Tokyo Fox (東京狐)

Tokyo Filming Locations #2 – Lost In Translation (2003)

Posted on November 29, 2011 by tokyofox

‘Lost In Translation‘ came out not long after I came to Japan for the first time back in 2003 and though I didn’t think too much of the actual story I quite enjoyed it simply for the fact that it was filmed in what was to become my new home. I was more surprised about how many people with no affinity to Japan thought the movie was great. I guess I am just not the arty-farty type! Director Sofia Coppola used the following locations:

* The Park Hyatt Hotel (3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku) features throughout the films 97 minute entirety and is where the characters Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johanson) stay and the 52nd floor is the ‘New York Grill & Bar‘ where a fair few scenes were filmed including when they meet for the first time on 23 mins. This place is a great one for the lunch set menu (5000 yen) with the salad and dessert buffet spread being sufficient enough in itself! A delicious main course of grilled Australian beef or lamb is also part of the deal and the aforementioned buffet is laid out on the table where Bob and Charlotte first meet. More details here.

* Jougan-ji is a tiny temple in Nishi-Shinjuku (11 minutes 58 seconds to see the same angle as below) which Charlotte visits in the rain for a few brief moments. When I went there it wasn’t anywhere near as tranquil and spiritual as in the film where the moment was further aided by the soundtrack. More details on this place and how to get there can be seen here.

* Shibuya Crossing is the worlds busiest crossing and has appeared in a countless number of films and ‘Lost In Translation’ is no exception as it appears on screen after 18, 35 and 62 minutes.

* Air is a nightclub for Tokyo hipsters in Daikanyama (2-11 Sarugaku-cho) and is where Bob, Charlotte and some Japanese friends party amid oversized balloons with a film of fireworks projected onto them after 42 minutes. When I found this place there was nothing more than a door with a board outside detailing the club’s forthcoming events.

* Bob sings ‘More than this’ by Roxy Music at Karaoke-kan (30-8 Utagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku) and for the anoraks out there, rooms 601 and 602 are the ones which feature after 46 minutes. The Pachinko parlour which they race through is Botan in Nakameguro.

* Rainbow Bridge can be seen after 50 minutes on what is supposedly the taxi ride home from the karaoke session but makes no sense geographically as in reality their hotel in Shinjuku is quite near to the karaoke box in Shibuya.

* Ichikan (9-5 Daikanyama-cho, Shibuya-ku) is a small and hard-to-find sushi restaurant that’s seen on 56 minutes and the chef in the film actually does work there. This is no cheap kaiten-zushi (conveyor-belt sushi) restaurant but is actually of high cost. With the cheapest course being 6000 yen (£45) I decided to not bother going in which was a shame but there is a limit to my research on a film which I’m not that bothered about!!

* A.P.C. Underground clothing store (4-27-6-B1 Jingu-mae) in Harajuku is where the strip club scene (61 minutes) was filmed. By day, it’s one of those so-called fashionable stores where the designer trainers, t-shirts and so on are minimal (I’m talking only three t-shirts on one rail!) and given a lot of space and this is the only part of the film that was ‘faked’ as all the other locations played true in the movie.

* Nanzen-ji temple and Heian-jingu shrine are the two places Charlotte visits on her little trip to Kyoto. 72 minutes of the film have passed when she walks over the stepping stones (below) in Heian-jingu garden (600 yen entry).

Moments later she’s walking across the impressive shrines grounds at Heian-jingu below.

* Shabuzen is a shabu-shabu restaurant under the Creston Hotel (Kamiya-cho 10-8, Shibuya) and is where Bob and Charlotte are shocked by the idea that they actually had to cook the meat themselves which to be honest is still not something I like as when I go out to eat I don’t want to have to cook.

Japanese homes are so small that entertaining guests is not so possible so they like to go out and cook the thin slices of beef and vegetables themselves. My friend Michael went for the shabu-shabu deal while I had a late change of heart and plumped for the unagi-don (grilled eel in a sweet sauce on a bed of rice in a bowl) set instead which was OK but probably not worth the extra cost which I had to pay for the privelege for eating in surroundings far more sophisticated than I am used to. It appears on screen after 81 mins.

