My 1st Time To Attend Japan’s No. 1 International Women’s Tennis Tournament

Posted on October 9, 2010 by tokyofox

Hoping to see the likes of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, I went to the Ariake Coliseum (a real cr*p name I know!) in Odaiba on the 1st of this month to see the ladies semi-finals of the Toray Pan Pacific Tournament. I had bought a ticket in advance but Williams pulled out before the tournament, and Sharapova was knocked out earlier in the week by a 40 year old Japanese player who sadly didn’t go on to make it to the last four. That would have been good for the attendance but it wasn’t to be. I was in the end thankful that Continue reading →

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Sven The Fox

Posted on October 5, 2010 by tokyofox

Last weekend marked ten years since Leicester went to the top of the Premier League for a couple of weeks following a 0-0 draw away at Sunderland which I actually went to. How times have changed since then! None more so than the ridiculous number of managers who have come and gone in that time. 10 Managers as well as six caretakers to be precise!

Having ended last season in a blaze of glory hopes were high for the new season…..but then Nigel Pearson walked out for the glamour(?) of Hull after a fantastic two years in charge. Things haven’t gone well since then and Paolo Sousa seemingly had the team playing well but in hindsight he probably tried to change things to his style too quickly and no doubt he thought he would be given more time to impose his philosophy. That just doesn’t happen anymore and with one win in the first nine games he found himself out of a job.

Before that rumours had started to go round that our most successful Manager Martin O’Neill would return. Can’t say I ever believed it as the guy could get any job which comes up in the Premier League and going back to a club is never a good idea.

Then from out of nowhere Sven Goran Eriksson was the man being mentioned in the media and within a couple of days he was appointed. Some sceptics think its a publicity stunt due to the media circis that comes with his reputation both on and off the field. Time will tell if this is a good appointment but my thinking at the moment is that it can only be good as Sven’s track record is good and his high profile should attract a few bigger names. Where this leaves people like the recently signed Japanese player Yuki Abe I don’t know. I am watching his progress (or lack of it!) closely from here in Tokyo and hope that he in particular gets a chance to shine under Sven’s stewardship as I hope to see a Japanese kid or two walking around in a City shirt. Not as unthinkable as it once might have been!

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt XI: Split (Croatia)

Posted on September 30, 2010 by tokyofox

….and so we have reached the 15th and final part in this Summers trip to Europe. I arrived in Split at 11am after a four hour journey from Mostar in Bosnia & Herzogovena and after enquiring at a few private homes I soon realised that the price would be more than what I paid in Dubrovnik. Every owner seemed to be charging for the price of two people which isn’t so much use for a lone traveller! Eventually I found a place to stay the night and set off through Diocletians Palace and took the #1 bus to Solin to see its ancient ruins.

      

While certainly not on the scale of those in Pompeii they were still impressive and on top of that the place was almost deserted and I saw less than 10 people over the two hours I was there. At the end of Solin was a second century amphitheatre (my third on this Euro trip) and on the main road nearby was where I eventually took another bus on to Trogir which is a UNESCO World Heritage site with magnificent Romanesque and Renaissance arhcitecture. Having seen Dubrovnik’s old town only two days before I wasn’t overly amazed by Trogir or maybe I was just getting tired of seeing places on this two week trip.

     

If that wasn’t a busy enough day I visited Diocletians Palace again and then decided to fit in a quick trip to the popular beach behind my accommodation where I had a final swim whilst a band played next to it which was a good atmosphere for the twenty or so minutes I was there. After that I went back to Diocletians Palace for the third time to get something to eat and it was absolutely packed as there was some performance going on which I didn’t stay around for. My final image of Croatia and indeed the whole trip was of a sign outside the nearby supermarket showing no smoking, no dogs and no guns!

 

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt X: Mostar (Bosnia & Hercegovena)

Posted on September 27, 2010 by tokyofox

So having arrived in Mostar five hours later than I had hoped for I decided to spend the night there rather than leaving later that night. I don’t really like the idea of booking a ticket out of a place as soon as you arrive but sometimes it has to be done so I booked mine for the following morning.

