A Trio Of Top Sights In The Aizu Wakamatsu Region

Posted on September 2, 2018 by tokyofox

Five weeks on from my last trip up north I headed that way again but there was to be a stop at Aizu Wakumatsu en-route to my nights accommodation in Sendai. It also happened to be my birthday and so, whilst my wife was working, I travelled up to Koriyama via Utsunomiya on my own. On that previous trip I ventured east on the Ban-Etsuto Line to see Mini Mount Fuji among other things but this time I headed west for an hour or so. I passed Inawashiro Station which was where my girlfriend (now my wife) and I went en-route to the wonderful Goshikinuma (Five Colour Lakes) back in 2012.

A few stops on from there was the tiny Higashi Nagahara Station and from there I walked for roughly thirty minutes to the Aizu Jibo Daikannon Statue. Being such a big statue it came into view much sooner than that which was a bit of a surprise as I had completely forgotten what kind of place I was going to as my notes on this area were made a few weeks ago.

 

It was a vast complex but I decided to just home in on the Continue reading →

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On The Trail Of Shin Godzilla #6 – Tokyo

Posted on August 30, 2018 by tokyofox

After a 12 year absence from Japan, ‘Shin Gojira‘ (2016) came out with shooting taking place in Tokyo from September 2015 onwards. Released 62 years after the original, it certainly pays homage to it with the inclusion of some classic Godzilla filming locations in the Japanese capital.

N.B. The time codes given are approximate and may be slightly different to the DVD or blu-ray versions.

It may seem like the first locale is in Shinagawa. The screen caption on 19 minutes even says that it’s Shinagawa Shrine but as I revealed in ‘On The Trail Of Shin Godzilla #1‘ this is movie magic for it wasn’t actually filmed there. Ichigaya Kamegaoka Hachimangu Shrine (below) is nearly ten kilometres to the north of Shinagawa and it doubles up as the place of worship where a crowd of people are seen running away from the atomic-breathed monster and climbing the shrine’s stone stairs. The address is 4-1 Ichigaya Honmura-cho, Shinjuku-ku. Ichigaya Station is just a few minutes walk away. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a few extra bonus shots of this nice shrine.

    Continue reading →

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On The Road With The Kashiwa Reysol Fans Twice In Five Days

Posted on August 27, 2018 by tokyofox

  

The majority of J1 games tend to be on Saturdays when I’m working but there are a few rounds played on Sundays. I got lucky with the Nagoya Grampus match being against my team Kashiwa Reysol on a Sunday in May and similarly Reysol were on the road at Jubilo Iwata on Sunday August 19th. Their Yamaha Stadium was the fourth and final stadium I wanted to visit in Shizuoka Prefecture following trips last year to Shimizu S-Pulse, Fujieda MYFC and Azul Claro Numazo.

This stadium only holds 15,165 seats so for the first time ever I actually bought a ticket in advance and went to stay at my parents-in-law’s place in Izu the night before. I spent the afternoon of the game checking out a few sights in nearby Hamamatsu and was at Iwata Station just before 5pm (two hours before kick off) where I soon managed to catch a bus to the stadium. It cost Continue reading →

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Tokyo Daytripper: Tokyo’s Newest Big Buddha Statue

Posted on August 24, 2018 by tokyofox

 

Move over Kamakura buddha as there’s now a bigger rival in this region and it’s actually in Tokyo! However, I don’t think Kamakura will have to worry too much about potential visitors flocking to see this relatively new buddha statue as it’s still located about 90 minutes away from Shinjuku in rural western Tokyo.

This copper alloy one has only been open to the public since April this year and has become quite the talking point in the town of Hinode! It was five years in the making and built at great cost (over Continue reading →

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Dining Out: The “Pie Ramen” Restaurant

Posted on August 22, 2018 by tokyofox

When it comes to ramen, there are many tastes and regional variations whether it be shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), tonkotsu (pork bone broth) in Kyushu or miso ramen which is served up in Hokkaido. On top of that come the crazy novelty ones which include things like cheese, coffee, ice-cream, tequila, kiwi, ham, pizza, sake, pineapple and so on. The kind of things that the true ramen masters would most definitely turn their nose up at!

