The ‘On The Fox Trail…’ series on Tokyo Fox has generally included a fair number of shrines around Japan but for this one it’s more a case of going on the c*cks trail, if you will! As ever, I was unable to resist the lure of such a quirky place and so I ventured on over to Chiba prefecture recently to check out this small shrine.
The closest station is Continue reading
The only times I usually set foot in Kawasaki are to either watch Kawasaki Frontale in the J.League or to see a load of c*cks! Yes, you did read that right as Kawasaki is home to the annual Kanamara Matsuri (a.k.a. the p*nis festival!) at the start of April each year. However, this time I decided to check out some b-grade spots in the Kawasaki city area which lies just over the border from Ota ward in Tokyo.
Let’s start with what I think is the most interesting of the “sights” I saw a few weeks ago. North of Keikyu Kawasaki station (about 15 minutes on foot) is an area known as Kawaramachi which is home to an interesting architectural building designed by Sachio Otani.
This building (number 3) was part of the Kawaramachi High Rise Housing Project and was completed in 1972 with it’s design intended as Continue reading
Of course I’d seen bits and pieces of Bond films on TV but it wasn’t until Pierce Brosnan’s second outing as 007 that I actually saw one in it’s entirety and there was no looking back after that. For that reason ‘Tomorrow Never Dies‘ (1997) will always hold a special place in my heart and it still remains one of my favourites.
The courtyard of Somerset House (below) at The Strand was used as MI6 HQ where Bond is summoned to on 23 minutes. Two years earlier the same place doubled up as St Petersburg in ‘GoldenEye’ (1995). This place is a short distance from Temple tube station and also appears as scenery footage at the start of ‘Love Actually‘ (2003).
The Atlantic Hotel garage in Hamburg (Germany) is actually the Continue reading
Many people often do some kind of detox after the excess of Christmas and/or New Year but I continued in the festive spirit in to the early days of March! Since my bicycle accident last month I haven’t really been able to do any exercise so last Monday I stopped eating chocolate, crisps, junk food etc but it wasn’t until Tuesday that the idea of doing this water fasting entered my mind.
Just in case you didn’t know what bottles of water look like!
As the name suggests, water fasting is where you don’t eat any food (not even chewing gum or breath fresheners!) and only drink water (no tea or other drinks) for a time period. Medical advice generally suggests anywhere from 24 hours to three days as the maximum time to go without food. When I started this challenge on Thursday morning (March 8th) at 11:11 am (*) I was really only thinking to do Continue reading
There really does seem to be a never ending supply of interesting little shrines and temples in Japan which is most welcome news for this blogger who is always on the lookout for unique ones whether it be the temple statue that speaks to you, the baseball shrine or the many animal-related ones like the cat temple, the elephant temple or the shrine with a lion from Trafalgar Square in London.
Now I can add whale shrine to that list thanks to a Continue reading
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
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!
As you’ve probably noticed, this particular one is famed for its distinct colour Continue reading
Thousands of visitors descend on this part of Tokyo every week to visit SkyTree; the world’s tallest tower. However, beneath the shadow of the 634 metre tower lie a few relatively unknown and quirky places worthy of a few minutes time.
Tobacco & Salt may sound like a joke of an idea for a museum but it’s very much for real and the fact is that this quirky place actually has a history going all the way back to 1978. In the very early days of the Tokyo Fox blog, I visited it at its original location in Shibuya as I was curious to see how such dull subject matter could be exhibited! A few years ago the museum relocated to Sumida ward and, as I was passing by it last week, I finally (after much hesitation!) decided to go in and take a quick peak as my curiosity once again got the better of me!
The building that houses this museum is an impressive one and incredibly there are Continue reading
It seems that very little is often said about Ota-ku, Tokyo’s most southerly ward, other than it being home to Haneda International Airport! However, Tokyo Fox has tried its best to put that wrong with a few posts over the years including trips to Senzoku-ike, Ikegami Honmonji Temple, Denenchofu Station and a fox shrine crawl of sorts in the Haneda area itself too.
Now there’s something to add to that list as ‘Shin Gojira‘ (2016) was shot quite extensively in the ward. A future ‘On The Trail Of Shin Godzilla’ post will highlight the scenes in the Kamata and Haneda areas but this one will focus on a couple of locations close to Tamagawa station.
N.B. The time codes given are approximate and may be slightly different to the DVD or blu-ray versions.
The first locale is Continue reading
A couple of foreign guys embark on a journey to Japan in search of something or someone but before you roll your eyes at the thought of yet another fish-out-of-water film please know that this is very different. It’s an extremely unconventional film that rides against the tide of what is the Hollywood norm for this is the latest effort from Martin Scorsese and the setting is 17th century Japan at a time when the suppression of Japanese Roman Catholics was rife.
Two Portuguese priests played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver receive disturbing news that their mentor Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has renounced his faith and so they hop in a boat and come to Japan with an alcoholic Japanese fisherman called Kichijiro as a guide. They want to know if he’s still alive and to help other locals who are trying to believe in Christianity whilst facing hostility from Japanese buddhists for their beliefs.
Admittedly, I had no idea about about Christianity in Japan until I Continue reading
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 