Go Fly a Kite!

9 June 2024

Our delightful time in the seaside city of Atami drew to a close as we overcome a huge buffet breakfast and watched a black kite circle the skies for prey in the early hours of the morning.

The bird of prey was majestic and graceful as it glided through the air. I could have watched it for hours (and actually did just that, to the chagrin of Mrs. Kangaeroo as I was supposed to have been packing!)

Survived I was hospitalized. My brother and sister dropped everything to come and help. They took me to meetings. I have stopped. I will be all right. I can’t give up....
Doxing Paradoxes OK, the title is a bit of a lie, because I confused doxing with poxing, but the wordplay was better, so that’s what I went with. The paradoxes I’m dealing with are trying to make a living while blessed with innumerable talents that are all useless and a track record...
Jacaranda Journey Provides Purple Haze Mrs. Kangaeroo and I woke up early, let the dinosaur roam free for a while to stretch her wings, then headed off to Atami for one of Japan’s few jacaranda festivals. We’ve got a jacaranda in our garden and it has proven to be pretty fickle, so I was very...
Rounding Biwa, Japan’s Largest Lake Blessed with a long weekend and loads of motivation, Kangaeroo and Mrs. Kangaeroo got out the foldups and built up the resolve to circumnavigate Biwa, Japan’s largest lake. The 235-km shore length is not for the faint-hearted, though plenty make the trip in a single day, courtesy of the almost...
Lady of the Lake and More Lucky Rides Not much has happened, certainly nothing to really write about, but I have been very fortunate to get some amazing skies that make tremendous backdrops for bicycle photos, including these shots of La Cangura beside a little pond near the Tama River, which evoked an image of the Lady of...
Bromocalypse, Now! As fate would have it, I got to ride my Brompton in a post-apocalyptic landscape over the weekend, making for some eerie-looking pics. It’s not the first time I have been able to ride through the area, but it was Brommie’s first chance to do so. Although the scenes appear...
Rav-AGE! Getting old is not much fun, nor, as the late, great thespian Bette Davis once famously said, it’s not for sissies. But I’ve becoming increasingly conscious of age over the past few weeks. My eyesight is going: quickly and rapidly. I’m seeing less in the dark and rain, vision is...
Indescribable Ecstasy of a Tiger Triumph Richmond are Australian Rules football champions of the world! After 37 years! The feeling of joy is indescribable. Sheer, utter, unadulterated bliss does not do the feeling justice. Ecstasy doesn’t come close. Decades of disappointment, anger, despair, longing, envy, mistakes, yearning, praying, desperation were all lifted in a handful of...
Every Cloud Has a Sliver of Whining An unseasonably warm and dry late winter and early spring has given way to more customary wet, with really lousy weather since rain began early yesterday morning. Wet weather makes me whine, but I really shouldn’t because it was supposed to pour all day today, but I woke to warm...
The Fountain of Strewth! Has Kangaeroo mentioned that he’s got a garden? And he loves it! Just in case he hasn’t, let me remind you again that Kangaeroo Corner is a little Aussie plants garden in comfy outer suburb of Tokyo. And playing a prominent role in that Aussie garden is the Fountain of...
Foo, Gee! May is, for me, the most delightful time of the year in Tokyo, and I was doubly blessed this morning when greeted by the sight not only of Mount Fuji, but with snow on top. Fujisan, that iconic symbol of Japan, is notoriously camera shy and it’s a rare day...
The Strine Why Atorkin: Natchrule Strine Read this in Plain English/プレーン英語で読む Read this in Japanese/日本語で読む Chrissie It was getting close to Chrissie, which prompted me to chuck a sickie. I was still in the nuddy, so I slipped on some grundies. I went to light up a durry, but I’d run out and had to have...
Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 4: Kurokawa to Beppu Glorious weather greeted the tour today, paving the way for some amazing riding. The group set out from the gloriously quaint hot spring resort town of Kurokawa. Slowly but surely, the riders wound their way through forested areas, driving ever upward until reaching the Kuju ski ground, the highest point...
There And Back Again: Oz 2022 Kangaeroo made it back to Oz for a while in 2022. The circumstances behind the trip weren’t the greatest. But the time spent Down Under was fruitful and poignant. Kangaeroo got to catch up with lots of childhood friends. And deeply explored the places that had played an enormous role...
Cold, Wet and Dark Doesn’t get any more archetypically Monday than today….cold, wet, dark and bleak. Kangaeroo wasn’t too keen on getting out on the bike with a huge day ahead. But it was precisely because the day promises to be demanding that dragged him out in the end. Rain had been forecast, but...