Once that had been done I was then actually glad to meet a tout who walked me the short distance to Vila Sara Hostel where I would spend the night in a dormitory. Again, there (seemingly) wasn’t much more to this place than a touristy, cobbled shopping street running parallel to the river over which Stari Most (Old Bridge) crossed. Not just any bridge though as it was a reconstructed one due to the old one being destroyed on the 9th of November, 1993 as part of the Bosnian War resulting from the collapse of Yugoslavia. It now holds world heritage status and is the main feature of this place which I really liked. Some local boys even jumped off it in return for cold, hard cash from tourists. I would have liked to try this myself but I didn’t have my swimming shorts with me and I didn’t see any other tourists do such a thing.

 

The main street was lined with small cafes, restaurants, artists’ studios and souvenir shops selling a mix of tacky stuff as well as former-Yugoslavia goods. These included badges, coins, stamps and military stuff which I thought was quite fascinating as indeed was the Helebija War Photo Exhibition. Compared to every thing else its 2.5 Euro entry was expensive but I felt this was something that had to be done and there were some pretty brutal photos on show. The idea behind that being to show the real, raw face of war and its absurdity.

     

After that I ate some local food; cevapcici (minced lamb…or was it beef? I can’t remember!) which is like a kebab and is inspired by Bosnia’s Turkish heritage. It was simple, tasty, cheap and filling too and after that I explored a bit more with particular regard to buildings damaged in the war. I needed a few beers after all that and sat on the hostel rooftop chatting with some guys which was nice as its fair to say I hadn’t done too much socialising on the trip…or even had the opportunity to do so.

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt IX: Zagreb & Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Posted on September 24, 2010 by tokyofox

After Slovenia I had to spend about four hours in the nice but fairly unspectacular Zagreb while I waited for my night-train down to Split. One great thing about Croatia’s capital is that there is a legitimate free transport zone……not that that usually stops me from taking the risk in some of these European cities! I took a tram from the station in the lower town to the upper town which had a huge open square to just sit in and do some people-watching. A couple of pleasant churches were nearby and I walked up some steep steps to get a panoramic view of the city which was very adequate in all honesty.

 

I left Zagreb at 9.30pm and I was lucky enough to be in a cabin with just one other person which meant that we could have three seats each and get a fair bit of sleep during the eight hour journey. As soon as I arrived in Split I went next door to the bus station and took a fairly immediate bus down to Dubrovnik which pulled in at about 11am having travelled through some stunning coastal scenery on the Adriatic coast albeit with a quite rude Polish guy constantly leaning across me to take some poor quality photos through the window.

 

It seemed like I had been on the move for about 48 hours so my plan was to hit the beach in the afternoon to finally chill out by the sea and enjoy the 30+ degrees sunshine. Before that I had to find a place to stay which took a while which was mainly down to the fact that I underestimated the walk from the bus station to the outskirts of the famous old town!

Having got lost I somehow ended up at the YHA which was full but they said to just enquire at any house which had the word ‘sobe’ outside it. I enquired at the first house I saw, but the lady had no rooms available. However, she enquired for me at the neighbours house and within a few minutes I had myself a room in a house across from the YHA at a cheaper price. Furthermore, it was only about five minutes away from a beach which I went to straight away and I enjoyed some much-needed relaxation time on the pebble beach.

The enclosed ‘old town’ was my destination late afternoon and as marvellous as the marble streets and rose-tiled roofs were I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed with the place such were the rave reviews its received in recent times. I started walking up to the lookout point but for once I actually gave up on something as I was feeling tired and was content with the views I had already seen on the way up. I had an early night and left early to get on the 8am bus to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzogovena but was gutted to find out that it was already full so I had to wait around for five hours before the next bus.

    
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Euro Trip 2010 Pt VIII: Bled & Ljubjana (Slovenia)

Posted on September 22, 2010 by tokyofox

It was only a couple of days before this part of the trip that I realised my planned journey between Venice and Ljubjana would take longer than I realised. There was only one daily night train between the two so instead I had to go by train to Trieste and then take a bus into Slovenia followed by another bus trip between the capital city Ljubjana and my destination of Bled.

