Dining Out: My Return To Yoshinoya For Their New M-eel

Posted on June 9, 2009 by tokyofox

One of the first restaurants I made repeat visits to when I initially came to Japan was Yoshinoya 吉野家 which is a Japanese style fast food restaurant specialising in gyu-don (literally meaning ‘beef bowl’). Early in 2004 Japan stopped importing beef from America due to mad cow disease and with the introduction of buta-don (pork bowl) I switched allegiance to their rival Matsuya as it was just a bit cheaper and also had the addition of miso soup. Some people turn their noses up at such food but it does the job when you’re in a rush (or running short on funds) and surely has to be a bit more healthy than McDonalds.

In a separate food story my favourite sushi dish has always been unagi うなぎ(freshwater eel) so I was intrigued to try unadon 鰻丼 which Yoshinoya has recently released and is basically a freshwater eel dumped on top of a bowl of rice and rather nice it is too but like so many things in this country I guess it’ll disappear from the menu soon given the constant comings and goings of Japanese products.

My Return To Yoshinoya For Their New M-eel My Return To Yoshinoya For Their New M-eel

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Japan Has A New World Record Holder

Posted on May 27, 2009 by tokyofox

Warning: Those of a sensitive nature may not wish to read on!

Last week a Japanese man become the new world record holder in this activity. I’m sure he faced some pretty stiff opposition along the way and hopefully his competitors aren’t at home licking their wounds. The Japanese man concerned must be standing proud after achieving the record thereby coming first in that activity. Now its all over I guess he can raise a smile if nothing else! Who knows, maybe Japan will erect a statue in his honour!

The question everyone is asking now is whether he’ll be able to pull it off again next year. It might be a little hard to do it again but if he concentrates on the matter in hand then I am sure he will rise to the occasion and beat off the competition single handedly! From reading this article it really is quite astounding to see how serious the guy takes such a thing and who knew a world record for such a thing even existed!

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Tokyo Dream Party Cosplay Convention

Posted on May 20, 2009 by tokyofox

Back in Golden Week myself and Gideon went to Odaiba to see the Dream Party which was a very nerdy event jam-packed with men queueing up round the block just to buy some geeky merchandise from a stall. This part was fairly dull and meant nothing to us apart from getting a few photos of the girls on hand to promote an array of their companies anime, comics, figurines and characters.

 

There was also some thing taking place on stage but listening to the ever-so girlie squeaky voices for more than a few minutes is more than most westerners can tolerate. Quite why so many Japanese girls speak in such voices is beyond me but then again I’m not Japanese am I so I can probably never understand the appeal.

Thankfully the day was saved by the cosplay event which on the whole took place outside until the rain changed from the tolerable drizzle to something a bit more heavy.

 

Japanese girls just love to get dressed up as opposed to Western women who usually need a bit more of an excuse (in my not-so-knowledgable opinion!) to get dolled up. This is of course very pleasing on the eye for most men and you have to admire their efforts in more ways than one but on the other hand they do sometimes dress completely over the top such as wearing heels to go to the beach.

 

That is taken to the extreme by these cosplay (the Japanese word for costume roleplay which is very Japanese concept) events where girls (and a handful of men too) dress up in costumes based on manga characters. This event was going on outside the Tokyo Big Sight and to be honest its difficult to know what to make of such a phenomenon. I have no doubt that those in the Western world think that men (up to the age of about 60) taking photos of naive young girls is just not right and I agree with that thinking myself to an extent especially when they are asking the girls to get into some sexually suggestive positions.

However, this is Japan where many many things are done differently and their thinking for all I know may just be that they (both cosplayer and photographer) think its cute and will maybe catapult the cosplayer to becoming a model. Anyway, I don’t want to get too heavy on what is a fun, colourful event with costumes galore (of which I knew absolutely none!) which one has to admire for the effort put into them.

            
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Terminator Exhibition In Tokyo

Posted on May 7, 2009 by tokyofox

As a fan of the whole Terminator franchise I just had to go to Odaiba and see the “Terminator Exhibition: Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future” which is not exactly the most snappy of titles is it?! Most museums may be free back in the UK but not here in Tokyo where myself and Ethan had to cough up 1200 yen each to enter the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

Japan is of course famed for its development of pet and cleaning robots and this exhibition was based on the possibility of robots and humans co-existing (whether killing or protecting!) as portrayed by the Terminator series. Having read this blurb I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of Terminator-related things and I was half right but there was actually more than I imagined. Of course the whole thing was basically just a big promotion for next month’s new film and there was a mini-cinema zone playing the trailers.