Winter is Here Although it was a glorious morning with clear, starry skies and then a wonderful sunrise, it was bloody freezing, confirming that the long-dreaded winter has arrived. Until now we have been blessed with unseasonal warmth: I wore shorts all weekend and the temperature topped 20 degrees on Saturday. I still...
オーストラリア最大恐竜がエロマンガに　オーストラリアの最大恐竜がエロマンガにあった。　本当。　下品なことを考えってんじゃねぇよ！エロマンガはオーストラリア先住民の言葉で「風がよく吹く平野」という意味だそう。　エロマンガは、北部クイーンズランド州にある小さな村です。石油とオパール鉱業が中心となっている人口約40人の村である。　1990年代までエロマンガ有名なことはオーストラリア内で海から最も遠く離れている町ということだった。（今でもそうと主張しているが、そうじゃないという人もいます。）　いずれにせよ、クイーンズランド州都ブリスベーンから約1,000キロ西の方に置かれている。　1994年にチャリ乗りの少年が化石を見つけて、以降次から次へ恐竜の化石が発見された。　2007年にみつかった化石が今までオーストラリアで最も大きいな恐竜のものだった。　その恐竜がティタノザウルス類の一種であり、エロマンんがの恐竜がクーパーと名付けられた。　しかし、名前は名前なので、当然にエロマンガという村が日本に注目を浴びた。　数多くの日本のエロ漫画や普通の漫画もエロマンガの話が出ています。　その中は「ニニンがシノブ伝」、「サムライフラメンコ」というまでもなくオーストラリアで児童ポルノとして禁じられている「エロマンガ先生」がある。　今、エロマンガに恐竜研究が励んでいる。　2017年に開館したエロマンガ自然博物館が運営しているが、コロナ禍で苦しんでいるだろう。　それでも、間違いなくエロマンガがオーストラリア恐竜研究・跡地の最前線にひとつということはまちがいない。　これからもエロマンガにますます期待できるだろう。　　　...
Beautifully Breaks the Tama River Morning Mornings can be hard to get up for, particularly in the cold and dark of winter. Yet, some things make it worth waking early for. Waking, then moving, can be a great way to start the day. It can get the body working and warmed up before the mind takes...
Dekochari, Proud Member of Japan’s Itasha ‘Cringeworthy Cars’ Family Long past their heyday, even in English-language coverage, dekochari, decorated bicycles, continue to survive in miniscule numbers even in today’s Japan. Dekochari derived from the dekotora, decorated trucks, that became hugely popular throughout the archipelago in the 1970s on the back of the Torakku Yaro series of films, and which...
Fantastic Flowers! Blessed with great company, brilliant sunshine and time, Kangaeroo got to enjoy the unexpected pleasure of HANA BIYORI. HANA BIYORI is a new type of botanical garden that forms part of the sprawling entertainment complex centered around Yomiuriland in the Tokyo suburb of Inagi. HANA BIYORI was a delight simply...
Sweetie Pies! Australia doesn’t really occupy a prime place in the mind of most Japanese people’s eyes, and the same goes for Australian cuisine. But for a short while, meat pies here were, well, the flavor of the month. オーストラリアは、多くの日本人の目から見ると、あまり重要な位置を占めておらず、オーストラリア料理も同様であった。しかし、一時期、ミートパイが流行ったことがありました。 Meat pies are, of course, probably the Australian national dish, or at...
Sunflowers in the Rain Fortune smiled favorably on me this morning, too, as I got to ride out to a nearby sunflower field and get some awesome photos. There’s not much I can elaborate on, other than to say the field was a spectacular sight. There were lots of people around, even though the...
Banking On Banksia Having caught the propagating bug last year, I’ve decided to try my hand at growing my own plants again in 2024, this time turning to the difficult proposition of raising banksias, the flower that most symbolizes Australian flora in my eyes. So far, my luck with banksias hasn’t been great,...
Blowout! Even Fartilizer Couldn’t Help Well, strong winds have put paid to a lot of my experiment in growing seeds from Australian native plants, and even fartilizer couldn’t help. Gale-force winds daily for pretty much the past week made life tough for the little seedlings on the patio at Kangaeroo Corner. Watering, care, and even...
Booze bus/飲酒運転検問 booze bus Australian English A surprise police roadblock to test drivers for alcohol consumption. The “bus” refers to the large vehicle police use at the roadblocks. Initial questioning of those who register a blood alohol content above the legal limit takes place within the bus. 日本語警察の飲酒運転検問のこと。 Plain English Breathalyzer...
