On The Trail Of Shin Godzilla #1 – Shinagawa

Posted on January 29, 2018 by tokyofox

In the original ‘Godzilla‘ (1954) movie, the first place on land where the gigantic amphibious bipedal lizard arrived was Shinagawa which he promptly destroyed. Presumably ‘Shin Gojira‘ (2016) was paying homage to that and the 120 minute film features a few minutes of scenes from this ward which lies on Tokyo Bay.

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

 

All the Shinagawa-based scenes occur between 23 and 26 minutes with the main Continue reading →

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TF Flashback: Big Day Out Festival In Sydney (2002)

Posted on January 26, 2018 by tokyofox

This festival was the big one on the Australian calendar (until it finished in 2014) and one that I was lucky enough to attend back on January 26th (a.k.a. Australia Day) in 2002. Before it got cancelled I only really remembered it was Big Day Out when some British bands started to appear in Tokyo for one or two Japanese shows en-route down under where this festival moved around some of the country’s big cities. Thanks to the journal that I kept at the time (available online at afoxdownunder.wordpress.com) we can now take a look back on all that happened 16 years ago on an epic day……

It was an early start (by our standards!) for Richard Richard and I as we caught a train to Olympic Park in anticipation of buying tickets from a tout outside the Sydney Showground. Sadly Continue reading →

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Dining Out In Shizuoka City

Posted on January 23, 2018 by tokyofox

These days Japan is awash with all manner of matcha flavoured confectionary on sale in stores nationwide. However, it may surprise the recent influx of visitors to the country that such green tea sweets are actually quite a recent phenomena in Japan (about 15 years or so) when compared with how long they’ve been drinking the stuff!

I’d come across an ice-cream shop called Nanaya whilst searching for interesting things to do the night before and so after we arrived back at Shizuoka station (following our trip to Toro Ruins) we took the 10-15 minute walk to the store (2-3-1 Ryogaecho, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka) which boasts the world’s most intense matcha taste gelato.

 

The funny thing is that I don’t really even like matcha ice cream that much. In fact it would probably be my Continue reading →

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Sightseeing In Shizuoka City

Posted on January 20, 2018 by tokyofox

The majority of our time over the festive break was just spent at my parents-in-law’s place in Ito but we did take a short weekend break to Shizuoka city which is still a couple of hours away despite being in the same prefecture.

 

Back in April last year I ventured over this way twice in two days but that was purely in the name of seeing football matches in Fujieda and Shimizu without any sightseeing whatsoever. This time though was different and our first stop on arrival was the ancient Toro ruins which we managed to reach via a quick bus ride from stop #22 on the south side of JR Shizuoka station. I just assumed there’d be some kind of Continue reading →

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The Best Of The Rest Of Our Time In Izu

Posted on January 16, 2018 by tokyofox

Eating, drinking and sleeping basically covers the rest of our time in Izu but for those who have got past that first sentence let me tell you about all the other stuff starting with Ito City Hall.

 

Now that may sound like something really dull but this trip was just to see the Continue reading →

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Lake Ippeki-ko & The Abandoned Ruins Of It’s Lakeside Hotel

Posted on January 13, 2018 by tokyofox

 

Without my own wheels in Izu, it’s fair to say that options are a little limited when I want to go off and do some kind of sightseeing by myself. As nice as it is, there’s only so many times one can go to Mount Komuro!! The next nearest sight is probably Continue reading →

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Dinosaurs + Amazing Drinking Water Fountain (Video) On Mt Komuro

Posted on January 10, 2018 by tokyofox

After all the excess eating over the festive season I really felt in need of a bit of exercise and some fresh air one day so the obvious choice was the nearby Mount Komuro which is very walkable from my in-laws’ house. As it turned out, I would venture on up this mountain about half a dozen times during our two week stay in Izu.

 

There is the option of a chair lift to take you to the mountaintop observatory but I feel it’s a little expensive at 470 yen (presumably a return trip) and, if you’re physically able, it’s also cheating!! Mount Omuro is nearly always visible and looking good but of course it pales into Continue reading →

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Mind Blowing Star Wars Exhibit At Nippon TV Tower

Posted on January 7, 2018 by tokyofox

 

The last few years have been exciting times for Star Wars fans at Christmas with the release of three movies during the festive season. Of course I was there to see it on opening day at my local cinema and again at the same time seven days later but with my wife also in tow. Later that same day we went to Shimbashi to see Continue reading →

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On The Fox Trail……At The Oji Fox Parade

Posted on January 4, 2018 by tokyofox

New Years Eve is a night that promises much but often delivers very little and I long gave up on doing anything whatsoever on it but this time was different as I came back to Tokyo on a 24 hour round trip from Izu to attend an event that featured in a ‘TF Top 10……Quirky Japanese Festivals‘ post a couple of years ago.

 

The Oji Kitsune-no-gyoretsu Fox Parade is one that I’ve been aware of for many years now and it’s been growing in popularity recently but New Years Eve just Continue reading →

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TF Top 20……Tokyo Fox Hits Of 2017

Posted on January 1, 2018 by tokyofox

So 2018 has only just begun and already Tokyo Fox is looking back!! For about eight years now there have been exactly ten new posts on here each and every month and these are the twenty from 2017 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 but for the first time the number of posts is actually quite balanced with entries from most months of the year.

1. On The Fox Trail……At Motonosumi Inari Shrine (Yamaguchi)  – Something of a phenomenon on the Tokyo Fox Facebook page as it reached over 11,000 people and was shared more than 80 times which, trust me, is amazing by usual standards. More details here

 

2. Continue reading →

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