Read my ‘Lost In Translation‘ review here

For other Japan filming locations click on the links below:

You Only Live Twice Kill Bill Babel Godzilla Walk Don’t Run Into The Sun Monster Wasabi The Grudge Ju:On The Grudge The Ramen Girl The Toxic Avenger Pt II The Wolverine Memoirs Of A Geisha The Last Samurai House Of Bamboo Ponyo

Posted in Japan Filming Locations, Japan Life, Movie Locations | Tagged A.P.C. Underground, Ichikan, karaoke-kan shibuya lost in translation, kogenji temple, Lost In translation, Lost in translation filming locations, Park Hyatt Hotel, shabuzen, where is the Lost In Translation temple? | 49 Comments

Tokyo Filming Locations #1 – You Only Live Twice (1967)

Posted on November 27, 2011 by tokyofox

One of the first major international films to use Japan’s capital as a backdrop was the 1967 James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’ starring Sean Connery. Despite being killed off before Nancy Sinatra’s beautiful 007 theme kicks in, its just a crafy strategy.

Bond goes on a mission to Japan 16 minutes into the film starting at the sumo arena (more commonly known as Kokugikan) in Ryogoku. He enters the changing rooms where yokozuna (‘grand champion’) Sadanoyama Shinmatsu gives him his ticket and the match is between Kotozakura Masakatsu and Fujinishiki Takemitsu which he seemingly only watches for a few moments before leaving with Aki. The address is 1-3-28 Yokoami, Sumida-ku.

The New Otani Hotel at 4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku near Akasaka-Mitsuke station plays the part of Osato Chemicals exterior for a few brief moments after 24, 28, 36 and 41 minutes. There is a restaurant in the circular revolving part at the top of the hotel complex and I took my parents for lunch there which you can read about here. Its small, but peaceful gardens round the back are worth a visit for anyone wishing to take a break from the concrete jungle.

Bond escapes Osata Chemicals in a car with the help of Aki who avoids his questions which makes him suspicious and she flees to a secluded subway station (below) which is Nakano-Shimbashi on the Marunouchi Line (28 minutes). As one can imagine, the south-west corner where filming took place place, looks very different over four decades later.

This is the private transportation hub of Japanese secret service leader “Tiger” Tanaka who many years later appeared in Raymond Benson’s The Man With The Red Tattoo‘ book.

Bond is hot on her trail and follows her down some steps and on to the platform (below) which is obviously a bit different these days. Believe it or not taking such simple photos wasn’t quite so straightforward as when I was down the far end of the platform a member of staff came down to tell me not to take photos. I asked him why not a few times before giving up as people just don’t question rules in this country. He must have seen me on the CCTV cameras but thankfully I’d got my shot just before he intervened.

On yet another escape from Osata Chemicals, Bond and Aki drive by Komazawa Olympic Park on 42 minutes. The shots seen below were shot under the bridge with the athletics stadium on the right and the gymnasium on the left.

Within a couple of seconds the car is speeding by Yoyogi National Gymnasium (below) as the two locations, which are actually about 8km apart, are blended together to make it all look seamless.

This escape leads them well away from Tokyo to the docks of Kobe where he tries to dodge SPECTRE agents. My photo below was taken in Kobe Harbour in May and the red bridge in the background appears briefly before the exciting roof-top scene.

The helicoptor flight (below) on 54 minutes was filmed above Ebino in Miyazaki prefecture.

Bonus: Himeji castle appears after 69 minutes and is under extensive reconstruction at the time of writing but luckily I captured it back in 2005. This white castle is the Ninja training school where Bond turns Japanese and the shots below all get a second or two of screen time!

After Aki meets her inevitable demise, Bond limbers up (76 minutes) in the West Bailey. When I was in Himeji back in May I had only one screenshot with me and was most surprised to see that the stone statue thing behind Sean Connery was still knocking about. Needless to say I was the only person in the whole place who took an interest in this piece of concrete!

