On The Fox Trail……At Sasuke Inari Shrine (Kanagawa)

Posted on September 11, 2019 by tokyofox

One of the comments in the last ‘On The Fox Trail…’ post alerted me to this wonderful shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture. Despite having been to Kamakura on numerous occasions over the years I was completely oblivious to the fox shrine so a big thanks to Mister Malcontent for introducing it to me. It seems that it’s quite famous but in an area littered with dozens and dozens (hundreds??) of shrines and temples it’s maybe all too easy to miss out on a few interesting ones.

Ever since finding out about it I have been wanting to go and see it with my own eyes but I didn’t really feel like making a trip to Kamakura just to see this one place. A trip to my parents-in-law’s place on the second day of my August holiday provided the opportunity to stop off en-route. Sasuke Inari Shrine is located between Continue reading →

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Japan & South Africa Meet For The First Time Since “That” Huge Shock In 2015

Posted on September 8, 2019 by tokyofox

 

It was one of the biggest upsets in sporting history and helped propel rugby into the consciousness of a nation where the game had often just been a footnote on sports bulletins. I am of course talking about Japan’s incredible last gasp 34-32 win over the mighty South Africa in their opening match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

Yours truly watched the opening minutes of that game and saw Japan go 3-0 up and then tweeted something along the lines of enjoy this while it lasts as it’s gonna be a big defeat eventually. Ha! What a plonker and I woke up to quite a few replies the next morning making fun of me!

That was then though and this is now. I tried to get tickets for a couple of the Brave Blossoms’ games in the World Cup but Continue reading →

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Tokyo Filming Locations #18 – As The Moon, So Beautiful (2017-)

Posted on September 5, 2019 by tokyofox

Anime is one of those things which has really helped bring Japan and Japanese culture to the attention of many people overseas. I certainly wouldn’t call myself an anime fan as such but that’s not to say I haven’t had my moments. I’ve watched a handful of Japanese animation shows, mostly due to there being some location match-ups and recently managed to pick up an English map in Gunma prefecture giving details of about one hundred real animation backdrops around Japan.

The map only gives information regarding the main city used for the setting of each animation. Knowing that I was going to cycle to Kawagoe last month, I had a look at the map and saw that the city has played host to ‘Tsuki Ga Kirei‘ (2017 -), known in English by the name ‘As The Moon, So Beautiful‘. I thought I had better watch an episode or three of this original adolescent romance drama in anticipation of the bike ride. Of course Kawagoe is not in Tokyo but Continue reading →

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Interesting Japanese Playground Structures #21 – Seafood Park

Posted on September 2, 2019 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: Seafood Park

Location: Continue reading →

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Australia Filming Locations #8 – Superman Returns (2006)

Posted on August 30, 2019 by tokyofox

The number of international films to have been made in Australia is fairly limited so it is quite surprising that two of those movies have used the same location in Sydney and I’m not talking about famous landmarks like the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge which have obviously popped up in almost every film made Down Under!

 

As I said in my ‘New York Filming Locations: Superman (1978)‘ post, I can only remember certain scenes from the Christopher Reeve films and it is actually the mid 90’s TV series ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman‘ which I remember more fondly and most of my Superman knowledge comes from that show.

Despite being interested in it at the time I just never got round to watching ‘Superman Returns‘ when it was released. A friend even gave me a copy of it on DVD over a decade ago but I just never bothered to view it until  Continue reading →

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Warming Up For Tokyo 2020 Cycling With A Trip To See Some Local Keirin Action

Posted on August 27, 2019 by tokyofox

 

When it comes to Olympic sports, Japan has given the world judo and keirin. Everyone knows of the former but the latter one is still something of an unknown quantity to many regarding its origins. It was developed in Fukuoka in November 1948 for the purpose of gambling and so doesn’t seem to be taken too seriously as a sport by most people.

When I first arrived in Japan they really were different times with no smart-phones, social media, wifi and so on. All I had was a small box-style TV with the basic terrestrial channels and a few extras. Of course I couldn’t understand them so usually opted for any live sport for background visuals. I’m sure there was a keirin channel and so I used to watch that a bit in those initial few weeks of settling into life in Japan. It seemed a very strange thing as there were hardly ever Continue reading →

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Dining Out: A Long, Long Row Of 30+ Retro Vending Machines In The Middle Of Nowhere

Posted on August 24, 2019 by tokyofox

 

You’d maybe expect to find such a long row of vending machines in a busy urban place but this collection of retro machines is actually located in the middle of nowhere. It is also located next to a used tyre market. However, due to viral videos on YouTube and appearances on TV it Continue reading →

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Life, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Time To Jump On The Women’s Football Bandwagon For A New Experience!

Posted on August 21, 2019 by tokyofox

 

Like many people in this country, I have only really followed the fortunes of Nadeshiko Japan (the women’s national football team) team since they triumphed over the USA on penalties in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. Winning the biggest prize of all came at an important time for a country which had a few months earlier suffered greatly due to the earthquake and tsunami which ripped through parts of Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures. It gave the country a much needed lift and really helped put women’s football on the radar of much of the nation.

Since then, Nadeshiko Japan have twice won the Asian Cup and they also reclaimed the Asian Games title in 2018 having won it eight years previously. All of this was certainly not the first time for me to consume women’s football though. Back in the late 1980’s Continue reading →

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Tokyo Daytripper: Purple Noodles, A Tunnel Of Stunning Wooden Ema & More Unique-Faced Statues In Kawagoe

Posted on August 18, 2019 by tokyofox

Known as Little Edo, Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture is a place I’ve been to on many occasions and it has featured on Tokyo Fox a few times albeit in some quite poorly written blog posts from a long, long time ago. Wanting to visit it again, I decided to cycle there as it’s a very direct straight route of about 30 kilometres one way from the TFGOC.

Rather than go in chronological order, we’ll go in order of what I consider to be the most interesting and that means starting with these purple noodles (below) which I had for an early lunch. These udon noodles are actually made of sweet potato (imo in Japanese) and cost me ¥750. They were very chewy but tasty all the same although they didn’t really fill me up. There was a more expensive set that included tempura with it but I just wanted to get the basic purple noodle tasting experience.

 

A place that I’ve never been was Hikawa Shrine which has seemingly become very popular with the tourist hordes in recent years due to a few notable Continue reading →

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34 Degrees Celsius! Not Ideal Weather For Cycling To Kawagoe (& Back!) But That Is What I Did!

Posted on August 15, 2019 by tokyofox

 

July was a terrible month in terms of the weather with rain pretty much every day but it certainly warmed up towards the end of the month. It was a scorcher on the day I decided to do this bike ride. Not the conditions I’d have hoped for but I was keen to get out on one of my days off having hardly left the sofa on previous weeks when not at work!

Kawagoe, which is known as Little Edo, is a place I’ve been to many times. It has featured on Tokyo Fox a few times (not for a long, long time though!) but those entries are pretty poor to be honest and don’t show off too much of the city. Wanting to visit it again, I decided to cycle there as it’s a fairly easy route. Just go straight for ages and you’re there! The distance (about 30 kilometres each way) seemed reasonable too as that’s just a little more than I do on a return trip to Shibuya for work.

With my arms, face and neck smothered in sunscreen, I left the TFGOC at Continue reading →

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