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
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
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
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
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
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
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
On my first trip to Sendai a few years ago I actually went to check out the Yurtec Stadium early morning whilst my wife had a lie-in. I vowed that I’d return one day to actually see a game featuring the home side Vegalta Sendai. Three years later and that wish finally came true just one day after a very wet match for my Reysol boys up in Yamagata.
Local trains from Yamagata to Sendai only take about an hour so I decided to take a slight detour on my return to Tokyo to see a J1 game in a city which I visited a couple of times last Summer. Consadole Sapporo were the visitors for Sendai which gave me the chance to actually see an English Continue reading
A few months ago I heard that this interactive exhibition was coming to Tokyo and I was immediately excited without knowing too much about it. That was until I saw the price! It was over 3000 yen which is a little expensive to say the least. I needed to think carefully about whether I thought it would be worth it and inevitably I succumbed to the temptation and went on the opening day!
Tennozu Isle was the location and it was held in a warehouse just a stones throw from where I watched England lose on penalties to Argentina in the blind football World Cup Final last March. It was the first day of my school holidays and my birthday too so a treat was in order as I needed to do something with my time and better to go before most other people too.
Booking the tickets for my friend Matt and I was not so easy as the whole process was very technical. First I had to Continue reading
“All moons are good but an August moon is a little older and a little wiser”
So that’s what the latter part of the title was all about then! For many, many years I’ve been aware of this film but I had absolutely no idea what it was about until I finally got round to watching it a couple of months ago.
Opening with the twangy sound of the shamisen, the shōji (Japanese paper doors) opens to reveal post-WWII Okinawa in 1946. With no preconceptions of the movie contents, I was in for quite a surprise when I saw Marlon Brando portraying a Japanese interpreter as talks to the camera whilst sitting in front of a tree.
Warning: Contains Spoilers!
Of course this film is very much of it’s time and is probably now damned by political correctness. Rumour has it that Brando was so Continue reading