Before all that though I had a few hours in the Italian border city of Trieste which was more than enough to see the remains of the old Roman amphitheatre, the Canal Grande and a couple of nice looking buildings.

    

On my arrival in Bled just after 5pm I took a while to find Castel Hostel 1004 bacpackers but all the locals I asked were very nice and helpful as indeed they were throughout my time in Slovenia. They spoke very good English too! With night-time drawing in I walked on down to the lake and then took the short but steep hike upto the castle which supposedly offers some of the best views of the towns centre-piece. I say supposedly as I didn’t go in due to the high price. However, I walked round the back of the castle and scrambled up the rocks and boy was it worth it as the view was amazing.

I haven’t mentioned it yet but Bled is famous for the tiny island on its lake which has nothing but a church on it. Many have described it as being like something out of a fairytale. The heavens opened up when I reached the lake again but I guess that I was lucky that it happened at that moment rather than 20 minutes earlier.

   

I got up at 7am the next morning and took a two hour stroll round the beautiful lake but decided that it wasn’t really worth waiting around to take a gondola over to the church on the island.

  

The view was sufficient enough for me so I headed back to the hostel, checked out and took the 9.30am bus to Ljubjana. My train from there to Zagreb in Croatia wasn’t until mid afternoon so I spent a few hours strolling round the city centre which was pleasant enough but didn’t captivate me too much.

   
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James Bond Filming Locations In Venice

Posted on September 19, 2010 by tokyofox

It’s been said that some 500 movies have been made in Venice but most of us can probably only name a few at best. In ‘Euro Trip 2010 Pt X‘ I referred to locations used in ‘The English Patient‘ (1996), ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade‘ (1989) and ‘Death In Venice‘ (1971)and on top of that two James Bond films have been set there; ‘Moonraker‘ (1979) and ‘Casino Royale‘ (2006). The latter may be a way better film but it’s the former which is actually more memorable as it included Roger Moore’s 007 famously transforming his gondola into a land vehicle (below) which rode through St Marks Square.

   

This was to the astonishment of many including a pigeon doing a double-take which was rather cheesy and typical of the Moore-as-Bond era. This is the very same pigeon (below) which was shown in slow-motion looking one way and then looking the other in disbelief at Bonds antics. *

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Coming from the water you carry on straight down through the piazza (below) as Moore did in unorthodox fashion.

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Directly in front of you on the north side is the Torre dell’Orologio (below); the clock tower where Bond has a bit of a tussle with one of the henchman working for the films antagonist Hugo Drax. Not surprisingly the interior wasn’t behind the real clock but in the studio.

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Just a few metres east of here is the Venini glass store (below) where the entrance was used as Drax’s Glassworks shop.

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Ca’Rezzonico (Museo del Settecento Veneziano) is located quite near to the church used in ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade‘ in the Dorsoduro district. This doubled up as Drax’s laboratory in ‘Moonraker‘ where Bond followed Dr Holly Goodhead (although he didn’t know it was her at the time) as she mysteriously crept away from a group having a tour of the museum and went up some stairs. The actual real glassworks museum is on Murano island just north of central Venice and I had planned to go there but in the end I just didn’t have the energy to venture out that way.

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Just round the corner from St Mark’s Square is the Hotel Danieli (below) which was where Dr Goodhead stayed in ‘Moonraker.’  The interior was also the inspiration for the tiny studio-built sinking palazzo used at the end of ‘Casino Royale‘ which can be seen on the DVD extras.

   

St Nicolo riviera (below) on Lido was also used in some way in ‘Moonraker‘ but when I got there I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was!! I have since discovered it was a monastery faking it as a “Brazilian” training camp so nothing too important.

Ponte dei Sospiri more commonly known in English as ‘Bridge of Sighs’ (below) was a little disappointing in reality as it was surrounded by blue advertising boards while its presumably under renovation. It featured in all its splendour at the end of ‘From Russia With Love‘ (1963) but was clearly just rear projection and Sean Connery’s 007 and Tatiana Romanova were in the studio. For your information the bridge connects the Palace and the prison and was named for the condemned prisoners who sighed when they crossed it to meet their executioners.