One other zone featured the costumes and robots from the next film including the more black degraded robots (rather than shiny and silver) and the Mototerminator which as the name suggests is a cross between a motorbike and a terminator. The main zone featured exhibits, costumes, artwork and photos from all the movies as well as a model of Cameron (played by the gorgeous Summer Glau) who plays the terminator protecting John Connor in ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ TV series.

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I was told off three times for use of flash photography but given that they don’t eject you for such a thing I just had to make sure that it was a different staff member who spoke to me each time and as always in this country there were loads of workers present.

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Luckily we could sell our tickets outside to a mate and his friend at half price which made the exhibition more satisfying. It also did its job of whetting our appetite for the forthcoming ‘Terminator Salvation‘ (known as ‘Terminator 4‘ in Japan) film which is released in Japan on June 13th.

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You can read my review of ‘Terminator Salvation‘ here 

Click here to see Terminator Filming Locations in California

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Golden Week 2009

Posted on May 2, 2009 by tokyofox

Golden Week 2006 – Okinawa

Golden Week 2007 – Philippines

Golden Week 2008 – Thailand

Golden Week 2009 – Tokyo!

Not such an exotic destination for this years holiday due to finances and other commitments. The first of my eight days off began on Wednesday when I met ex-Nova workmate Peter in Kagurazaka which is supposedly famous for its French restaurants (as well as Italian, Spanish and of course Japanese) amid its sloping main street.

The area used to be renowned for its geisha houses but no real sign of such thing today as we walked around the backstreets. I was first told about this place a couple of years back as being a nice elegant place in Tokyo away from the main tourist traps, and having kept a magazine article on the place I have to say that the place was quite disappointing for me not that I had any real high expectations. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we ventured on to the very-crowded Yoyogi Park in Harajuku for a couple of beer cans followed by a load more beer later in an izakaya.

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Rain Fall

Posted on April 28, 2009 by tokyofox

To be frank I have very little interest in Japanese films. I’ve seen a few notable ones and they’re OK but most just don’t quite cut the mustard with me. However, there is one exception and that is ‘Rain Fall‘ which is based on Barry Eisler’s series of books which I have very much enjoyed reading.

They revolve around one principle character; John Rain, a Japanese-American cynical, conscientious assassin with a liking for whisky and jazz music. The first two books (there are six in total) are set in Tokyo which was obviously appealing to me and though not as likeable or exciting as the Bourne series they were thrillers which kept me hooked and wanting more including a film adaptation.

That has now happened and features Gary Oldman but sadly for me the film is predominantly in Japanese and so there is no need to provide English subtitles. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if it gets released overseas at a later date. I now know how those Japanese people with a strong interest in Hollywood films and American TV shows feel when they can’t watch them until they finally get subtitled!

 
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We Are The Champions!!

Posted on April 22, 2009 by tokyofox

I raced home from work last Monday night (April 13th) to catch the end of Leicester versus Leeds United on Sky which was streamed live on live footy doctor. It culminated with a fantastic finale which, coupled with Peterborough’s defeat later that night, effectively ensured promotion for the Foxes.

The 20 minutes action I saw was surprisingly of very good quality but it wasn’t until last weekend that the League One title and promotion was ensured after a 2-0 win at Southend. I took the cowards option and avoided the first half by going running and it paid its dividends as we scored both goals within 15 minutes of me logging on to the internet on my return.

To celebrate(?) I have been doing a gap-fill listening exercise in some of my classes of the Queen song “We are the champions‘ (everything these days can relate to something I do in class it seems!) which is based around the students filling in the gaps with the relevant preposition and particle words such as after, on, to, through, of and so on.

I’m certainly no fan of Queen but the aforementioned song does have a little place in my heart as it blared out of the sound system in May 1996 after our last minute extra time winner in the Play Off Final. The irony of the situation was that we weren’t champions and in fact finished 6th in that season but we sure felt like champions on that day having won at the home of football in such dramatic fashion.