Crikey! What’s Going On Here? Crikey, Kangaeroo.com is colder than ever before and I’ve got no explanation for what is happening. Let’s get one thing straight, first: Kangaeroo.com has never been hot! This website started in March 2010 together with a sister site (now defunct) called Yutairui.com, which had a record of attracting more than...
Farting Proudly! Despite the best intentions, the weekend was a bit of a write-off, and apart from a brief interlude with an old mate to tell each other bawdy tales about breaking wind, the rest of the time was more about flat than flatulence. My mate, an 83-year-old American, and I have...
豪国民食と言われているVegemiteが90周年を祝う！オーストラリアの国民食と言われているべジマイト（Vegemite）今日、10月25日、90周年を祝う。　フレッド・ウォーカー（Fred Walker)氏という方が1923年にべジマイトを発明した。　ベジマイトは、塩辛く濃い茶色のペースト状の食品であり、主にサンドイッチやトーストに塗ったりして食べるが、料理に使うこともある。日本で納豆が外人が一番食べにくい食品と思われているように、オージーがまず独特な味があるべジマイトを半ば冗談でで外国人に食べさせることがほぼ通例と言える。　べジマイトがイースト菌抽出物（酵母エキス）を元に作られている。実際には醸造の副生成物であり、麦芽抽出物も含んでいる。ベジマイトはチアミン（B1）・リボフラビン（B2）・ナイアシン（B3）・葉酸（B5）などのビタミンB群に富んでいる。めちゃくちゃヘルシーな食品だ！　また、多くのオーストラリア人にとってべジマイトの魅力が豪食文化に止まらず、国の文化全体まで成る。　広告業界では昔からべジマイト広告やCMがオーストラリア国内の浸透度が高く今でも1950年代のテレビCMに使った表現である「Happy Little Vegemite」がオージー英語となり、「喜んでいる」という意味を示す（皮肉的に言う場合が多いけど、、、）。　また歌詞などに良く登場する。もっとも有名な例が1982年世界中に大ヒットしたMen at Workの「Down Under」では一部の歌詞がべジマイトに触れる、アメリカなど一世風靡した（あまり美味しくないかもしれないので、人気があくまでも短期だったが）。　今も昔もグラス容器で販売されているが、昔は蓋が違ったので、使い終わったべジマイト瓶がカップとなり、今でもべジマイト瓶カップが多くのオーストラリア家庭で使用されている。　その他のべジマイト効果は、塩分が多いので口内炎対策、グレービーの味付、ビタミンB豊富であるため立派な二日酔い対策、（ほかの豪国民食と言われている食品）ミート・パイ材料や靴磨き。　ちなみに、この数年景気が比較的に良いオーストラリアの豪ドル割高によってべジマイトの海外販売価格が豪国内より安い場合が多い。日本では、明治屋、カルディコーヒーファーム、プレッセなどで取り扱っている。Amazonでも買えるし、約380円ではオーストラリアの約＄４で価格が同等ぐらい。 Vegemite Official Site (英語） Vegemite Wikipedia (英語）べジマイト・ウィキペディア（日本語）オーストラリアの食文化（日本語）２ちゃんねる「べジマイト　スレ」（日本語）べジマイト・レシピ（日本語）べジマイト国内販売（ネット上） VegemiteFAQ Vegemite歴史タイムライン（pdfダウンロード) 豪テレビ初期時代（1950年代）の「Happy Little Vegemite」CM（オーストラリアでは伝説的な存在となっているCM) Vegemite is cheaper overseas than in Australia Vegemite turns 90. Here’s 10 cool things it can do...
Strewth! Roo-ed Awakening for Unsuspecting Cyclist An Aussie cyclist got more than they bargained for in Australia recently. 　最近、オーストラリア人女性サイクリストが想定外の事故にあった。 While riding along at a gentle pace, the cyclist collided with a kangaroo. 　ゆっくりと走りながら、なんと、カンガルーと衝突事故した！ The kangaroo leaped out of the bush and struck the unsuspecting cyclist. 　カンガルーが道路脇にあった森から飛び出し、女性とぶつかった。 The woman hit by the kangaroo sustained minor injuries. 　カンガルーに引っかかれた女性が軽傷で済んだ。...
Glistening… Today greeted me with the pitter-patter of raindrops (and a hefty dose of demotivation), so I spent the predawn hours vegging out with the idiot box on and gazing into the garden, appreciating the raindrops glistening on the leaves. In days of yore, I wouldn’t have been deterred by the...
Yakuza Battle! 多摩川での仁義なき戦い！ My normal morning ride was rudely interrupted today when I had to stop at a set of traffic lights I usually only use for reference because there were dozens of cops loitering there. Japanese authorities have a tendency to over-react, so even though there were at least 30 officers, several...
Oh, La La! Kangarou Pizzas, C’est Magnifique! … Plutôt Kangarou Pizzas are a French fast food chain. The chain appears to be based in Thionville, with outlets in Metz, Nancy and Varangéville. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chain specializes in deliveries. It’s logo is a bouncing kangaroo, or kangarou in French! Being from the land of culinary delights, you’d expect Kangarou...
Strange Days, Indeed There have been better days than today, but this one is up there for peculiarity (in a minor sort of way). The morning ride was nice in spite of tiredness that became increasingly more obvious the more Kangaeroo rode. Not helping was having woken before 3 a.m. again and not...
Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 6: Uchiko to Matsuyama Shikoku’s glorious mountains seemed less and less attractive at times while pounding the pedals to push on upward even higher, but a wonderful descent followed on the final day of riding on the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Leaving Uchiko later than most starts, it was a steady climb...
Sounds to Trigger an Aussie Prompted by a Scottish mate’s post on Twitter about a tune that reminds him of his homeland, I got to thinking about the same kinds of songs that have an effect on me regarding Australia, my native country. While doing so, I realized there are probably a few shared by...
Kangaeroo Corner’s Critters! Courtesy of a great act of kindness, this post is the result of receiving a gifted camera. An old mate read my previous post and generously passed on a camera he had not been using. I took the camera out in the garden this morning and got to snap away....
Enough Of The Cold, Already! May weather is generally the best of the year in Tokyo, by Kangaeroo’s reckoning, and though it looks like it’s gonna shape that way, it would be nice to say “bye” to the cold until at least the late autumn. The first weekday of May greeted early risers with a...
No Paws for Thought Kangaroo paws, the big success story of my Aussie seeds saga, and the one that most mattered to me, reached a new stage in their progress from propagation. Mrs. Kangaeroo noticed that they were crowding the large pot that I had planted them in, and if they weren’t moved they...
No Wonder the Wallabies Were Wallies in RWC2019 Australia’s rugby team, the Wallabies, were ignominiously dumped from the 2019 Rugby World Cup that Japan is currently hosting (and being lauded for both its organization skills and the rousing performance of its unfancied team). The Wallabies lost badly to England in a quarter final, mostly because they were not...
Final Blossoming Cherry blossoms are about to end their blooming season in Tokyo and I was luck enough to cop a few shots of them on my morning’s ride. The photos I took this morning were of yaezakura, the late-blooming, multi-layered blossoms whose appearance follows the peak of the hanami flower-viewing period...
Wattle Happen Next? It’s becoming increasingly clear that spring is not too far away, and the wattle tree in Kangaeroo Corner is giving hints of something about to spring into action. March, which starts tomorrow (der!), is traditionally a coldish month, with a warm day every few days here and there. This winter...
Stop that Pigeon! Lots of serious stuff is going down at the moment, yet the biggest gripe in my mind is how to deal with a bloody pigeon. One of my escapes has been the garden at Kangaeroo Corner, and one of the areas of which I had been proudest was the flourishing...
Sunrise of the Year (So Far!) Mother Nature turned on an absolute bloody ripper of a morning with the sunrise of the year so far, at least as far as I am concerned. The skies were simply glorious as light broke through, blended with the clouds and created a mix of vibrant colors crossing the spectrum....
Tour de Gutsing Today was simply magnificent: stunning weather, delightful companions, fantastic bikes and serious gutsing of ourselves. Bromptons ruled the day and it was the common connection between us. Mechanicals slowed down our start, but also opened new doors. Following a slowdown caused by a flat, we got to eat at Hugsy...
Shattered! Bye-Bye Belladonna Calling Belladonna the love of my life would be going a bit too far. But only a tiny smidgen. And she is waaaay up there. But, the beautiful Belladonna is gone. A cracked frame means this carbon bike is now an accident waiting to happen. She is irreparable. And it...
Slice of Heaven Kangaeroo Corner, the name I give to our garden even though it’s not a corner but close enough anyway (which kinda sums up my life) is a little slice of Godzone for me. Gardening had never entered my radar until Mrs. Kangaeroo and the amazing Alex Endo presented us with...
Glowing Mother Nature greeted me with a glorious sunrise yet again today as I biked the Tama River Cycling Road. Most of the ride was in the dark, as is the case at this time of the year just before the winter solstice. But just as I was leaving the path...
Love The Way You Lie Kangaeroo got a much better day than expected today, Japan’s National Foundation Day but not a holiday because it fell on a Saturday. Waking, Your Humble Narrator (to borrow a turn of phrase from Anthony Burgess) was greeted by a winter wonderland from the previous day’s snowfall. There would be...
Saving Things For a Rainy Day It’s drizzling and miserable weather today, which provides a wonderful opportunity for an update as my customary lunchtime ride can be substituted. Lots has happened since my last post, but there’s little time to write about it, so this is a bit of a summary of the past couple of...
オーストラリア特有の恐竜、カンタス、、、サウラス The Spirit of Australia, the flying…dinosaur? 　オーストラリアの魂が以前から言われている「飛んでるカンガルー」ではなく「飛んでる恐竜」って？ええ？飛んでるのは考えRooじゃないの？ Australia’s fauna is unique, and that trend may even extend back hundreds of millions of years to the Cretaceous period, at least in terms of naming patterns. 　皆が分かるようにオーストラリアの動物が特有だ。そして、その独特さが1億年以上前の白亜紀に及ぶかもしれない、、、少なくともネーミングの面では。 One of the few known endemic Australian dinosaurs was discovered only recently; 1996, to be...
Goings On It’s been a strange old start to the year, really, mainly because Kangaeroo is strange and old. Tokyo has been experiencing a mild winter. So far there has been no snow and daytime temperatures have been closer to what you’d expect in March than the opening month of the year....
Amazing Alex’s Aussie Oasis in Tokyo’s Tama Sometimes, little miracles come into your life in unexpected ways. Alex Endo has done that for Kangaeroo.com by transforming a little plot of land in Tokyo’s Tama region into a tiny slice of Australia. たまに思わず小さな奇跡が寄ってくる。東京多摩地区の小さな庭を「考えRooコーナー」に変革し、まるでオーストラリアの1画に変えることによって遠藤”アレックス”昭さんがそのような奇跡を起こした。 With a well-laid plan going back a few months and a few hours of hard...
豪キャブラリー： Shoot through Shoot through （打って通れば）を聞くと何となく「銃の引き金を引く」ような感覚を起こすかもしれないが、実際にオージー英語でこの表現を使えば一切そういうような意味がない。実は、「打つ」(shoot)と一切関係ない（だったら、なんで使うかと言いたくなるよね、、、）。「出ていく」とか「場を去る」などの意味。Shoot offも同様の意味として使う場合もある、「急いでいく」ような感覚があるが、shoot offのほとんどの使う時がshoot off your mouth（口を打つ！）になり、「しゃべり過ぎ」という意味のだ！...
Inuit ‘Innit It’s snowing in Tokyo again, reminding me that the Inuit are supposed to have 50 different words for snow and making me wonder if the equivalent to English’s “Oh no” is one of them. I’m not the biggest fan of snow falling on Tokyo, mostly because of the paralyzing effect...
Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 9: Koyasan to Nara Glorious weather almost a complete turnaround from the previous day was the hallmark of the penultimate day of the 2019 Kagoshima to Kyoto cycling tour. Sunny skies greeted the riders as they roused from their sleep in a chilly Koyasan temple. Riding remained cold and rugging up was the order...
Garden of Weedin’ Spring has sprung (for today) at least, and the garden at Kangaeroo Corner looks resplendent thanks to early morning weeding, a mow and planting plenty of new plants. Weather helped, too, with delightful sunshine and warmth as the temperature topped 20 for the first time this year. I had planned...
Devil Laughs Nobody else but me is gonna understand just how ironic this post is (provided it even makes it onto the site) as I type it out in an MS Word file rather than directly into the blog as I would usually do. With a couple of extra hours available to...
Mystery bag/不思議な袋（ソーセージ） Mystery bag Australian English A sausage. The name comes from the unfounded rumor that sausages are made from scraps of meat and whatever other item can be found wherever they are made, thus making the actual ingredients a “mystery.” Sausages, which are dearly loved as staples of the barbecue, are...
豪キャブラリー：　Nuddy Nuddy Nuddy is all about getting into a natural state....
Falling Stars I got to see a falling star this morning, the first time in many years, and immediately made a wish. Partway through, though, I stopped myself and changed the object of my wish. Instead of seeking some inner peace for myself, I wished happiness and contentment to come to my...
Fantastic Flora Slowly but surely the flowers in Kangaeroo Corner are putting on an increasingly delightful show. It was a sodden start to what is likely to be a demanding week or so as the company’s sole native English speaker in the office and the busy season well underway. But the flowers...
Fat-Arsed Friend! Fortune blessed me with lots of wonderful reminders of how lucky I am yesterday, including through a fat-arsed addition to Kangaeroo Corner. We held a garden party for close friends and family, hoping to show off Kangaeroo Corner. A harsh summer, untimely rains and, I think, excessive intervention on my...
The Strewth, the Whole Strewth and Nothing But the Strewth… Strewth, work and life are bloody busy at the moment, but I can’t let that stop me from looking after things, which resulted this week in a renovation to the Fountain of Strewth. It was nothing major, but I found wooden letters on sale in the local 100 yen shop...
Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 8: Wakayama to Koyasan Japan, the land of the gods, threw everything at the Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto on Day 8, but the riders came up trumps, scaling the queen stage unscathed. Despite persistent drizzle, the tour made it to the World Heritage List site Koyasan without injury or incident. The tour’s first flat even...
Bloomin’ Bewdy! It was the D-Day anniversary today and it sure felt like I was storming enemy territory for most of the day, but the fantastic flowers blooming in the garden warmed my soul. And the magnificent Mrs. Kangaeroo took the ugliest flowers in the garden, the Australian native hops, chucked in...
Another One Bites the Dust… It’s no longer possible for me to trust my own mind because I know how utterly unreliable it is, but I got greater affirmation of why I’m so uneasy in my workplace when I learned last night that we have lost yet another very decent person from our working team....
Unrealistic Expectations I’d love to be able to create a bike naturally, and would even be willing to go to term with it inside a womb if need be. (I would need to get a womb first, of course). But it ain’t gonna happen. And like a lot in life, being able...
Wattle Day It’s officially Wattle Day in Japan today, and I’m absolutely delighted to have a thriving wattle growing in our garden. I guess a little explanation is necessary. March 8 is Mimosa no Hi, literally, the Day of Silver Wattle. The flowers mark International Women’s Day, and the idea of giving...
Australia welcomes 2013! Happy New Year, 2013…at least in Australian Eastern Standard Zone areas. This photo is a shot over central Melbourne in the early moments of the new year....
Waltzing Matildas In The Land Of The Rising Sun Waltzing Matilda is probably Australia’s most famous song and it’s certainly a tune that remains powerfully iconic of Down Under, but has not had the impact in Japan of other Aussie tunes, like say, Click Go the Shears. That’s not to say that Matilda hasn’t made it’s mark. However, like...
豪男が素手で浜に乗り上げたサメを海に戻すこの頃、オーストラリアの西オーストラリア州とある海辺で男が浜に乗りあがったホホジロザメを素手で海に戻した映像がYouTubeでひそかなヒットとなっている。 Footage of an Aussie bloke returning a beached great white shark to ocean waters off the coast of Western Australia has become a recent hit on YouTube....
Be Careful What You Wish For… One of the highlights of Kangaeroo Corner is the Fountain of Strewth, which I placed with the hope of attracting birds to the garden, but the role has been served so well, I’m now drawn to the idiom used in the headline (which stems from a passage of Aesop’s fables...
憎むのが大好きだった「反豪」豪州人の最後の別れ故トニー・グレッグ氏を知っている日本人が恐らく片手で数えるぐらいだろう。が、同氏が多くのオーストラリア人に愛されたと言っても過言ではない。その理由を説明するのが非常に複雑だ。 You could probably count on a hand the number of Japanese who’ve even heard of Tony Greig, but it’s no exaggeration to say he was widely-endeared in Australia. Explaining why is pretty complicated. 29日付で肺がん治療中で心筋梗塞によってシドニーの病院で亡くなり、南アフリカ出身でイングランドのキャプテンとしてグレッグ氏は並以上の有力クリッケット選手であって、まだ現役1970年代で同スポーツの変革を起こした人の一人となり、以降オーストラリアを中心にテレビ解説者として活躍しながら豪国籍も収得した。 Greig died in a Sydney hospital on Dec. 29 of a heart attack that...
Flake News! Tokyo, or at least the hillier Tama part of it, got dumped by a heavy snowfall on Friday, turning the place white. Kangaeroo Corner’s trees, never keen on the cold, struggled with the heavy snow clogging their branches. It did look good, to be fair dinkum. But it was another...