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My Venice guide through the eyes of 007 ends with some ‘Casino Royale‘ scenes. Bond and Vesper ride their yacht into Venice going between the bridges of Accademia and Rialto on the Grand Canal (below) although the sinking palazzo near the latter was a one-third reconstruction on the Pinewood 007 stage in the UK.

   

Before all of that we see Bond supposedly looking out from his hotel balcony over St Mark’s Square but that view would not be even be possible. He runs across the square on hearing the news that there is a problem with the transfer of the money. I think its the Santa Maria della Salute which appears in the background (though I can’t seem to find a photo of this in my collection) of Daniel Craig’s 007 as he talks to ‘M’ about Vesper’s betrayal from his yacht and then its off to the Villa La Gaeta in Como for the films climax and those filming locations can be seen here.

* May not be true!
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Euro Trip 2010 Pt VII: Venice (Italy)

Posted on September 14, 2010 by tokyofox

I was lucky to escape a fine on the train between Verona and Venice. I bought a ticket two minutes before it left and made a dash for the train but stupid rules in Italy say you have to validate the ticket. Thankfully, the conductor was of the understanding kind. On my arrival in Venice at 11am I eventually found Archies House which was a dirty rundown hostel but at 20 euros a night I certainly didn’t care about that! As had become the norm I headed out straight away as I was on a tight schedule. Yet again the gods were smiling down on me as it was another glorious day.

 

Venice was a stunning place but its maze of alleys, canals and bridges left me exhausted by the end of the day. Only three bridges cross the grand canal though and walking between a couple of them seemed to take an eternity as I lost my way walking through the San Polo district having started at Scalzi Bridge by the train station. The view from Rialto Bridge (above) was absolutely beautiful and typical of what I had imagined.

 

From there I decided to take a break from the streets for a while and so got on one of the over-priced vaporetto’s (small passenger ferry) and headed for the island of Lido. While it was certainly no gondola it was nice to get on the water albeit on a very crowded method of transport. Gondolas (above) are really expensive by the way and as I wasn’t with my girlfriend there really was no reason to fork out 80 euro’s or so for a 30 minute ride.

Lido was nice enough but it didn’t exactly get my pulse racing. I walked over to the other side of the island which is home to an overly-popular beach (below) and across the road from there was Grand Hotel des Bains (below) which appeared in both ‘Death in Venice’ and as the ‘Cairo’ hotel in ‘The English Patient’. However, I was not so happy to see that the place had closed down. I have since discovered in this article that it will reopen as a luxury apartment complex but that is no consolation for some cinephiles.

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I took a ferry back to the main area (without paying this time!) and headed for the picturesque St Mark’s square (below) in the San Marco district which was really impressive even amidst the hordes of pigeons and fellow tourists. I was happy enough just to admire the views and really had no interest in joining the queue of people lining up to get in to the basilica.

 

I later walked on towards Accademia Bridge and crossed it which took me into the much quieter Dorsoduro district. I had lost my way again and was starting to really feel tired (which is quite rare for me when travelling) when I came across Chiesa di San Barnaba which would normally be considered to be a fairly ordinary church if it wasn’t for the fact that it was seen in ‘Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade’. Indy, along with a couple of others, walk across the bridge seen below and then enter the church which is a library in the film. I didn’t go inside as it was expensive. Indy did of course and he found an important clue relating to the numeral ‘X’ marking the spot. Well, what do do you know but this is part X of my trip!

  
 

I spent the night sleeping with a Japanese guy. Yes, you heard that correctly! My dorm room included three single beds and I was in it with two Japanese guys of which one had taken the bed by the window leaving his mate with one of the two beds in the middle of the room. I was last to check in so of course had to take the bed which was next to his and when I say next to his I mean about an inch apart which funnily enough is as close as my girlfriends bed and mine were when we went to Malaysia in July!

