Watching My First Football Match At The National Stadium In Tokyo

Posted on October 9, 2022 by tokyofox

Suzuka was very much the centre of attention for sport this afternoon with the most eye-catching event being Round 18 of the 2022 Formula One championship. However, 400 kilometres away the local football team, known as Suzuka Point-Getters, were playing a match against Shinjuku Criacao at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo.

 

This stadium has been open for nearly three years now and I finally got to go inside it but not for a cup final or an international match! Teams occasionally decide to play a home match at the stadium (FC Tokyo and Shimizu S-Pulse have done so already this season) and this time the hosts were Continue reading →

Posted in Sport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

TF Top 10……Star Wars Events In Japan Since The Disney Takeover A Decade Ago

Posted on October 6, 2022 by tokyofox

 

It’s been ten years since Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. It was certainly a news story I didn’t see coming but I’ve never had any problem with the takeover  although I really wasn’t so keen for the films to continue beyond Episode VI. As someone who remembers the lean years when there was barely any new Star Wars content out there, it has been wonderful to have a constant flow of films and TV shows released. To date, there has been the three sequel movies, two stand-alone films, Rebels, Resistance, The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian, Visions, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor and more!

To celebrate the last decade I have Continue reading →

Posted in Quirky Japan, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

This Doll Temple Houses Japan’s Largest Seated Tumbling-Doll Statue

Posted on October 3, 2022 by tokyofox

Japan has many symbols of luck and good fortunes such as the maneki neko cat figurines, omamori (protective amulets) and omikuji (paper fortunes) but one of the more interesting ones is the tumbling doll known as daruma. Having been to a few daruma-related places in the last few years it was hard to resist the opportunity to see another when it was so nearby to where I was.

Having ventured over to the west side of Izu and met up with my friend Natasha back in August we spent a day Continue reading →

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

Riding On One Of The World’s Seven Dangletrains

Posted on September 30, 2022 by tokyofox

Learning recently that there were only seven suspended railways operating in the world was a surprise, and hearing that two of them were in Japan was something I didn’t expect either. Some of this information came off the back of watching a Tim Traveller YouTube video (You can watch it at the foot of this post) about a dangletrain in Düsseldorf in Germany.

The two Japanese upside-down trains are both in reasonable close vicinity to Tokyo with one in Continue reading →

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

TF Flashback: Movie Location Hunting & Sightseeing In New York City (2012)

Posted on September 27, 2022 by tokyofox

It’s said that New York is the true home of cinema with hundreds and hundreds of movies being filmed there each and every year so a decade ago I thought it was time I try and cover a selected handful of shooting locations from the Big Apple.

On a 5 day trip to the USA I managed to cover movie locations from such films as ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s‘ (1961), ‘The Bourne Supremacy‘ (2004), Continue reading →

Posted in Nth American Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Finally Got To See Naomi Osaka Play Tennis But It Didn’t Quite Go To Plan!!

Posted on September 24, 2022 by tokyofox

Four time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was back in Tokyo last week to defend the title she won when the Toray Pan Pacific Open (TPPO) tournament last took place in 2019. I’ve actually been following the ups and downs of her career since about 2015 but had still never seen her play live until this tournament. I have now seen her play but Continue reading →

Posted in Sport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Watching Football In Niigata At The Stadium Used In The 2002 FIFA World Cup

Posted on September 20, 2022 by tokyofox

England played in five different Japanese cities in the FIFA World Cup 2002. They were in Saitama, Sapporo, Osaka, Shizuoka and Niigata with the latter one being a game which I often forget about. It was against Denmark in the Second Round but because Continue reading →

Posted in Sport | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Cycling To Every Inari Shrine In Tokyo’s 23 Wards: The Fox Top Collection

Posted on September 17, 2022 by tokyofox

One of the quirks of this epic Tokyo cycling challenge was to wear a fox-related top to loosely tie in with the Inari Shrines where kitsune (foxes) are revered. The majority of the tops I wore were related to Leicester City whose nickname is the foxes, but there were a few other ones. I’ll let you peak behind the curtain here and reveal that I Continue reading →

Posted in Cycling, Leicester City | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Retrospective Alphabet Dating In Greater Tokyo S00E02: F-I

Posted on September 14, 2022 by tokyofox

 

Whilst season two of alphabet dating is taking place I thought I could fill that void with a restrospecive series which is certainly an easier operation as they were not done in alphabetical order which can be a little stressful and frustrating at times.

Season 0 will throw back to places and things we’ve done in Greater Tokyo since 2011. I generally hate the term Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Cold Lemon Ramen, A Ghibli-Like Temple, Local Green Cola, Video Cassette Tapes, Spicy Chicken McNuggets & An Awe-Inspiring Sea Cave

Posted on September 11, 2022 by tokyofox

 

It may have been the rainy season on this particular visit to the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture but there was thankfully very little wet weather and so we could enjoy a relaxing week at the house with a couple of side-trips included too.

Staying in the countryside is a far cry from our urban life in Tokyo with all the convenience that it offers. There’s not that much to do at times so Continue reading →

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments