5 Different Sports On 5 Separate Visits To A Multi-Purpose Venue In Tokyo’s Sporting Mecca

Posted on June 22, 2025 by tokyofox

Other than the schools I work at, the place I’ve frequented most by bicycle this year is in the capital city’s sporting home. Along with the Japan Olympic Museum, this particular area of Tokyo has a few sports complexes in very close vicinity of each other. The National Stadium, Chichibunomiya Rugby Ground and Meiji Jingu Stadium are all located within a short walk of each other and I’ve already been to the first two eight times this year! Across from the National Stadium is another sporting venue which has a rich Olympic history.

Although it was built in 1954 for the World Wrestling Championships, Tokyo Continue reading →

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Junk or Treasure? The Ever-Growing Retro Collection At This Outdoor Museum In Tokyo

Posted on June 18, 2025 by tokyofox

An exhibition of items collected by an individual over the years as a hobby, including some very unique and rare items, is displayed outside for all to see 24 hours a day with the only security measure being some CCTV cameras. Only in Japan I guess!

This place is a treasure trove of all kinds of retro machines, vehicles, products, enamel signs and statues belonging to one Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Euro Trip Vol. 1 – Sneaking Into FIFA, Feeling Under-dressed On A Beautiful Mountain & A Popping In To Europe’s 4th Smallest Country (2010)

Posted on June 14, 2025 by tokyofox

For a Brit living in Japan it’s a bit strange to go to Europe for a holiday without visiting the UK to see family and friends but that is exactly what happened on this trip. The plan was to fly from Tokyo to Zurich in Switzerland with my return flight to Japan’s capital being from Croatia. I then had to decide how best to fill the time in between those airport encounters. This is the first part of looking back on the time I spent in Switzerland and Liechtenstein…

There’s no such thing as a cheap place to stay in Switzerland so I had to fork out more than double what I was used to paying for accommodation back then. On the plus side the Continue reading →

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The A-Z of Films ‘Set’ In Japan: 70+ Movies From The 1940s To The Present Day!

Posted on June 10, 2025 by tokyofox

Over the last nine decades more than 70 international productions have been “set” in Japan. Looking at those stats now, it seems rather poor but that is more to do with the country’s heavy red-tape in giving permission for movies to be shot in public places. Consequently, many of them have been filmed in the back of taxis (driving through the neon lights), hotels, temples or done guerilla-style! Failing that, they just faked Japanese locations without even entering the country!

All but a few of them have been reviewed on Tokyo Fox over the last two decades (there are still a few that I just cannot get hold of in any way!) so click on the title to see my critique of any that may interest you. Just be aware that some of them are Continue reading →

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6 Days In Hiroshima: A Messy Poop, Live Sport, A Secluded Beach, The Shortest Mountain & The Slowest Bullet Train!

Posted on June 6, 2025 by tokyofox

When people asked me what I was doing in the Japanese Golden Week holidays (end of April to early May) I told them I was going to Hiroshima to see my parents-in-law. In hindsight I should’ve just said the latter part of the sentence because as soon as I say Hiroshima their minds immediately switch to Continue reading →

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#WeStopAtNothing! Visiting (Almost) All (of) The Platform Zero Stations In Yamaguchi

Posted on June 2, 2025 by tokyofox

There’s something slightly mystical and Harry Potter-like about these platforms and one has to wonder why some stations have them whether it be because it’s been added on that particular side of platform 1 or just because they began their numbering from zero! I’m not sure if I’ll ever visit all of them but certainly hope to tick a few more off as the years go by!

Located at the western tip of Honshu with coastlines on the Sea of Japan and Seto Inland Sea, Yamaguchi prefecture was once the king of platform zeros in Japan with five of them but sadly that number has been reduced over the years. Niigata now has the crown but Continue reading →

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12 Hours In Fukuoka: Unique Architecture, Cheap Ramen, A Frog Temple, Platform Zeros & The World’s Largest Bronze Statue!

Posted on May 29, 2025 by tokyofox

The most famous trail for foreign tourists coming to Japan is of course Tokyo followed by a combination of neighbouring cities Kyoto and Osaka. Some extend it to include Hiroshima and for anyone with even more time I’d suggest travelling further south to Fukuoka which is a really great city. I would definitely recommend having more time there than I had on my last visit though!

On the back of single nights in Oita and Saga prefectures my short time in Kyushu (Japan’s most southerly main island) was coming to an end but I still had nearly 12 hours in Fukuoka before my evening flight back to Tokyo. After an early morning train and a couple of buses (I took the wrong one to start with!) I was at Tomita Continue reading →

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Celebrate The Chaos & Clutter At This Outdoor Museum Just Outside of Tokyo

Posted on May 25, 2025 by tokyofox

In my early years in Japan I visited a few homes of Japanese people and was quite astounded by the amount of clutter in their homes. There were boxes and boxes of things, books and magazines piled up high all over the place and very little in the way of open spaces. I don’t know if that’s true for many or just the consequence of living in much smaller places than in the western world. However, there are various museums and places in Japan which almost celebrate the idea of chaotic clutter, and this one a short distance from Tokyo exemplifies that.

Back in October of last year I had booked two days off work to attend Continue reading →

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TF Top 10……Countries I’ve Spent The Least Amount of Time In!

Posted on May 21, 2025 by tokyofox

Without any international travel since the global pandemic, my passport actually expired in August 2023 and I didn’t even realise it till many months later! I finally got round to getting a new one recently but there are no still plans to go overseas. I’d love to do a quick trip to Seoul or Taipei but finding a convenient time to do that (as well as the money!) is not so easy. It did get me thinking about the shortest times I’ve spent in countries though so, of all the countries I have visited, these are the ten which were very much in ‘n out jobs…

10. Myanmar (December 2013) – The original idea was for us to stay for about a week Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Road Trippin’ In Hokkaido With My #1 American Friend!

Posted on May 17, 2025 by tokyofox

Prior to this trip to Hokkaido I was told time and time again that the end of June was the best time to visit as there was no rainy season there. That may have been true but it certainly didn’t mean there was no rain. Far from it as it rained in part on most days of our five night stay in Japan’s most northern main island. Thankfully it wasn’t heavy enough to ruin the trip in any way and my number one American friend and I enjoyed a busy six days of mountain climbing, local delicacies, sightseeing, and drinking in a number of places dotted around the island. This is the (condensed) diary of our six day road trip to Hokkaido…

Day 1: Less than a month after visiting him in Seoul and I was again with Ethan having met up at New Chitose Airport early afternoon. We were soon Continue reading →

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