Sapporo has it’s ice festival with all manner of ice sculptures on display but this place in Tottori manages to do similar but using sand.
The sand dunes are of course the main attraction in Tottori but I also had a real desire to visit this incredible sand museum which was set to close Continue reading
Ever since I first heard about there being sand dunes in Japan I have really wanted to visit Tottori prefecture to see them for myself. I’ve mentioned this to many students over the last five years or so and most of them are quite surprised. Some of them really couldn’t believe that it’s been on my Japan bucket list for a while when they found out that I have been to some pretty decent deserts in the likes of Tunisia, Jordan, Australia and the USA. You would maybe expect to see deserts in those countries but you really wouldn’t forecast Continue reading
This terrifying bridge has featured on the Only In Japan YouTube channel before. (Watch it here). I’d even looked it up on a maps app to see where it was in the past. However, that had all been long forgotten when I boarded a bus at Matsue to go to Sakaiminato Station which was a much quicker and easier option than taking the train. To my surprise there was actually Continue reading
It wasn’t just the fox trail that I was on in Matsue!
Tracking down such temples and shrines has inadvertently became something of a passion for me. Naturally it started as a way of amusing my childish brain but I keep ending up at such places and have now been to a sizeable amount of them around the whole country. Yaegaki-jinja Shrine in Matsue was one of the easiest to get to thanks to a direct Continue reading
Other than a few major Inari Shrines in Kyushu and a possible return to Zao Fox Village when it’s snowy, the end is nigh for this ‘On The Fox Trail…’ series. Or so I thought!
Whilst searching for things to do in Matsue I came across this shrine which is located just beyond the castle but within the moat and it’s grounds. Beforehand I knew this shrine possessed a load of foxes but I just assumed it was only the small white ceramic figurine foxes that can be purchased as a token of good luck. However, it turned out to be a lot more than that and proved to be Continue reading
When sketching out this five day trip of western Japan I thought I’d spend a day in Hiroshima to recover from the epic 16 hour local train trip from Tokyo. Having been to Hiroshima countless times though, there was nowhere I really wanted to go other than the pizza vending machine, so I decided that I should move on and explore pastures new.
10 hours was all I actually spent at my in-laws apartment but Continue reading
Eating pizza in Japan is something of a rarity for me because the likes of Dominos and Pizza Hut are just so ridiculously expensive. For a long time now I’ve considered that there is something of a gap in the market for a more reasonably priced pizza and maybe, just maybe this vending machine in Hiroshima is trying to fill that void. Continue reading
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