Kirishima National Park (below) in Kagoshima (on Japan’s southern main island) is the extinct volcano which can be seen briefly on 87 minutes with the interior of Blofeld’s hideout filmed back in the UK at Pinewood studios.

(Many thanks to John P. who e-mailed me with important information on some of these locations)

See other James Bond filming locations by clicking on the links below:

London Prague Venice Como Istanbul Las Vegas Phuket Vienna Hong Kong New York Panama Skyfall

For other Japan filming locations click on the links below:

Lost In Translation Kill Bill Babel Godzilla Walk Don’t Run Into The Sun Monster Wasabi The Grudge Ju:On The Grudge The Ramen Girl The Toxic Avenger Pt II The Wolverine Memoirs Of A Geisha The Last Samurai

Posted in James Bond, Japan Filming Locations, Movie Locations | Tagged himeji-jo castle, hotel new otani, james bond, James Bond filming location, nakano shimbashi, ryogoku, Sean Connery, tiger tanaka, you only live twice, You Only Live Twice filming location, You Only Live Twice Japan Filming Locations | 49 Comments

Running To Standstill

Posted on November 25, 2011 by tokyofox

Since about July 2006 I have been running regularly (anything between one and four times a week) and its really been part of my life and for somone who has a sweet tooth its really helped me keep my weight down. Obviously I didn’t run whilst I was in the USA back in August but on my return I upped the ante as I like sweating in the hot and humid Tokyo Summer as it seems more beneficial for losing weight. I was doing it for one hour every other day without fail in September and in the final few minutes of a run on a Thursday I felt a bit of pain but I didn’t think much of it. A couple of days later in late September I set out in the morning but within 10 minutes I pulled up with a severe bout of leg pain and hobbled back home. I knew it was more serious than just a knock but as ever I thought it would be gone within a week or so.

However, two months on and I still haven’t put back on my running shoes as I am still feeling a bit of pain in my right leg and it really is getting to the stage now where I am seriously contemplating going to see a physiopherapist. It is so frustrating for me, it really is and it sure does make me realise how hard it must be for professional sportsmen and women when they get injured for any length of time. As a result I have been trying to do a bit more cycling to compensate but other than that and my 200 push-ups (five sets of 40) a day I feel that its not enough and long to get back out on the roads….even in this cold Winter!

Posted in Action & Adventure, Cycling, Sport | Tagged leg pain, professional sportsmen, push ups, running shoes, usa back | 1 Comment

Review: Films Set In Japan – The Ramen Girl (2008)

Posted on November 21, 2011 by tokyofox

The late Brittany Murphy plays the overly common ‘fish out of water’ role in this one which follows the ‘The Karate Kid’ style format in terms of student respecting and doing all that the teacher requests beginning with taking pride in doing the less-glamorous jobs first in order to appreciate things further up the ladder. Her character Abby is stranded in Tokyo after her boyfriend heartlessly dumps her. She’s miserable, speaks almost no Japanese but despite this she still has a job working at a law firm which in reality probably wouldn’t happen. Late one night she enters her local ramen (chinese noodles in a meat broth with some vegetable toppings) restaurant where she encounters the tyrannical Japanese ramen master Maezumi and thats where the story begins.

Veteran actor Toshiyuki Nishida is well known in Japan and he plays the chef who isn’t charming enough to be liked but likewise he isn’t mean enough to be hated. He speaks no English, she speaks no Japanese and in my view their relative cluelessness as to what the other person is talking about is what makes this film different as this happens in foreign countries but is rarely seen in films. Neither do they suddenly transform into native speakers as often happens! Of course this ‘lost in translation’ scenrio means the film has quite a bit of Japanese dialogue and therefore English subtitles which rarely appeal to English-speaking audiences.

Abby loves the ramen so much she decides that she wants Maezumi to train her in the hope that it will give her life some meaning or something like that. Of course he’s not interested but she’s insistent and eventually he relents and gives her all the cleaning to do and as the weeks pass she wonders if she will ever actually be taught how to make ramen. Eventually she does and the film pretty much turns out as one would expect…or does it?! She creates her own unique ramen dish and hopes to get the approval of the grandmaster ramen chef.

