Waking early is never easy, especially as the nights get longer and the temperature cools.
But nature sometimes does its best to reward those who drag themselves out from under the covers as the birds begin to sing.
The photos here come from one of those times.
Summer is not always the most pleasant season in Tokyo as it’s stinking hot, humid and frequently raining.
Sometimes, though, nature turns on the charm and you get some delightful goodies.
This week’s sunrises have been precisely that.
Blessed (?) by a series of bicycle mechanical failures, Kangaeroo.com got a day to take it nice and slowly along the banks of the Tama River forming the boundary between Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, resulting in these delightful pictures.
Perfuro certainly blew a storm for me!
And so it should have, considering the Latin word for storm is the name given to a great line of Aussie cycling gear from the Gold Coast that Kangaeroo.com was lucky enough to get to try out after being picked as a contest winner.
Kangaeroo.com doesn’t win too much, so wanted to treat the kit with the reverence it deserved.
Perfuro founder Martin Coleman contacted Kangaeroo.com in early June to notify him of the win. Then, 2020 hit again.
Japan Post has halted air mail to Australia because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that didn’t deter Martin and he found a way to get the kit to arrive in Japan within a month (at a time when Japan Post was saying that deliveries between the two countries could take anywhere up to six months).
Perfuro’s Synoptic Series Coldfront jersey and shorts, which Kangaeroo.com had won, were well-packed in individual plastic, sealable bags.
Sizes had been selected using the size charts on the company’s website. Being a lumpy old man with a funny-shaped dad bod, Kangaeroo.com always opens cycling kit with a bit of trepidation. But the measurements were spot on, and consequently, so was the fit.
Kangaeroo.com was worried. He doesn’t look the best in body-hugging lycra, and is highly insecure about wearing it because of this. But Perfuro’s Martin assured him that “nobody looks bad in my gear.” We reckon Martin might be right, too, and the photos in the gallery below give a lot of credence to the founder’s assertions. Kangaeroo.com is certainly not scared to show off the results to the world, which says something.
Having received the gear in early July, the urge to put it on and get out on the bike to try to it was immense. But, once again seeking the best possible conditions to do so, waited for a sunny day. And waited. And waited. And waited. The Tokyo area was hit by rain every single day for the month of July, the last few days of June and into the start of August.
Finally, though, the day dawned when it was time to get the gear on and take some shots.
And what a delight! Perfuro is made using Italian fabric and its’s very gentle on the skin. Also gentle is the lack of protruding seams, which means there’s no skin abrasions. Tokyo in early August is fiercely hot and the humidity is suffocating; perfect conditions for generating a sweat in anyone. The kit absorbed the perspiration well and stayed dry, avoiding chafing and keeping the body cool. The sponge chamois was a great fit and made for a comfortable ride. The designs and colors are also fabulous, with Coldfront’s red hue with white and black tinges one of the options.
Perfuro offers four men’s stylish product lines. There’s an equivalent number of women’s gear lines and the company also sells cycling tech accessories. You can also read Martin’s novel through the website.
All of this for half the price about half of what you’d expect to pay for equivalent quality cycling kit. And Perfuro has loads of different payment options, including partial payments, making all of its offerings highly accessible for even trifling sums.
In what’s been a bleak year for pretty much everyone worldwide, Perfuro has blown in with a fresh breeze offering at least a little delight.
May is gorgeous in Japan, even this year when the world is confronting the bleak tragedy of the covid-19 outbreak.
The warm, dry, mostly sunny month brings some much-needed delight.
Australia’s lyrebird got its name from the shape of its tale, which is said to resemble the lyre, an ancient Greek musical instrument mastered most notably by the god Apollo.
But the lyrebird could also have been labeled the liar bird for its masterful mimicry.
The lyrebird (found in the same part of Australia from which Kangaeroo hails) can copy just about any sound, including human voices, with near perfection.
Lyrebirds are just one of myriad birds found in Australia.
Birdlife down under is amazing! Birds come in all shapes, sizes, colors and types.
Nothing can beat the amazing cacophony of bird noises that greet people as they wake in the morning in country areas.
Koalas are a gorgeous symbol of Australia.
Contrary to a once-popular belief, the koala is not a bear.
It is, in fact, a marsupial, most closely related to the wombat and kangaroo than it is to anything ursine.
Back in the mid-1980s, koalas set off a frenzy among Japanese when they were first brought to zoos here.
Like the country itself, though, Japan’s koalas are aging and the country’s koala population has dwindled below half of its peak in the late 1990s.
Koalas generally sleep for 22 hours a day, so the animals in these photos are essentially in action pics.
It’s fair to say that for most Japanese who have a favorite Australian animal the koala is the overwhelmingly top choice.
Having looked at the emu, one of the stars of the Australian coat of arms in our previous post, it would be rude not to look at the other half of the emblem, the kangaroo.
Roos are also the national animal of Australia.
And here’s a gallery of greys to help make your day.
(Of course, we shouldn’t forget that kangaroos are also the inspiration for this site, kangaeroo, the thinking kangaroo.
