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
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
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
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
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
Whilst all city stations in Japan are generally in very good condition, the countryside ones can be a different story. One such place that I’d seen online which looked like it was stuck in a bygone era was located in one of Tokyo’s neighbouring prefectures and I finally ventured out the way to see it at the start of this year.
Just a couple of days after returning from my Hiroshima adventures, I embarked on a near-four hour local train journey to the Continue reading
Seeing the words “pig cafe” may make some people think that this is a place specialising in pork-based dishes but thankfully this is just the latest in a never-ending line of animal-based cafes in Japan.
First there were cat and dog cafes, and then the likes of rabbits, reptiles, owls, hedgehogs, capybara and so on followed suit. A few years ago, I heard about this pig cafe via YouTube and added it to my list of places to go. Admittedly, it took Continue reading
Vietnam is a deceptively big country – over one and a half thousand kilometres from north to south, although only around 50 km wide at its narrowest point. With these long distances in mind, I could only ever get round the southern part on my first trip there in 2006.
However, a decade ago my girlfriend (now wife!) and I spent some time in the north starting off in the capital city Hanoi which was buzzing with atmosphere, particularly in the Old Quarter where motorcycles zip around the streets day and night in a place where traffic lights are few to non-existent. These thousands of motorcycles provide a constant soundtrack of angry insect swarms and beeping horns!
The city throngs with 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 season two and what we did for the third set of letters…
K is for Continue reading
When I started to plan this trip to Niigata I was expecting to stay in the city centre but the high prices of hotels there meant that I had to look further afield. It was a blessing in disguise really as that meant I got to experience some Continue reading