As for the locations there’s no famous Tokyo landmarks and all that features of the capital city are a few street scenes. The ramen restaurant was a studio set but the Ramen Museum Abby goes to on a date with Toshi is real and is in Yokohama.

The end to the movie feels a bit rushed and not really in line with the rest of the film. ‘The Ramen Girl’ is a good way to introduce Japanese culture, values and traditions to other cultures. It really shows how obsessive the Japanese are about food and that it has to be made with ‘tamashii’ (soul) which has had the most lasting impact on me not that I can ever really understand such a thing.

Tokyo Fox Rating 7/10

Posted in Films, Food & Drink, Review: Films Set In Japan | Tagged brittany murphy, chinese noodles, english subtitles, films set in Japan, japanese dialogue, karate kid, ramen girl, toshiyuki nishida, yokohama ramen museum | 13 Comments

Credit In Japan Is Not On The Cards!

Posted on November 19, 2011 by tokyofox

When I was in Turkey a few months ago I talked about having money problems regarding my UK credit card being rejected. I never bothered sorting out that card as I was hoping to get a Japanese credit card which would be far more useful to me as I’ve got money here and the yen goes way much further now than its ever done in my lifetime.

Having spent a good half hour going through the usual Japanese red tape at SMBC (the Japanese bank I’m with) I waited expectedly for a letter in the following weeks. However, when it did arrive it was bad news and there was some letter saying I’d been rejected which obviously p*ssed me off immensly. Non-Japanese residents reading this may also be shocked but you really shouldn’t be as this kind of thing is part of being a foreigner here where there’s seemingly one rule for them and one rule for us.

I can understand that there have been many foreigners here who have ran off and left Japan without paying their debts but given that I provided them with all kinds of information (including my workplace information) and am completely up-to-date with my residence tax it is very frustrating to have not been given one. This annoyance is further highlighted by the fact that other people have seemingly been given a credit card without fuss. Maybe I’ll just have to try with a different company. On the other hand I do know of guys who are married to Japanese and whathaveyounot but have still been denied a credit card. All this is just typical of the Japanese system and the endless admin involved with most things. Rant over.

Posted in Japan Life | Tagged different company., japanese bank, japanese residents, japanese system, money problems | 1 Comment

Back To Square One At Leicester As Pearson Returns

Posted on November 17, 2011 by tokyofox

Three weeks ago I woke up to the news that Sven Goran-Eriksson had been sacked by Leicester which, despite our inconsistent form, was quite a shock. Personally I’ve always been a big fan of the Swede but whether he’s suited to club football is one that could be debated. No sooner had he departed then the speculation started about his replacement with a host of names being mentioned. Obviously Martin O’Neill was linked with it straight away and as much as I love him I don’t really think its a good idea to go back to a club, particularly when you’ve been so successful there. Ironic then that the next man rumoured to be top of the list was ex-City manager Nigel Pearson who is statistically the clubs most successful manager.

Anyway, yesterday it was finally confirmed that he was to return following a week of waiting while Leicester and Hull discussed compensation or whathaveyounot. I have to say that I’m quite under-whelmed by the appointment and the man himself who often comes across as really dour in the media interviews. Having said that you really can’t argue with his record at the club having taken over in the Summer of 2008 and guided us straight back up as Champions. The 2009-2010 season back in The Championship was a great campaign too and if it wasn’t for a couple of penalties in the play-off semi final against Cardiff who knows what may have happened. Pearson seems to have a strong distrust of the media which will surely hamper his career if he doesn’t address it. However, as much as that side of things can help, it is a results business that we live in and if he finishes the job he started back in the Milan Mandaric era then it won’t matter to most how he comes across in the media.