  

That intro was actually copy and pasted from earlier this year when I sampled blue ramen but it’s an opening paragraph that’s also apt for this post about a new wave of ramen which has recently started being served up in a trailer house restaurant in Tokyo. Earlier this month, on a ridiculously hot day (over 36 degrees celsius!) I stopped off at this place en-route to see Tokyo’s newest Continue reading →

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On the Fox Trail……at Takekoma-Jinja Shrine (Miyagi)

Posted on August 19, 2018 by tokyofox

Following a string of fairly local-based ‘On The Fox Trail…’ posts so far this year, it was time to get back on the road, and whilst I was up in Sendai in June I felt almost obliged to visit Takekoma Shrine which isn’t too far away from Iwanuma Station.

The ‘On The Fox Trail…’ series was only in its infancy when my wife and I went to the relatively close Zao Fox Village (it’s less than 40 kilometres away!) which is also in Miyagi prefecture. I wasn’t even aware of this shrine back then as I only heard about it after I was kindly sent a copy of ‘The Fox And The Jewel‘ (by Karen A. Smyers) which is seemingly now out-of-print.

  

There’s a map of Japan on it’s inside cover showing all the major Inari worship centres of the country. There are 14 in total with and this one was the tenth to cross off my list but to tell the truth I had Continue reading →

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In Search Of A Spider-Man Statue In Fukushima Prefecture!

Posted on August 16, 2018 by tokyofox

When you’ve lived for so long in Tokyo you kind of take it for granted that you’ll never have to wait long for a train. However, it can be a very different matter when out of the cities and one such example of that is the Ban-Etsuto Line which runs east (and west too I think!) of Koriyama. Trains really are not often along this line but if you’re lucky there’s about one every 60-75 minutes!!

  

Having spent about 70 minutes near Kanameta Station (in the name of visiting the quirky miniature Mount Fuji) I moved on to the next stop (Funehiki Station) which was eight minutes further east. As the title implies, I was on the hunt to find a Spider-man on the side of a building alongside a load of other figures made of cement. However, it seems I Continue reading →

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Mini Mount Fuji In Fukushima

Posted on August 12, 2018 by tokyofox

Many gardens in Japan often seem to have a hill that’s been named Mini Fuji due to its vague resemblance in shape to the iconic and spiritual mountain. This one though is a bit different as it’s in the middle of nowhere and is also privately owned. Luckily Tokyo Fox was given permission to take photographs from inside the grounds by the very kind owner.

It was another early start that morning as I left Sendai and headed down to Koriyama via Fukushima. I then headed eastwards for just 18 minutes on the rather infrequent Ban-Etsuto Line (in the direction of Ononiimachi) to Kanameta Station. With rain expected on this day I was mightily relieved that the sun was still shining for my duration in the area.

After just under 25 minutes walking south of the station I came to a a bridge and could see the “snow-capped” part of Mount Fuji in Continue reading →

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A Big Buddha, A Capsule Hotel, A Strange Shop Name & The Sendai Hub Trilogy

Posted on August 9, 2018 by tokyofox

My first day up in northern Japan began with a slightly unfinished kannon statue in Soma and similarly the next day also started with a statue by way of a big buddha. Not only that but it was a similar case a couple of years ago on my last visit to this area when I saw a couple of tall kannon statues in both Funaoka and Sendai (Sendia Daikannon (Daikanmitsuji Temple).

From Sendai, I headed west on the Senzan Line Rapid to Ayashi station and began to walk up to the buddha which I wanted to see. Some of the scenery along the way (below) was quite wonderful, the weather was very sunny and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

 

There was a warning sign about bears along the way but I can’t say I took it too seriously. After about Continue reading →

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A Quick Trip To Matsushima Bay

Posted on August 6, 2018 by tokyofox

The city of Sendai doesn’t really offer too much in terms of tourist sights but there are some interesting places within easy reach of it like Zao Fox Village, Funaoka Castle Park and Sendai Daikannon (Daikanmitsuji Temple). Another such place is Matushima Bay so I headed off there on my only full day in the area. Matsushimakaigan Station is just 40 minutes east of Sendai Station and I arrived there mid-morning, collected a map and headed straight to the coast to check out Godaido Temple.

  

This charming temple is located on an island connected by some bright red foot-bridges. It’s the only thing on the island and there certainly isn’t Continue reading →

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