Recent adventures in Chiba Prefecture seeking out the rather isolated Thai temple got me thinking about other such interesting-looking religious buildings in Tokyo. Of course the vast majority of religious places in Japan are Buddhist or Shinto but there are some others catering for those with different beliefs including well-known ones as well as a Continue reading
Just over 24 years ago the V99 music festival in the UK was headlined by Suede and Manic Street Preachers. It is still one of the best line-ups I’ve ever seen and was a very memorable weekend for me in Staffordshire which co-hosted the occasion. Fast forward nearly quarter of a century and both of those bands are still going but the landscape of music has changed a fair bit.
Bands used to only ever go out on the road to help promote their latest album releases but profits from music sales have dramatically dropped in the digital era so touring seems to be where the money is now. That may explain this fairly unique co-headline tour as neither Continue reading
It doesn’t seem so long ago that the Olympics were in Tokyo and now the Paris games are on the horizon. That was made very apparent at this qualifying event in Tokyo at the end of last month. October was something of a water sport special for me with three events in eight days. First up was swimming on Sunday, that was followed by water polo on Friday and then there was this Continue reading
Seasons one and two (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season three with even more tenuous examples for each letter of the alphabet. For the record, doing something together (no matter what it is!) counts as a date in this series which is not always about visiting glamorous places and doing exciting things but just getting out there and exploring locations we wouldn’t normally go to. Without further ado, lets kick off the final season of alphabet dating with what we did for the third set of letters…
K is for Continue reading
This rural part of Saitama is one of my favourite places in the prefecture (one of the top 10 Saitama sights in this post from a decade ago!) but one that I have only visited a few times, and not for over ten years! It was time to change all that and on this occasion it was actually my wife who pushed for us to go there.
The main reason for this trip was to ride on Japan’s most futuristic luxury liner and to take Continue reading
Nippon Budokan in 2023
The likes of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Queen have all played at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo but for me it was Blur’s Japan-only release ‘Live at the Budokan‘ (1996) which brought the place to my attention back when such foreign import CDs were a big deal for music fans. It was one of the first CDs I bought not long after landing down in Japan years later as an ignorant foreigner with very little Continue reading
To celebrate the unofficial toilet day on November 10th in Japan I have decided to deposit a second compilation of interesting public lavatories in Tokyo. The Tokyo Fox site sure is plumbing to low depths but hopefully you will be bowel-ed over and end up thinking it’s an excrement idea!
Japan is such a backwards country at times when it comes to many things but if they put just half as much effort into those things as they do in coming up with toilet ideas then it really might help Continue reading
The delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics took place in 2021 across 43 venues; 8 new permanent ones, 25 previously existing facilities and 10 temporary places. Some of the new constructions included Japan National Stadium, Musashino Forest Sports Plaza, Oi Hockey Stadium, Ariake Arena and Tokyo Aquatic Centre. Due to the pandemic very few people actually got to step foot inside these places though. Just over two years later and I finally went to the latter. Twice!
The search for new sports this year has unearthed some interesting experiences which are largely unknown by people closely associated with that particular sport. As I began to check out water sports in Tokyo (there was almost nothing in English on the internet) I came across a couple of events at Tokyo Aquatic Centre in Koto Ward so purchased some tickets and Continue reading
November 3rd is being marketed as Godzilla Day by Toho as it’s the 69th anniversary of the original films release. The first period-piece Godzilla movie, ‘Godzilla Minus One‘ (known as ‘Gojira -1.0‘ in Japan) is released in Japan on that date with it being set during the American occupation of Japan (1945-1952) which means it’s a kind of Continue reading
There may have been a fair amount of train-related posts on Tokyo Fox in the last few years (stations, dangle-trains, railway cafes, Metro challenges etc) but when it comes to actual trains I know very little. I wasn’t even aware of this futuristic luxury liner until my wife said that she wanted to ride on it. Within a couple of weeks a plan had been made to ride on it with our ever-faithful dog joining us too for a rare outing (for him!) beyond the borders of Tokyo.
The rounded front gives it a very sci-fi look
This silver-coloured spaceship-style limited express train known as Laview runs every Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 