Posted in Leicester City, Sport | Tagged club football, goran eriksson, martin o neill, milan mandaric, nigel pearson | Leave a comment

Tokyo Daytripper: Autumn Leaves In Chichibu

Posted on November 14, 2011 by tokyofox

It’s that time of year now when the Japanese get very excited about the brightly coloured red and yellow leaves which appear all around Japan between mid-October and mid-December depending on the part of the country. Yesterday was supposedly the best day for ‘koyo‘ in Saitama so when my Japanese teacher asked me to join her and two friends I thought I might as well. Now, I’ve never been that bothered about these leaves but fancied a day-trip and thought it would give me something to write about as, apart from a fairly vague and ever-so-slightly sexist article back in December 2006, I have never really written anything about the Autumn foliage. It has to be said that they really do highlight the beauty of all areas in much the same way that the cherry blossom does in Spring time.

It was a very early start (I had to be at one of the ladies’ nearby house by 6.50am!) yesterday and after almost a three hour drive we set out with the idea to do a 3-4 hour hike along the Arakawa river amid the maple leaves. However, that would have meant the driver taking a bus back along the route to get her car to drive back and pick us up so as a result we ended up doing parts of it by car. This meant we could just stop at the areas where the vivid colours were the most mesmerising which was usually where there were a few old men with huge cameras and tripods. Nothing compared to the madness of Tokyo’s flame-coloured leaves sights where this ‘specimen’ all seem to gather and fill the place.

The most strenuous walk we did was a steep 30 minute ascend of a mountain to see a cave which only offered a very short climb inside. Not so exciting really but it was compleltely deserted so we had our lunch there.

Posted in Action & Adventure, Japan Life, Japan Travel, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged Autumn leaves, chichibu, Japan leaves, Tokyo Daytripper: | 5 Comments

Pepsi Pink

Posted on November 11, 2011 by tokyofox

Saw this latest weird Pepsi flavour in the convenience store by chance on its launch date a few days ago.

To see previous flavours just click on the links below:

Pepsi Mont Blanc Pepsi Baobab Pepsi Azuki Pepsi Shiso

Pepsi White Pepsi Blue Hawaii Pepsi Ice Cucumber Pepsi Gold

Posted in Food & Drink, Quirky Japan | Tagged blue hawaii, ice cucumber pepsi, pepsi blue, pepsi ice cucumber, pepsi pink, pepsi shiso | Leave a comment

‘An Idiot Abroad’ In Japan

Posted on November 8, 2011 by tokyofox

Creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant very much added to their already impressive portfolio of television work last year with ‘An Idiot Abroad’ on Sky One which featured their mate Karl Pilkington visiting the seven wonders of the world. In some way the episode featuring Petra and the Dead Sea inspired me and certainly whetted my appetite for going to Jordan back in June of this year.

Now for anyone who hasn’t seen it the format may just sound like any other travel documentary show but Karl is a wonder in himself as he has lived a very sheltered life but is more than happy with it as he never wanted to travel and didn’t go abroad till he was 21. He is very British as he’s not easily impressed especially when something is considered to be wonderful by so many. He has a very unique outlook on life and speaks his mind without thinking in a way which is not so prevalent in todays P.C. society. This is both funny and stupid but his comments really do come across as being without any cynicism or nastiness.

Despite his protests at the end of the first series the show came back in September for a second series which saw Karl checking off some of the ‘100 Things to do before you die’. He got to choose his ‘Bucket List’ but of course Gervais and Merchant threw in a few surprises and so far we have seen Karl living on his own desert island in Vanuatu, doing the trans-siberian express, swimming with dolphins (changed to sharks!) in Australia, whale watching in Alaska, meeting a Gorilla in Uganda and driving Route 66 in the USA. The final episode of the series was aired last Friday night in Britain and featured Japan which I was very excited about as I have absolutely loved all the episodes so far giving me some real laugh-out-loud moments.

On his arrival in Japan he went to a cat cafe which (to most foreigners) is one of those quirky ‘only-in-Japan’ weird things and is certainly not something that appeals to me but that may be because I have a cat allergy! Karl then did a bit of sumo albeit with his boxer shorts still on underneath the ‘nappy’. In true ignorant British style he says “Its just something for fat people to do which is good as there aren’t many sports for fat people!” As he pointed out at the time he has already done wrestling during the series so this did feel a bit tiresome as we’ve seen him beaten up before.