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt VI: Verona (Italy)

Posted on September 12, 2010 by tokyofox

A spot of torrential rain on my arrival at Verona station had me wondering whether to even bother staying in the place. The thing with Italian stations is that there are seemingly never any maps (apart from in the shops!) so I had to rely on my guidebook to just get on the #73 bus and head in the direction of the hostel I intended to stay at.

I got fairly wet walking the two metres from the bus stop to the bus and it didn’t half chuck it down during the journey but thankfully it had died down a bit by the time I got off the bus and took a fairly steep walk up the hill leading to Ostello Villa Francescotti. This was a beautiful, huge hostel with dorms at a good price with breakfast thrown in to the bargain too. However, it also had some strict rules (curfew etc) but given that I wasn’t planning to paint the town red they didn’t bother me in any way.

 

With daylight time quickly running out I instantly headed out back down the hill and across the river (above) towards the old town. Even with the rain pouring down on that bus trip I could see what a beautiful city Verona was and that became more apparent as it stopped raining. I wandered the atmospheric streets leading to Piazza Bra and the impressive amphitheatre (above) known more simply as the Arena.

Verona is of course the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and so I headed back in the direction of Casa di Giulietta (house of Juliet) which I knew would be closed but I still had to see what I could see. That turned out to be a handful of tourists hanging round a gate (below) covered in graffiti. We could only see through it towards the courtyard below the famous balcony where there is a statue of Juliet.

 
   

By then it was already dark so I enjoyed a delicious pasta meal and was back at the hostel by 9.15pm but to my astonishment some of my room-mates had already turned out the lights which I think is so rude for such an early time. As a result I had to fumble round my bag in the dark looking for my toiletries which, with the bag rustling, probably caused greater disruption to their sleep anyway. I left early the next morning and saw similar views of the river albeit much more beautiful (above) in the clear, sunny morning light.

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Euro Trip 2010 Pt V: Milan (Italy)

Posted on September 10, 2010 by tokyofox

The only reason I actually stopped in Milan was to see the San Siro Stadium; the home of Milan and Inter. Getting there wasn’t exactly plain sailing though as the train line which runs to that area was having work done on it so a bus was used in its place. A second bus from that station was then needed though luckily the same ticket could be used for all of that. I was quite surprised at how many people had decided to do the same when I arrived at the ground and had to pay a rather hefty 13.5 euro’s for the stadium tour and museum entry.

Since it made its debut (in its current guise) at World Cup ’90 I have always considered the San Siro to be an impressive structure and have long wanted to see it with my own eyes. In a way I was more impressed with the exterior as the inside was obviously just an empty stadium of green, orange and red seats. Just a shame I couldn’t get an aerial view of the arena.

The tour was fairly short (about forty minutes) and a little chaotic with fifty or so people there but other than seeing the changing rooms and the stands what more does one need to see? Well, I guess walking out the tunnel and going on to the pitch would be nice but that wasn’t part of the tour.

The guide kept things fairly brief which pleased me as I don’t really have such a strong interest in the history and culture of the two famous club’s who share the stadium. I was more than happy with the basics and an anecdote or two which is what we got. Both teams have their own changing rooms which are both very different in appearance. Inter’s seemed a bit bigger with one large TV screen whereas the Milan one had lots of little TVs. No doubt there were many more subtle differences but that’s what I noticed!

The museum was a good size in my opinion with enough shirts, memorabilia, famous player waxworks and trophies to keep the casual fan’s who visit here happy enough.

 

These included Roberto Baggio’s shirts from both Milan clubs…

…the European and UEFA Cups, Ronaldo’s Inter shirt and, despite only being there on loan a couple of times, the huge fame of David Beckham means there is one of his shirts on display.

 

The rain was starting to get heavier and heavier as I took a tram into the centre to see the impressive Duomo.

I had intended to scout out a few filming locations from ‘The International‘ (2009); a  thriller starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. Due to the rain and time (I wanted to be in my next location early enough to see the place before darkness) I decided to get moving as I didn’t really think too much of the movie anyway. Well, not quite as I had to go the Main Central Station which was used in the movie and the square outside it; Piazza Duca d’Aosta, was where the political rally took place albeit slightly to the left of the picture below.

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