floor location in the Dai-go Nakamura Bldg at 1-22-13 Higashi-Ikebukuro offers a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the busy shopping areas nearby.

Posted in Food & Drink, Sport | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

New York Filming Locations: Black Swan (2010)

Posted on November 13, 2012 by tokyofox

‘Black Swan‘ won many accolades and even though its not my usual type of film I do sometimes make an effort to watch these hyped-up Hollywood award-winning films. The fact that Queen Amidala/Padme (Natalie Portman) from the Star Wars prequels was in it was another reason to see it and I was actually intrigued by the dark side (no Star Wars reference intended) of it all. Watching it was one thing but doing a location was another but as I was meeting a couple of people for lunch near the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone.

 

Nina (Portman) exits the Lincoln Center subway station between West 63rd and 64 Street and enters the Lincoln Center on Columbus Avenue. 

Posted in Movie Locations, Nth American Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations: Japan Cook It Raw

Posted on November 10, 2012 by tokyofox

After nine seasons, one of my favourite shows came to an end this week with the final episode taking place in Brooklyn but my review is of an episode which aired way back in May. I didn’t actually watch it until a couple of months ago and this particular one offered an alternative to the shows usual format. Following his trips to Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido in previous seasons, Anthony was back in Japan yet again but this time it was for a gastronomic event called “Cook It Raw.”

The programme started with Anthony in Tokyo not so long after the big earthquake disaster where he met Ivan Orkin; a New Yorker who has become a very successful chef over here with his Ivanramen restaurant and instant ramen. However Ivan took Tony to a traditional eel restaurant (below) where the chef kills the eel and then breaks it down into all different organs and they inevitably discuss how Tokyo has changed since the disaster on March 11th.

 

Anthony then talked to one founding chef of the “Cook It Raw” movement and discussed signature dishes but agreed that they don’t like them as they dont want their biggest success to be all they’re remembered for.

Dave Chang is a “Cook It Raw” regular and his story from his younger days was the highlight of this show which is sad as he took Anthony to a Lawson convenience store (above) which used to be his main source of meals. As someone who regularly has to depend on convenience store food in-between lessons I can appreciate how good these places are.

Once they leave Tokyo behind its “Cook It Raw” time in Ishikawa-ken which held less interest for me. This is an event whereby 15 of the world’s best chefs are placed in an unfamiliar landscape to forage (this word was used frequently throughout the show’s duration) for local ingredients as they let their creative genius run amok before serving up the resulting dishes to culinary experts. As much as I have learned to appreciate food more and more in recent times its still very hard for me to get excited about these kind of creations whereby chefs seemingly just stick a mushroom, a leaf and a twig on a plate and the tasters rave about it. However, without these experimenters, the world of gastronomy wouldn’t keep moving forward.

If you’ve never seen the show then try one of the other Japan episodes as they’re far more interesting. This is one for the fans wanting to see something a little different from their favourite witty, sarcastic and profanity-using American chef/TV personality.

Posted in Food & Drink, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Music Videos Filmed In Japan #2 DJ Fresh – ‘The Feeling’ (2012)

Posted on November 7, 2012 by tokyofox

As someone who has never really watched music video television it’s not exactly easy to know about what has been filmed here in Tokyo and it was, by pure chance, that I came to know that this recent single (released September 23) was made in Japan’s capital.

Whilst I don’t listen to too much drum & bass I do love this tune by DJ Fresh (and lets not forget RaVaughn who features on the record as the main vocalist!) and it basically does exactly what it says on the tin in that it give you such a good feeling. The music video theme seems to be all about youth and fulfilment and the feeling of ecstasy whilst these young people ride around the streets of Tokyo on relatively futuristic mopeds.

 

This song will always remind me of the last few weeks of ‘The Chris Moyles Show‘ which came to an end in September after nearly nine years on the air at breakfast time. It was on the ever-important BBC Radio One playlist and really did fit in with the vibe of those final few shows as the show went out on a high.