The beauty of the show is that Karl has no idea of what he will be doing or where he will be going in the lead up to the main reason which he is in that country/part of the world for. Gervais and Merchant feel that he needs a cosy hotel to sleep in after his sumo encounter which (for me) inevitably resulted in him spending a night in a capsule hotel (“a coffin with a cat-flap” to quote Karl!) which is still one of those things I’ve never done during my time in Japan. Neither have I been on the shinkansen (bullet train) which takes him to some place in the countryside which I’ve not even heard of. As a man of simple pleasures who prefers fish-fingers to sushi, eating a fermented fish delicacy does not please him too much!

He then meets a zen master in Kyoto which leads to some funny scenes such as mopping a floor which was cleaned a few hours earlier. Why bother?! Japanese tea ceremony is something I’ve heard a lot about but is also a tradition which I will just never understand. Likewise for Pilkington who moans in trademark style about it taking so long (“they couldn’t get a job in a cafe because the queues would be horrendous”) though by the end he does change his tune a bit saying that its great that they’ve made an event out of something which most of us do without even thinking about it. The main reason Pilkington was in Japan was to climb Mount Fuji but before he does that he gets a good (?) view of it from Fuji Q Highland. The views from the top of Fuji itself were far more impressive than what I witnessed when I climbed it back in 2007.

Though still great I found the Japan episode of this series (S02 E07) the least funny or interesting one which I can only guess is due to my emotional attachment to the country and the fact that most of the stuff featured wasn’t new to me. In fact it may not have been new to those who have never stepped foot in Japan as the likes of capsule hotels, robots, pre-work exercises, pointless inventions, electronic toilets, sumo and so on have been seen in a number of British shows about Japan from the likes of Justin Lee Collins, Adam & Joe, Kelly Osbourne and Jonathan Ross.

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Life, Japan Travel, Quirky Japan, TV Shows | Tagged an idiot abroad, japan, karl pilkington, ricky gervais, S02 E07, series 2 | 10 Comments

A Spook-tacular Halloween (2011)

Posted on October 31, 2011 by tokyofox

Three 90 minute kids parties in the space of 5.5 hours in Hibarigaoka school yesterday left me feeling exhausted. I should have known better really but when asked a while back I was more than happy to team-up again with colleague and friend Lai-Keun following our Kung-Fu Panda party success back in August.

All three lessons followed a similar pattern with differing levels of success which is not to say that any were awful or even bad but the first party of very young kindergarten students did have a few problems such as students coming late and a couple of cry babies who just wouldn’t part from their mums. Inevitably they needed a bit more help, support and direction from the Japanese staff but it went quite well given the number of kids in the group which was way more than an average class in our school.

Whilst it took us a bit of time to find our feet in the first one (and it seemed to last hours in my mind!) the second and third ones flew by particularly the second KG class where and all-but-one kid was dressed up. As well as the more standard activities like chain drills, stations, hide and reveal, hunt the flashcard, race and draw we (I say ‘we‘ but Lai-Keun was the one who actually came up with most of the activities featured!) also did:

* pumpkin bowling with character bottles replacing skittles

* ‘hit the pinata’ which when broken exploded with candy for the students to grab

* throwing mini-pumpkins through the eyes, nose and mouth of a huge cardboard pumpkin

* stick the tail on the witches cat

* ‘Mummy wrap’ where one member of each team is wrapped up like a mummy using toilet roll

There was also a craft activity or two in each with pumpkin plates being made in the first two kindergarten groups where the kids just had to stick the facial parts on the orange pumpkin plate. The first also raced to stick the lexical items on a couple of ‘haunted house’ posters and the final elementary group made a vampire or bat toy thing using a toilet roll. Long running Childrens BBC programme ‘Blue Peter’ would be proud of such an activity though this one would have taken up a whole show!