A Pheasant Makes Things Pleasant Late May is nearly always an idyllic time with the glorious weather hiding the impending onset of the rainy season. This morning’s ride was made even pleasanter by getting to spend time looking at a glorious Japanese green pheasant reigning over its territory near the Asakawa River. Pretty much every...
Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away Horse-riding is an integral part of living for many in country Australia, where Kangaeroo spent the formative years of life. Incredibly, in spite of this, and despite a landmass 26 times greater and population only about 1/6th the size, Australian horse riding services are generally far more expensive than their...
「やばいリンガル」 Wobbly 　物が少しグラグラ動く事を米・英語ではwobblyと言うが、オージー英語の場合は同じ言葉を、別の状況に対して使う。続けて読めば、どのように使うかが分かる。 Something a little shaky is “wobbly” in most forms of English, but wobbly takes on a different meaning when used in Strine, Australian English. Read on to find out how....
Bye-Bye Blossoms Cherry blossom season in Tokyo has ended for another year, having brought bucketloads of delight in the process. Unfortunately, the little cherry tree we have in Kangaeroo Corner didn’t flower this year, probably because of the weird weather I’ve gone on about ad infinitum. Still, I got to do a...
May It Always Be May 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....
Spring-Heeled Spring is such a delight in Japan. One reason for that is the blooming of cherry blossoms. For a week or so, much of the company is given a glorious pink carpet as the national flower blooms, transforming often bleak landscapes into spectacular vistas. Kangaeroo spent the weekend cycling Tokyo’s...
Let There Be Light This morning I got an entire ride in the light for the first time this year. I still had lights on my bike, but they were the flashing type that enabled me to be seen instead of the high-lumen shiners that all me to see. It was lovely to be...
Warm in the Winter It’s bloody freezing, but some know the best way to beat the cold. We had a pretty heavy snow fall last week, but it was followed by a few days of unseasonably warm spring-like weather that took the edge off. Only for winter to return with a vengeance as the...
Accidentally Delighted It was Mrs. Kangaeroo’s birthday yesterday, and taking the day off to celebrate opened the door to an unexpected arvo of pleasantness. With the morning occupied by what may prove to be fateful events (of which more may come at a later date), Mrs. Kangaeroo grabbed me by the scruff...
Calamity Free Ride! After several days featuring a series of stumbles, fumbles, bumps and bruises, it was fantastic to finally have an early morning ride that went without a calamity. Sort of. Riding La Cangura much slower and more cautiously than usual, the morning ride went without a hitch. There were many fears...
Wahoo for Wahoo, and Thanks Y’s Road Lads Further to the weekend’s bike device calamities, Saturday’s mess turned into a much better Sunday. Saturday was supposed to be a day for getting the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt repaired. But an untimely drop in front of a couple of passing cars resulted in the device being utterly destroyed. Already worrying...
Feel That Groove….Or, Don’t I’ve struggled to adjust to the realities of life over the past few weeks, but waking on this holiday morning and seeing tiny spots of green sprouting up where my lawn used to be has raised my spirits infinitely, even if not leaving me quite as chilled out as a...
南天は難点…Or, Farewell Heavenly Bamboo! Kangaeroo Corner, our garden, is basically filled with Aussie native plants, but there were a few trees and plants there when we came to live here, and they have largely remained, including the nandina, also known as heavenly bamboo. Unfortunately, her presence in the garden proved far from heavenly. The...
Paws Before Thinking Times are tough and Mrs. Kangaeroo implored me to tighten my belt to cope with rising prices and crippling wage cuts, but I don’t think she was too impressed by my belt tightening efforts involving gargantuan eating practices and getting fatter. It’s been a gloomy year in many ways so...
A Second Bite of Biwaichi Fatigue, muscle soreness and endurance were going to be the order of the day on the Kangaeroo crew’s second leg of Biwaichi, the circumnavigation of Biwa, Japan’s largest lake. Mrs. Kangaeroo had completed the 70-plus kilometer first leg with barely a hint of trouble, but not being used to cycling, it...
2023, A Japanese Odyssey A mate of mine has just accomplished a superhuman feat that filled me with admiration and maybe more than a little inspiration: a (barely) 10-day bicycle journey from the south of Kyushu to the northernmost part of Honshu as part of an event called the Japanese Odyssey. My mate, who...
