It’s now been over five years since I went to a country other than the one where I was born and raised, and that itself was in January 2020. Back in March 2019 I visited Australia for just under two weeks, and it was an unbelievably busy trip. The main reason for the visit was to see my eldest sister’s family, and my parents who were visiting at the same time. A few other family members as well as some friends from various parts of my past were also met. There is way too much stuff to include in this compilation post so this is just what I consider to be the best of the filming locations, sig ..read more

Regular readers of Tokyo Fox will be aware that I love football, Star Wars, and unique toilets and restaurants so imagine how excited I was when I discovered a place catering for all of those things. Not only that but it was located right under my nose! Despite countless trips to go and watch Kashiwa Reysol over the years I have never been to this restaurant located within a stones throw of the stadium. To be fair, it is a very short distance off the track I usually take when going to see my adopted Japanese team in action so I wasn’t aware of it for many years. After a ten minute wait I fin ..read more

The New Year was just around the corner by the time we finally went to Izu for our winter holiday. That was due to having a number of guests in Tokyo over the Christmas holiday as well as work, sickness and the need for some rest on my wife’s part. The trip didn’t get off to the best start though as when we arrived the electric wasn’t working at all. Luckily, a few calls later and the use of some candles helped us through those first few hours. In this day and age of modern technology everywhere it was a gentle reminder of more simple times, especially in light of what happened in the Noto Pe ..read more

Compared to the western world, Japan is still very much a land of meat and fish eaters. It is a huge part of their culture and it’s hard to see it changing anytime soon, if ever! However, with the vast increase in foreign tourism to Japan in the last year a few vegetarian restaurants have begun popping up to cater for such tastes which are far more common among westerners. In need of some exercise I decided to cycle over to the eastern part of Tokyo to tick off a few little places I’d long had earmarked on Google Maps as wanting to visit. One of them included this vegetarian gyoza restaurant ..read more

  Seasons one and two (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season three with even more tenuous examples for each letter of the alphabet. For the record, doing something together (no matter what it is!) counts as a date in this series which is not always about visiting glamorous places and doing exciting things but just getting out there and exploring locations we wouldn’t normally go to. Without further ado, lets kick off the final season of alphabet dating with what we did for the second set of ..read more

  Seasons one and two (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season three with even more tenuous examples for each letter of the alphabet. For the record, doing something together (no matter what it is!) counts as a date in this series which is not always about visiting glamorous places and doing exciting things but just getting out there and exploring locations we wouldn’t normally go to. Without further ado, lets kick off the final season of alphabet dating with what we did for the third set of ..read more

  Seasons one and two (as well as the prequel season zero) of alphabet dating certainly pushed the boundaries of what a “date” is, and that continues in season three with even more tenuous examples for each letter of the alphabet. For the record, doing something together (no matter what it is!) counts as a date in this series which is not always about visiting glamorous places and doing exciting things but just getting out there and exploring locations we wouldn’t normally go to. Without further ado, lets kick off the final season of alphabet dating with what we did for the second set of ..read more

  Just five weeks after my previous trip to Japan’s Tōhoku region in the north of Japan I was back for a more widespread adventure taking in five prefectures including four that I had never previously visited. All of this was done using local trains and due to their more limited nature in this part of the country I had to plan everything very carefully which often meant having to run to various locations and back! I was away for five nights this time and these were the main highlights… Day 1: I travelled up to Koriyama (Fukushima Prefecture) via Utsunomiya and headed west from there for ..read more

In 1859 Yokohama was the first port to open to international trade in Japan after 250+ years of isolation. It therefore became the birthplace of Japan’s modernisation as it gradually adopted cultural innovations and trends from overseas before spreading it to the rest of Japan. Western vegetables that are now taken for granted, such as cabbages, tomatoes, celery, cauliflower, radish and asparagus were introduced to Japan around this time. Some foreign residents began farming in the Yamate area of Yokohama and this trend eventually spread to neighbouring villages including Koyasu in Kanagawa P ..read more

Fine dining is all good and well but it’s not really for me. I’ve experienced it a few times and of course the cuisine has been great but I’m well and truly out of my comfort zone, and somewhat struggle to enjoy dishes which I know cost a fortune! Right at the other end of the scale was this grubby little shack of a place with a range of retro vending machines providing food for anyone dropping by. Back in early August I noticed this place en-route to find a Thai temple in the middle of the countryside in Chiba Prefecture. Auto Parlor Shioya (935-4 Saruyama, Narita, Chiba-ken) may have an add ..read more