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

Posted on August 29, 2024 by tokyofox

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

Posted on August 25, 2024 by tokyofox

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!)

Posted on August 21, 2024 by tokyofox

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

Posted on August 17, 2024 by tokyofox

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 →

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

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

Posted on August 13, 2024 by tokyofox

 

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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3 Japanese Buildings That Have Uniqueness Written On Their Faces!

Posted on August 9, 2024 by tokyofox

On the face of it these buildings might not be essential stops on any tour of Japan but if you happen to be in the vicinity then they are well worth a quick detour. The majority of this post will be about the first one as that was new to me whereas the other two have featured on Tokyo Fox before and are basically bonus extras deserving of (more) recognition again. The three unique buildings that I’ve come face to face with are as follows…

1. Sharekobe Museum, Hyogo Prefecture – Getting to see the inside of this Continue reading →

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The Magpies Fly Into Japan For A Couple of Friendlies But How Popular Are They Over Here?

Posted on August 5, 2024 by tokyofox

This year has seen three Premier League clubs make their way over from the UK for one or two games each. Brighton have a big-name Japanese player in their side so that made sense. Spurs are considered one of the big six teams in England and have a Korean superstar player who seems very popular in Japan. As for Newcastle, well I’m really not sure about their appeal over here so there was only one way to find out.

Their main connection to Japan is their 2018 signing Yoshinori Muto but his departure in 2021 brought about a Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations of Japan #17 – Hozukyō (a.k.a. The Best Platform View In Japan?)

Posted on August 2, 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: Hozukyō

Prefecture: Continue reading →

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Big Ange Returns To Japan With His Spurs Side To Face The Reigning J1 Champions

Posted on July 30, 2024 by tokyofox

The summer break in the Japanese football season is a time when some fly-by-nighter European teams like to come into Japan to play some games and try and steal some money off punters in the country. Not my words but those of J-Talk Podcast host Ben Maxwell. I do actually agree with him on the whole, and do make light of such money spinning friendly matches…..but after slagging them off I then inevitably end up going to one or two!

Three English teams are in Japan this summer for a total of Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: 4 Nights In Rome On My First Italian Encounter (2009)

Posted on July 26, 2024 by tokyofox

Despite living in England for the first 23 years of my life, my travels to other European countries were actually quite limited and indeed I had only been to France, Portugal and Sweden before moving to Japan. Italy was always a country I was interested in for the usual reasons like the food and the famous Roman architecture. However, it has to be said that going to Italy was very much the warm-up act for a trip to North Africa. As I needed a transit in Rome, I decided to take advantage of this and so spent a few nights in the Italian capital.

Having arrived the previous night on a long 14 hour flight, I was up early the following morning (Wednesday 5th August) but just missed my Continue reading →

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