Posted in English Teaching, Leicester City, Music, Sport | Tagged , | 2 Comments

TF Film Review: Slumdog Millionnaire (2008)

Posted on April 15, 2009 by tokyofox

I’d never even heard of ‘Slumdog Millionnaire‘ before it won a load of Academy Awards a few months ago. It’s not even came out in Japan yet but I did manage to watch it a couple of weeks ago on the internet and was glad to see that it did live up to its hype. I really enjoyed it and it was interesting to see the slums of India; a country which I visited back in June 2007.

‘Who wants to be a millionnaire?‘ is shown in the same format in many countries around the world including Japan and I often use the theme tune in lessons as well as saying “final answer?” which is said in English on the Japanese version and is well known and gets a cheap laugh every time. Of course most people don’t realise that the programme originates from the UK.

Watching the films scenes on the quiz show set reminded me of my own experiences on the Australian version of Millionnaire back in 2001. No, I wasn’t a contestant but I was an audience member and along with my friends Richard and Jo we were directly behind the presenter and appeared on screen each time his face was shown which was most amusing to me at the time.

It was a celebrity episode (not that I knew the majority of the Aussie celebrities – basically there was no-one on there from Neighbours or Home & Away!) and so they filmed two episodes in one day which was so tiring by the end of it. Its difficult to clap with enthusiasm after a certain amount of time plus we had to move to the back for the latter episode to make it look like it was live with a different audience as eagle-eyed viewers do notice these things.

I even fluked all the ‘ask the audience’ questions right but then again I even managed to go on a bit of a run the first time I saw the Japanese one which was made even more difficult by the fact that I couldn’t understand nor read the questions and multi-choice answers!

Tokyo Fox Rating 9/10

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The Police Are Off-Beat!

Posted on April 7, 2009 by tokyofox

Walking home last last week having missed the last train I was stopped by a policeman. Drunk and disorderly I wasn’t. Instead I was stopped for the terrible crime of crossing a deserted minor road (no it wasn’t Letsby Avenue!) when the green man wasn’t flashing.

Before he even said anything I knew he was gonna tell me off for taking the five steps it took to cross a road that one would otherwise have to wait three minutes to cross. He started muttering something about “aka shingo” (red light) which I refused to react to in Japanese as that can sometimes make things worse and they are more likely to just give up if they can’t communicate with you.

Instead, I just said “no cars” in English and pointed to the road but he just continued to come out with the same words in Japanese. Not wanting to waste any more time I decided to swallow my pride, said “gomen” (Sorry) and just walked off. He never stopped me but it is just one example of how most police have nothing better to do in Japan.

Now I don’t know if its illegal to j-walk in this country (maybe it is) as the Japanese tend to stick to all rules. Nothing wrong with that but the circumstances in which I was stopped seemed a bit extreme given the time and place. Its not as if I was crossing a busy road whilst dodging cars!

The police in this relatively safe country only really seem to give directions and stop cyclists to make sure their bike has been registered under the users name (a law in Japan) which is no doubt a better situation than having them chasing and shooting criminals in the streets! On the other hand, ask them to catch the person who killed a foreign teacher working in Japan and they seem so reluctant to do it!

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I’ve Got A New Phone!

Posted on March 31, 2009 by tokyofox

Finally moved into the modern age a couple of weeks ago by swapping my phone for something a bit more modern. When I bought my old one four years ago it was the very latest phone on the market but in an ever-changing market it wasn’t long before it became dated.

In the present day that phone was considered ancient and the network carrier changed name from Vodafone to Softbank ages ago so it was high time I traded it in. The old one had a TV function on it which I rarely used (as mentioned in a previous post, Japanese TV is not so interesting to non-Japanese people) so I didn’t bother getting such a feature on the new lighter model.

The Japanese are aboslutely obsessed with their mobiles and the trains, for example, are full of people playing with their phones. While I do a bit of that myself I only really ever use the e-mailing function (the equivalent of text messaging in the western world) while occasionally having a dabble with the camera and inevitably a few calls have to be made.

As a result I changed to a cheaper plan which will hopefully save me a bit of money in the credit crunch era. I thought it would be fairly simple to change my phone for they actually sent me a letter saying I could change it for free as the old model was so out-of-date.

As always though in Japan, it took an age to do this while we went through the lengthy process of confirming all details to an almost-tedious extent. The guy was of course nice enough and as much as I love the service in this country I do sometimes wonder why it takes them so long to ‘make the sale’ as it gets tiring listening to them go through every possible detail and then repeat the process again to confirm. Maybe I am being a bit harsh but I don’t know why some of these transactions take around an hour.

 
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