Anyone who knows me or has ever read any of the previous ‘Countdown to Christmas in Tokyo’ blogs probably thinks I go all in on Christmas almost as soon as Halloween is out of the way but that’s not quite true. Sure, I do like to put the tree up in early November but this year it took a bit longer than expected before it was finally ready on Continue reading
This lame and lazy half-assed compilation post idea was ushered in at the end of 2018 with an eye on permanently replacing the ‘TF Top 10……Filming Location Trips For (year)’ series which has run out of steam although the occasional locale-related article appears on here. It should be noted that the focus is on the more artistic photos so there are no pictures of family, sports action or selfies. Just to be clear, some of these pictures were indeed taken in 2024 but did not appear on the Tokyo Fox site until this year. They say a picture paints a thousand words so rather than write a load of words about these photos, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
1. Tanushimaru Continue reading
Having seen my fairly regular sporting event posts on social media, a number of people often ask me how much I spend on it all. Admittedly, I’m fairly clueless in my responses but knew it was probably far less than many realise as I do usually do it as cheap as is possible. Anyway, I recently went through my sporting year in Japan and painstakingly worked out the total cost.
The majority of live sporting occasions for me in 2025 included my main three sports: football, rugby and tennis. I attended Continue reading
Just over a year after my first visit to Singapore and I was back following a night flight. Not only was I joined by my wife this time, but my mother-in-law was also in tow for a little family trip as she returned there for the first time since her honeymoon 40 years earlier!
As a big Star Wars fan, I really couldn’t believe my luck that our arrival in Singapore was at a time when a Continue reading
To mark the 30th anniversary of Pierce Brosnan’s first appearance as James Bond in ‘GoldenEye‘ (1995) it’s an appropriate time to look back on his tenure encompassing four films between 1995 and 2002 which seems crazy in the modern day where it takes similar time to make just one 007 movie!
Six actors have portrayed the double agent in the 25 official Eon-produced films thus far and it is probably the Brosnan-era quadrilogy which has been covered most thoroughly in the filming locations posts on Tokyo Fox. Here, in no particular order, are my favourite ten locales from his time as the man with a license to kill…
10. Two for the price of one @ Continue reading
There may not have been any theatrical releases yet again in 2025 but on streaming there was season two of the critically acclaimed ‘Andor‘ and the conclusion of ‘Skeleton Crew‘ in terms of live-action content. As for animation, ‘Tales of the Underworld‘ and season three of ‘Visions‘ both aired. On the fandom side of things there was plenty of action this year in Japan with multiple pop-up shops, some exhibits, live sport tie-ins and one humungous event. There’s been more than enough going on to merit a rankings list so let’s begin the top 10 at number 12 as we Continue reading
In 2024 I went to 32 football matches in Japan which was the most I’ve ever done including my years as a season ticket holder at Leicester City back in the 1990s. It was planned to scale things back a bit this year, and indeed I did in the first half of the year, but a busy July and August has meant that I got close to last year’s tally.
This is the third and final batch of matches featuring 8 different stadiums/grounds with all of them taking place in the Greater Tokyo area encompassing surrounding prefectures Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba. The majority of them weren’t really considered to be worthy of a solitary post so I have collated them into this rankings list. It’s certainly not one to be taken too seriously as it’s based on a mixture of occasion, weather, people I met, the stadium and maybe even the football itself! As ever, I enjoyed all of them in different ways.
1o. Continue reading
When it comes to Japanese castles I’ve said many times that they’re all quite similar in terms of white colour, style and appearance but there are some which look a little different, and I was lucky enough to find time in my busy schedule to see one of them on a recent trip to the Chubu region of Honshu; the largest of Japan’s four main islands.
Visiting some train stations may have been my main reason for taking an impromptu day trip to Nagano prefecture, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of visiting one of Japan’s premier Continue reading
Many people often turn their noses up a bit at the sight of new sports being added to the Olympic Games every four years. The likes of golf, rugby sevens, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing (including bouldering) have all been added to the bill for the last three Olympics in Rio (2016), Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024) but perhaps the most controversial new sport to be included at the last Olympics was breaking.
Admittedly, I didn’t actually see too much of the sport at Paris 2024 but a couple of months ago I saw there was a breaking (more commonly known in the media as breakdancing back in the 80s!) event coming up in Tokyo thanks to targeted advertising on social media. The algorithm must think I’m a very cool guy or maybe it’s just because I’ve Continue reading
2025 has been another bumper year for watching rugby and yet again I managed to attend enough matches to warrant the continuation of this compilation post series.
None of them really merited their own post so I have collated them into this rankings list. As with my football compilation posts, it’s certainly not one to be taken too seriously as it’s based on a mixture of occasion, weather, people I met, and maybe even the rugby itself! Unlike the football compilations, the stadia won’t play too much of a part as they all took place at just four different stadiums!
10. Water Gush Continue reading
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