Back In Hiroshima For The 1st Time In 3 Years; Heaven Temple Mountain, Famous Sights Revisited, The Cheapest Meal, Quality Dog Time & New Years Customs!

Posted on January 9, 2022 by tokyofox

 

It may have been three years since I was last in Hiroshima but fact is that it’s actually been over four years since I spent any time of significance in the city. That last visit was very much an in-and-out job as I was kind of just passing through on some local train travels in the western region of Japan.

Taking a dog on the Shinkansen (bullet train), or any train for that matter, is not easy so I was initially a little reluctant to travel all the way over to Hiroshima for the New Years period but Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dining Out: Hiroshima’s Cheapest Meal Is A Really Filling And Delicious One

Posted on January 6, 2022 by tokyofox

It’s not all okonomiyaki and oysters when in Hiroshima! Sometimes (well quite often actually!) you’ve got to take a break from food starting with the letter ‘o’ and try other things. This meat shop and restaurant in the city centre has a range of Japanese dishes including pork chops, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, and hamburg steaks but I was there for something else.

 

Any dish that can be bought with one coin (500 yen is the biggest denomination of coin in Japan) is a great deal in my book, but this one is even less than Continue reading →

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TF Flashback: A Surreal Border Crossing In Korea (2006)

Posted on January 3, 2022 by tokyofox

Way back in 1997 I remember watching the BBC documentary show ‘Full Circle with Michael Palin’ which was a series following the English actor/comedian/writer/TV presenter on a full anti-clockwise trip around the Pacific Rim. The second episode featured Japan and Korea, and Palin was blocked from entering North Korea so the only possibility was to go with a group of foreign tourists to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, and “cross” the border in the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjeom.

It was an episode that stuck with me as just over eight years later it was one of the first ideas that came to my mind when I knew I was going to be visiting South Korea. Asif and I signed up for a JSA full day tour from Seoul on our first day, and Continue reading →

Posted in Asia Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TF Top 20……Tokyo Fox Hits Of 2021

Posted on January 1, 2022 by tokyofox

 

So 2022 has only just begun and already Tokyo Fox is looking back!! For a decade now there have been exactly ten new posts on here each and every month and these are the twenty from 2021 which got the most hits…excluding sponsored or TF Top 10 list posts! Of course those entries from earlier in the year had more time to accumulate hits so don’t read too much into it all as it’s basically just another filler post to kick start the new year!

20. Dining Out: The Happy Rainbow Cheese Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

TF Top 21……Photos For 2021 (End Of Year Filler Post!)

Posted on December 29, 2021 by tokyofox

This lame and lazy half-assed compilation post idea was ushered in at the end of 2018 with an eye on permanently replacing the ‘TF Top 10……Filming Location Trips For (year)’ series which has long been running out of steam and will not feature at all this year as I only managed to cover two ‘Fast & The Furious‘ movies this year. However, I am confident that will return next year as the majority of them have already been drafted!

2021 has not been an easy year for travel due to the constant State of Emergency restrictions for people in Tokyo especially not that many people took too much notice of it when it was in place for the majority of the first ten months. They say a picture paints a thousand words so rather than write a load of words about these photos, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

1. Chogonji, Gunma Prefecture. More details here

2. Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Travel, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Countdown to Christmas 2021 in Tokyo

Posted on December 26, 2021 by tokyofox

Halloween may have taken over as my favourite season for a few years in the early-mid 2010s but Christmas is now well and truly back on top. The festive season is admittedly just all build-up with very little at the end as there are very few presents to unwrap and no Christmas meal to eat on the 25th! Still, it’s nice to get in the mood and that has begun very early these last couple of years as one needs something to get mildly excited about given the Covid_19 times we live in.

There’s been a deluge of festive films released on streaming services this year and I have sifted my way through far too many of them. I didn`t think I’d be able to watch so many this year but then my wife got a new job that started at the end of October thus freeing up most of my mornings to watch Christmas movies before work!

Keen to beat last years total of 46 festive films, I actually began viewing them Continue reading →

Posted in Films, Food & Drink, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Harry Potter Works His Magic To Light Up Christmas In Tokyo

Posted on December 23, 2021 by tokyofox

Global British icons don’t come much bigger than Harry Potter do they? Hogwarts! Platform 9 3/4! Quidditch! Hagrid! The Leaky Cauldron, and erm magic! Oh who am I kidding! That’s all I know of the wizard boy as I have only seen the first film and I remember very little about that! Everyone else seems to love him but I’ve just never had too much interest in it all.

A couple of years ago, the Marunouchi area of Tokyo had a Star Wars Bright Christmas event of sorts as part of the promotional campaign for the release of ‘The Rise Of Skywalker‘ (2019). Some of the exhibits were pretty cool so when I saw that there was a Continue reading →

Posted in Films | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Japan’s Award-Winning Ramen, A Rare Night Out, A Dog Statue, A Cake-Flavoured Drink & Yet Another Castle!

Posted on December 19, 2021 by tokyofox

It’s been a long, long time since I went to a new prefecture in Japan but Wakayama-ken now takes me one closer to the total of 47. Admittedly, it was something of a short visit but they all count and this one did involve staying for the night as well as a night out itself. I should add that I am not desperately trying to visit all 47 of Japan’s prefectures but I guess it is something that I’d like to achieve eventually.

The aforementioned accommodation was called Smile Hotel; a great location right next to Continue reading →

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

Foxed In The Head: Cycling To All Inari Shrines In Tokyo’s 23 Wards – #18 Ota

Posted on December 16, 2021 by tokyofox

#18. Ota

Cycling may be something that I love to do but I’m not really one who goes for a ride without some kind of aim whether it be to a restaurant, a sight or just my workplace. With that in mind, and desperate to get out on my new bike, I decided to cycle round ALL the Inari Shrines in Tokyo taking each of the 23 wards one at a time.

Inspired by recent interest in tiny shrines, this idea seemed like a good way of Continue reading →

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Interesting Japanese Playground Structures #36 – Octopus Square

Posted on December 13, 2021 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: Octopus Square

Location: 1-12 Continue reading →

Posted in Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments