Hiroshima has two of the most admired tourist attractions in all of Japan and is a very popular place for international travellers each year. It is four hours away from Tokyo via Shinkansen (bullet train) or just 90 minutes by plane. Given you have to get to the airport and check in an hour before they basically end up taking the same time. They are the most common ways to get between the two cities but there is another way of doing it and I don’t mean by car or bus! Continue reading
When feeling a little down on their luck the locals often try to restore their fortune via a pilgrimage to honour the seven lucky gods of Japanese folklore. There are over 20 of these fixed temple courses in Tokyo alone complete with stamps to collect along the way as nothing is complete without such a thing in Japan. Such trips are admittedly more popular around January when people want to get New Years off to a positive start.
These seven lucky gods have popped up in Tokyo Fox posts over the last few years whether it be in Yugawara (Kanagawa) or Maebashi (Gunma) but this time I’d be visiting them right up in the north of Saitama about 35 kilometres south of the latter. I can’t say I was full with too much excitement for seeing those guys again but I was quite interested in the mission of getting round the three areas and five temples to locate them. This actually all came about after I asked a friend about one of the temples and he provided me with this map (below)!
I should confess that I actually attempted this feat way back in August. The night before I had been to watch Kashiwa Resyol beat FC Tokyo 1-0 at Ajinomoto Stadium with Scottish Neil which was then followed by a few 9% alcoholic drinks outside a nearby convenience store. I ended up passing out Continue reading
When I went to HollyCon Tokyo #5 back in August 2015 I thought I’d be going to a load more events after that. However, I was never too enamoured by the guest list (mostly comprised of actors from American TV series which I don’t watch!) until I heard about who would be present at HollyCon #18.
Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett-Brown) was back in Japan again and with him were Tom Wilson (Biff Tannen) and Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines McFly). The latter was originally going to be at HollyCon #5 but for whatever reason she cancelled it and was replaced with Claudia Wells (Jennifer). Getting your 30 seconds with the stars is a fairly Continue reading
So 2019 has only just begun and already Tokyo Fox is looking back!! For about nine years now there have been exactly ten new posts on here each and every month and these are the twenty from 2018 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!
1. On The Fox Trail……At The Oji Fox Parade – When I first checked 2018’s stats a few weeks ago this post was down in third position but on the day of the more recent Fox Pageant there were a few thousand hits on this article which propelled it towards the top spot. More details here
2. On The Fox Trail……At Tokyo’s Most Hidden Shrine – I don’t know who is googling words like “Tokyo hidden shrine” but there must be a sizeable number of people doing that for this post to be Continue reading
For a decade now Tokyo Fox has brought you a whole host of filming locations. ‘The Complete A-Z Of Filming Locations On Tokyo Fox’ post marked the tenth anniversary of it at the end of April but ultimately it’s been a slightly disappointing year locale-wise as I didn’t go abroad at all in 2018.
The ‘On The Trail Of Shin Godzilla’ series comprised seven parts and could thus fill the majority of the ten but I have selected just a few of them to pad out the list as this traditional curtain closer to the year limps over the finish line. As well as including posts that have been updated this year with new additions, I have also included a couple of “new” movie locations which were posted this year but backdated to 2008 and 2009 respectively. A trip or three overseas next year will certainly be needed if there is to be an eleventh year ‘best of’ post at the end of 2019! Here then, in no particular order, is the TF Top 10……filming location trips for 2018…
1. Shin Godzilla, 2016 (Click here)
2. To Continue reading
The word blog is one that I’ve wrestled with over the years and had a love-hate relationship with. Mostly hate to be fair as in my mind blogging means someone just describing what they’ve done in their day. Of course I’ve been very guilty of doing that in the past and still occasionally finish posts with blog-like material tacked on to the end. I’m not really a fan of such a style of writing but this post will completely contradict that!
These ‘Christmas In Tokyo’ posts used to just include stuff done in the last week or two leading up to the 25th but now basically include anything that happened in the 4-5 weeks building up to the big day. It’s still all part of the festive season anyway! It got underway in late November when my Continue reading
For a while now I’ve been trying to think of some lazy half-assed compilation post to do at the end of the year as the outgoing ‘TF Top 10……Filming Location Trips For (year)’ series has pretty much run out of steam and will surely need replacing from next year. They say a picture paints a thousand words so rather than write a thousand words about these photos, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. The only thing I’ll say is that none of them were actually taken in Tokyo.
1. Miho No Matsubara, Shizuoka Prefecture. More details here.
2. Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. More details here. Continue reading
Thanks to countless trips to visit my in-laws in Hiroshima over the years, I’ve been very lucky to have explored a fair proportion of this quite large prefecture. The last post covered all the things to do in Hiroshima city once you’ve done the main two sights (A-Bomb Dome and Miyajima) and this one takes you a bit further. All these places are doable in a day from Hiroshima city centre but some of them will be long, long days. Here, in no particular order, are my recommendations….
1. Kure City – One of the closest and easiest places to visit in this list. It’s a 30 minute train journey down the coastline to the east of the city. The Yamato Museum (500 yen) and the JMSDF Kure Museum a.k.a. the Whale of Iron Museum (Free entry) are the major attractions of the area and very deserving of your time. More details here
2. Tomonoura – This quaint port town is a little over 100 Continue reading
Visit the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park & Museum. ✅
Take a day trip to Miyajima. ✅
So what do you do in Hiroshima when you’ve done those two things? Well most tourists return to Osaka/Kyoto and/or Tokyo. However, some stay for an extra day or two and they are the lucky ones for there really is more to this great city than the main two!
Whilst there are so many things out there on the net about what to see, do and eat in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto there isn’t so much about Hiroshima city beyond the usual stuff about the A-Bomb dome and the floating torii gate at Miyajima. Now I certainly wouldn’t suggest first-timers to Hiroshima do any of these instead of the other two but Continue reading
Look out the train window as you take the train a few stations south of Kisarazu Station, maybe on the way to or from Hamakanaya Station (the gateway to Nokogiri-yama Mountain) and you may see a tall white thing sticking out from the vegetation. I noticed this on a previous visit down that way and was intrigued to know what it was.
Unlike many Tokyoites, I’ve actually got a lot of love for Chiba as it’s where I began my Japan journey all those years ago. It’s very much an under-rated prefecture and I’m always happy to take a trip there to see something new which this time were a couple of sights in reasonably close vicinity of Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 