As is the case with music videos its a load of scenes edited together. The areas that I instantly recognised were in Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Odaiba. The first one to appear is on 1.09 and is the Tonya buy & sell store on Ameyoko Arcade (Ameya Yokocho to give it its full name) which is the shopping alley running parallel to the JR Yamanote Line tracks in Ueno.

 

On 1.32 Takeshita Dori Street (below) in Harajuku is briefly seen but wasn’t instantly recognisable as the majority of people who go to this ever-packed famous shopping street take their photos from the top of the street looking down.

 

As with all the shots, they are very brief and Ueno features a couple of times (below) on 1.48 and 1.55 with the Sunkus convenience store on Ueno Naka-dori and Ueno station itself appearing.

      

Yasukuni Dori often features when international productions come to Tokyo to make a film or music video. The two shots shown (below) at 3.06 and 3.16 are almost identical to those used in Steven Seagal’s 2005 classic ‘Into The Sun‘ and the lower one shows the Don Quijote (ドン・キホーテ) store on the corner at 1-16-5 Kabuki-cho which could be seen in ‘Kill Bill‘ (2004) and The Killers ‘Read My Mind‘ video.

      

The finale sees Rainbow Bridge appear (below) on 3.19 whereby the youths drive their motorcycle’s over the bridge which crosses Tokyo Bay connecting it to the man-made island of Odaiba.

 

Posted in Japan Filming Locations, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dining Out: Yemen Coffee In Tokyo But No Salmon!

Posted on November 4, 2012 by tokyofox

Watching Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and co in ‘Salmon Fishing In The Yemen‘ on my flight to the USA in August made quite an impression on me though that was more to do with the idea, the scenery and the country of Yemen itself which, like many, I know little about other than than it is the only country which represents the letter Y when I do the a-z of countries in classes. Naturally, as a filming locations geek I checked out where it was shot and I can’t say I was too surprised to discover that it wasn’t actually done in Yemen. Instead, Ouarzazate in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains doubled up as Yemen. This place was also used in films such as ‘Lawrence Of Arabia‘, ‘The Living Daylights‘, ‘The Mummy‘ and ‘Gladiator‘.

 

Whilst researching ethnic restaurants in Tokyo I came across ‘Mocha Coffee‘ and I guess it stuck out as its the only one of its kind. I even went as far as telling quite a few people about the place (and its coffee prices but more on that later!) and when I had a long break in Shibuya the other day I thought I’d take the 15 minute walk to find the place at 25-1 Sarugakucho in Shibuya-ku. This greenhouse-style shop is intimately located in the artsy neighbourhood of Daikanyama and in a city of high-rise buildings it is so nice to go to a place at street level.

 

Now, this is a bit of a weird one for me as I don’t drink coffee, never have and never will! I wasn’t even planning to go inside when I found it but I saw they sold some cake and hoped they might sell some Yemeni or Middle-Eastern sweets inside. I was right as there was some fig mamool (dates cookies) and baklava (almond pie) on the counter alongside the cake which I sampled with slight embarrassment due to not purchasing any of the coffee which it is famed for! For that reason this entry just about qualifies to go under this websites ‘Dining Out’ section.

  

The shop is ran by Yemen native Hussein Ahmed and his lovely Japanese wife Maiko but only the latter was around on my visits. We talked for a while as I asked the usual dull questions just about every single customer probably asks! I mentioned the ‘Salmon Fishing…‘ movie (finally released here in Japan on December 8th) and she said she hadn’t seen it but was reading the novel (in English!) which it was based on. I’m still none the wiser as to why the film uses the ‘The’ in front of the country’s name though Maiko did say it may be because British people, for it is a British film, have traditionally called it that way.

  

I returned a few days later with my girlfriend who actually drinks coffee and most impressed she was too by the Ismaili brew which is the most traditional of Yemeni coffees and according to their website full of fruit and wine flavours. This coffee and cake place imports rare beans from Yemen and though they are on the slightly pricey side this is a great place to experience and relax whilst sampling some unique tastes.

Posted in Food & Drink, Middle East Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments