This gallery contains 2 photos.
Having only watched a single game in 2020 and 2021 respectively I really was not expecting to do too many more matches last year, especially with the strict Covid_19 measures still in place for much of the season. However, I … Continue reading
July 7th is known as tanabata in Japan and it celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they can only meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month albeit just for a brief moment.
Not only was it tanabata but it was also our ninth wedding anniversary. We have rarely done anything to celebrate the occasion but decided to do a few things this year culminating in this star festival which is one of Japan’s most colourful traditional celebrations.
I had only heard about this event a few days earlier and I was keen to attend as soon as I saw some images showing Continue reading
The matchday football experience in Japan (or anywhere else for that matter!) can be an expensive one. Not only is there the cost of the ticket but then transportation has to be considered, and then there is maybe some food, drink and merchandise on top of that. It can all add up, especially for families, but I wanted to see if it was possible to do it all without spending any money at all!
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Whenever I’ve seen any list of the best places to visit in Chiba prefecture, this historical river city in Katori has almost always been included. However, for someone who prides himself on his love for this often-ignored region of Japan I had never been there. That finally changed at the start of this year though.
On the back of a morning exploring the stations of Chōshi (as well as a few other sights) I arrived at Sawara station with the main mission being to see the platform zero. However, as I had managed to do Chōshi a little quicker than expected I had Continue reading
Think of train stations in Japan and the mighty Shinjuku station is sure to come to mind for many people. That is the world’s busiest train station, and Japan monopolises the top 50 list with only five of them not in this country. However, at the other end of the scale are some tiny stations which are usually unstaffed and used by very few commuters.
Station: Minami-Takada
Prefecture: Continue reading
For over a decade Tokyo Fox has focused on the modern architecture of Tokyo with a long-running ten part series featuring over 100 interesting-looking buildings. During that time I have also taken photos of some unique structures outside of the capital city but had no place to showcase them until now. This is Volume 2 which includes some weird and wonderful buildings in the Tōhoku and Tochigi regions.
1. Sagae City Office, 1-9-45 Chuo, Continue reading
The first ever platform 0 I came across was in Chiba Prefecture when I was on my way back from a semi-naked mens mud festival (hadaka matsuri) in early 2011. The seed was sewn for what eventually became a much bigger passion of mine nearly a decade later but annoyingly for me I only took one fairly poor vertical-style photo of a sign back then.
There are just two stations in Chiba with a platform zero and the other one was rather frustratingly at a station I had changed trains at before. This is actually the case for many of the platform zero stations which I visited long before my interest in such phenomena grew. When I went to Chōshi in January this year I thought I should combine it with a couple of extra stops, and first up was Continue reading
The Keio Line principally connects Shinjuku to the western side of Tokyo with seven different lines running through to the likes of suburban city Hachiōji and the mountainous area at Takaosanguchi. All of it’s stations actually lie within the boundaries of Tokyo and, thanks to regular free tickets, Tokyo Fox has dug deep to come up with a few places worthy of visit beyond perennial favourites like Mount Takao and Tama Zoo……
#10 – Kitarō Park @ 1-58-5 Continue reading
Planning trips is something that I do enjoy, and to be fair I often pack the schedule with way too many things. By contrast, this four day holiday to Malaysian Borneo was quite flexible and open either side of my scheduled 48 hours in the jungle. Typically though this was the one time when it really did not all go to plan!
My previous two trips in 2008 to the Philippines and Thailand had been fairly beach oriented so I was looking for something a bit different which is why I decided to go to the jungles of Borneo. After a long transit flight via Kuala Lumpur I arrived in Kota Kinabalu hoping to check in to a so-called 24 hour hostel but that wasn’t open! The nearby Lucy Backpackers also seemed closed but having Continue reading
Season one (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season two with some very 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 continue with the fifth part of season two…
U is for Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 