I Had A Golden Time At This Athletics Event In Yokohama

Posted on May 24, 2023 by tokyofox

 

Athletics in my home country of the UK was very much in its golden period when I was growing up in the 1980s, and it was popular on TV at a time when many different sports got fairly equal coverage. I would often watch it and many of the athletes were household names. Not only that but I’d also do many of the track and field events both in and out of school.

As we moved into the mid 90s though, and the sporting TV landscape began to change, I gradually saw less and less. Nowadays the only track and field action I see is Continue reading →

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The Goddess Statue Watching Over This Coastal Area

Posted on May 21, 2023 by tokyofox

Anyone who has ever taken a train to or past Ofuna in Kanagawa Prefecture will have proabably noticed the giant 25 metre-tall white goddess statue looming in the mountains just behind the station. It is not alone though as I spotted another one a few years back a further 42 kilometres south of Ofuna.

As someone who goes back and forth between Tokyo and Shizuoka about half a dozen  times every year I see this goddess statue quite often and always think I really should stop off and visit it……but never do! However, a fairly good opportunity to see it finally came Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Time To Revisit Thailand To Travel Around Phuket, Bangkok & Ayutthaya (2008)

Posted on May 18, 2023 by tokyofox

This trip to Thailand really helped to reinvent my impression of a country I hadn’t given much of a chance on a brief trip to Bangkok en-route to Australia in 2001. On that occasion I just wanted to get to the latter so didn’t have any interest in Thailand and so looked on it quite negatively with my young and inexperienced travel eyes.

Regular snowboarding trips with my best American friend Ethan were a fairly regular occurrence around 2007 and 2008 but I’d never given much thought to travelling overseas together as I was just so used to doing that alone. However, when he expressed an interest in us going to Thailand together I was keen. By that time, I had become a much regular traveller having been to the likes of Continue reading →

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Jumping On The Baseball Bandwagon In Japan (& Then Jumping Right Off It Again!)

Posted on May 15, 2023 by tokyofox

If you live outside of Japan or the USA then you may not be aware that the former beat the latter back in March to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) thanks in particular to star player Shohei Otani who plies his trade stateside for the Los Angeles Angels. It is the biggest sport in Japan so baseball-fever was rife during the tournament.

Whilst I didn’t really watch any of it, I did quite enjoy the logistics of the tournament (countries involved, host cities, format etc) which meant I could get some enjoyment from talking about it with students. It must’ve got into my head in some way as within a week I had tickets to see not just one but Continue reading →

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Alphabet Dating In Japan With My Wife Who Was Still Completely Unaware Of The Task At Hand! (S02E04 P-T)

Posted on May 12, 2023 by tokyofox

 

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 fourth  part of season two…

P is for Continue reading →

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I went To The Champions League Final! No, Not The UEFA One But The Asian One!

Posted on May 8, 2023 by tokyofox

The epic 2022 Asian Champions League (ACL) concluded in Saitama on Saturday evening, 424 days after it first started early last year with bubble matches in neutral stadia and no fans present. It was a different story last weekend though as over 50,000 fans packed into the Saitama Stadium 2002 for the second leg of this showpiece final, and Tokyo Fox was lucky enough to have been offered a ticket to experience it all.

This was actually my first ever Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations of Japan #13 – Daishimae (a.k.a Japan’s Busiest Unstaffed Station)

Posted on May 6, 2023 by tokyofox

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: Continue reading →

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Star Wars & Beyond: The Music Of John Williams Live In Concert

Posted on May 3, 2023 by tokyofox

It is often said that the soundtrack for a film is its oxygen, and nowhere is that more apparant than in Star Wars. John Williams was of course the man responsible for composing the scores for the nine Skywalker movies which really give the saga its lungs. Williams is arguably the greatest composer of all time and famed for the soundtracks to the likes of Jaws, Indiana Jones, Superman, E.T., Jurassic Park and Star Wars plus many, many more. You know that though!

In the last couple of years there have been some classical music concerts in Tokyo celebrating the magic of John Williams. I was unable to attend those but when I saw the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra would be performing a show last month I Continue reading →

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Interesting Japanese Playground Structures #40 – Egypt Park

Posted on April 30, 2023 by tokyofox

Many of the parks and children’s playgrounds in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, are quite poor compared to other countries in terms of space, surroundings and a lack of grass. However, a handful of them do tend to possess extremely creative structures and they will be explored in this series.

Nickname: Egypt Park

Location: Wanpaku Park, 2-9-6 Continue reading →

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This Unique Fish Shrine Is A Great Plaice To Visit

Posted on April 27, 2023 by tokyofox

From time to time one needs to trout themselves to a day out so earlier this year I went to one of Tokyo’s neighbouring prefectures. It was a ridiculously early start as I left home just after 5:00 am and took a near-four hour local train journey to a plaice which has developed as a fishing town since the middle of the 17th century. There were quite a few things I wanted to see and do on this epic day trip, and one of them was to visit a very unique Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments