On The Fox Trail……At Tokyo’s Most Hidden Shrine!

Posted on June 24, 2018 by tokyofox

About four years ago I was talking to an older student about strange and interesting shrines in and around Tokyo and he mentioned that there was a kind of secret shrine in Akihabara somewhere but I completely forgot about it and didn’t think anything of it until last year when popular Tokyo-based YouTuber ‘Only In Japan Go‘ did a live stream from this place. You can watch it here. I assume that this is the one my student was on about but you can never be too sure in Japan where there are shrines hidden away in all kinds of places.

Ever since I saw the aforementioned video I have wanted to check out this place and so I recently cycled to Akihabara (and Ueno too) which was the first time I’ve properly cycled through Tokyo since I got knocked off my bike back in February. The shrine is now on google maps so it’s not exactly hidden anymore. It’s located very close to the Don Quixote store, about five minutes away from Akihabara Station. Find the Sadatei Building and just to the left of the shop is the tightest of alleys but it’s certainly not visible until right up close.

    Continue reading →

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Day Trip To The Toyota Stadium!

Posted on June 21, 2018 by tokyofox

Nagoya Grampus Eight (as they were known back then) were the first team I knew of in the J-League back in the early 90’s when Leicester’s favourite son Gary Lineker announced he was moving to Japan. A few years later the team name was heard yet again in England when Arsene Wenger left them to become the new Arsenal manager.

When I first arrived in Japan I even thought I might support Grampus but things never quite panned out like that and I ended up becoming a fan of Kashiwa Reysol who were my local team back then. However, visiting the home stadium of Grampus (a different one to where Lineker played at) was still something I wanted to do and for a long time it’s been on my Japan bucket list.

Over the last few years I’ve been to many grounds around the country (including some very far flung ones) but Nagoya has always eluded me. The trip to see Gamba Osaka at the end of April reignited my interest in going to some of the further bigger stadiums and so I scanned the fixture list to see when was good for Nagoya. Continue reading →

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On Screen #9 – Russia

Posted on June 17, 2018 by tokyofox

With Russia hosting this years FIFA World Cup there is a lot of focus on the nation which is famed for vodka, bears, mineral fuels, matryoshka (stacking dolls) and drugs! A fair few international productions have taken place in Russia with the vast majority of them including Moscow Airport scenes and Red Square footage. Countless TV productions of Leo Tolstoy classics like ‘War & Peace‘ and ‘Anna Karenina‘ have been set in Russia but this particular On Screen post will focus on how the country has been portrayed in film whether it be real, or faked somewhere cheaper and easier.

  

A whole host of action movies have been played out in the world’s biggest country and pretty much all of them have featured Russians as the baddies! That’s certainly been the case in James Bond films where there have been numerous Russian antagonists. Put Russia and James Bond together and most minds will probably think of ‘From Russia With Love‘ (1963) but that Continue reading →

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Unstaffed Stations of Japan #2 – Funamachi

Posted on June 14, 2018 by tokyofox

Think of train stations in Japan and the mighty Shinjuku station is sure to come to mind for many people. That is the world’s busiest train station, and Japan monopolises the top 50 list with only five of them not in this country. However, at the other end of the scale are some tiny stations which are usually unstaffed and used by very few commuters. Continue reading →

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Less Than 24 Hours In Nagoya……Again!!

Posted on June 11, 2018 by tokyofox

At the end of my ‘Sightseeing In Nagoya‘ post in January last year I vowed that I would return with my wife next time. 17 months later and I was back in Nagoya but yet again she was not with me due to her work commitments. Furthermore, it was another trip to this city for just one night on the back of seven or eight hours in Kyoto having began the day by getting up at 4am in Osaka.

 

I didn’t waste any time on my arrival in Nagoya and headed south straight away to Continue reading →

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A Giant Maneki-Neko Watches Over This Japanese City

Posted on June 8, 2018 by tokyofox

The maneki-neko is a Japanese figurine often seen in or at the entrance of shops, restaurants, pachinko parlours, and other such businesses with the idea that it’s believed to bring good luck to the owner. They are often fairly small and usually made of ceramic or plastic. Some of them have a battery-powered slow-moving paw beckoning customers to enter the place. The cat temple at Gotokuji in Tokyo is absolutely packed full of these cat figurines and this particular town, lying on the western coast of the Chita Peninsula in southern Aichi Prefecture, has also taken the idea a step further!

Just under ten minutes walk from Continue reading →

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The Sunglasses-Wearing Buddha Statue!

Posted on June 5, 2018 by tokyofox

  

There’s something alluring about buddha statues for me and, despite not being in any way religious, I’m always happy to see them. The bigger the better too! I heard about this one last year and it was my priority destination during my fairly limited time in Nagoya recently. Hotei Station lies on the Continue reading →

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Interesting Japanese Playground Structures #13 – Whale Park

Posted on June 2, 2018 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: Whale Park

Location: Continue reading →

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Kyoto Filming Locations – The Challenge (1982)

Posted on May 30, 2018 by tokyofox

In my review of this film last year I said that the grounds of the Shokoku-ji buddhist temple in Northern Kyoto were used throughout and that they have supposedly remained unchanged since it was founded in 1382. That may be so but sadly the part that was used in the film is the one branch (there are a few dotted around the area) that is pretty much closed and only open once or twice a year for special events.

This movie, first released as a TV movie called ‘The Sword of the Ninja‘, was shot entirely in Kyoto with principle shooting taking place at the aforementioned Shokoku-ji Temple which is just across from one of the exits of Imadegawa Station on the Subway Karasuma Line, just north of Kyoto Station. The entrance (below) is about the only part I could really capture as it’s seen on film.

  

It is located besides a branch of Continue reading →

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The Alternative Tour Of Kyoto

Posted on May 27, 2018 by tokyofox

  

An article recently appeared in The Japan Times saying that Kyoto was really feeling the burden of increased tourism in recent years with locals complaining that they can’t even board buses when they need to as they’re packed full of tourists. That was certainly true on the bus to Arashiyama (where thousands and thousands of people visit the bamboo forest) but not the case for the rest of the places I visited in Kyoto which I had pretty much to myself. The fact that I was in Kyoto by Continue reading →

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