Dog’s Life We’ve been blessed for the past few days with the presence of Uyu, a gorgeous border collie. Uyu, which means ‘milk’ in Korean, came to stay on Friday night. We weren’t sure if she was actually going to come and stay. She belongs to our son and daughter-in-law. Our son...
Nurturing the Soul British Poet Laureate Alfred Austin once wrote, “To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.” Kangaeroo is getting to find that out. Gardening never really meant much to Kangaeroo, other than getting dragged out of bed as a youth on Saturday mornings to mow the bloody...
Koala-ified for Cuteness 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...
Doubling Up Got to ride a tandem with an old work colleague yesterday at Showa Kinen Koen. It was a day of magnificent company, stupendous weather, and plenty of color to mark the full-on onset of spring....
Costly Bloody Crash! Kangaeroo’s accident this week continued to have reverberations. Although both Kangaeroo and the bloke he collided with rode away apparently unharmed from their predawn collision, costs have since mounted. The crash gave greater urgency to updating the chain and gear sprocket on La Cangura, which had been showing signs of...
Terrible Trainspotters Trainspotters in Japan, referred to somewhat derogatorily as Tetsuo (鉄男） or Tetsuko （鉄子）(a play on words forming a portmanteau from the words for “rail” and common suffixes used to indicate a man or woman <there are commonly still only two genders in Japanese>, as well as being typical <though slightly...
Big Captain Cookが只今売り出し中　オーストラリアの英国植民地化に深く繋がっている人物であるジェームズ・クックが意外と豪州「Big Things」仲間入りしている。　クィーンズランド州北部にあるケアンズではキャプテン・クック・ハイウェイ添えに1960年代に作られた高さ７メートル幅２メートルの敬礼しているBig Captain Cookがある。　キャプテン・クックは、1770年にオーストラリア東海岸を到達している間初めてヨーロッパ系の人がケアンズ周辺まで行った。その18年後、イギリス人がオーストラリアを入植した。　実は、このBig Captain Cookも日本との関連もある。元々設置された場所の土地は日本の企業に買収され、解体・撤去するという話しがあり、今では売り出し中だそう。お金も土地さえあれば、誰でも「Big Things」のオーナーになる大チャンスだ！大きな地図で見る...
情けね～！豪州元副首相ボロボロバーナビーが地面で泥酔、卑語を叫ぶ自民党が裏金問題などは日本で政治スキャンダルが依然として相次ぐが、オーストラリアも情けない政治家が多数いて、恐らくその典型的な例が元副首相で元国民党党首であるバーナビー・ジョイス氏。上記の街中で倒れている泥酔オッサンは先週のジョイス氏。国会後の集会で処方箋の薬を飲みながらお酒も飲んで倒れたという。世論で大騒ぎとなりましたが、国民党からも連立パートナーである保守系の自由党にも制裁・処罰なしでそのまま政治家として継続出来ます。同氏が「処方箋の通り、＜飲めば害を与える効果もあり＞のとおりだ＞」というが、謝りも懲りている様子もない。ジョイス氏はこの赤恥の常習犯だ。ジョイス氏そもそも田舎の支持者が多い国民党有権者のため農家らしい格好やしぐさをするが、実際に政治家になる前に農家と関係なく都会にある名門私立学校を卒業した後金融界を減って会計士となり、ほとんどの友人が裕福層である。保守系の政治家で同性婚反対など、伝統的価値観の提唱ながら4人を一緒に育った妻と結婚している間に2018年に数十年若い秘書と子供を出来ちゃって家族を捨てて秘書と同棲することになった。秘書と一緒にテレビのインタービュー中、ジョイス氏が「（当時）おなかの中の子供が誰のか分からない」と言って認知を逃げるような行為をしたが、後になって自分の子供だと認めた。以降、結婚して今二人の子供を夫婦として育ているが、ジョイス氏の行動によってマルコム・ターンボール元総理が言われている「ボンク・バン（性行為禁止法）」を保守連立政治家に命じた。その前、2010年代半ばオーストラリア政治家の間で大問題となった二重国籍問題も巻き込まれた。オーストラリアは二重国籍が認めているが、国会議員が適用外。ジョイス氏が厳しく（当時）野党員を追求し二重国籍である者の辞表を追い詰めた。が、数年たったら、ジョイス氏自身がニュージーランド国籍も取得していることが判明。議席は失わないで同国籍を破棄したが、偽善的な立場を触れない。だが、ニュージーランドは、このことに対して、2017年にジョイス氏を「ニュージーランド人・オブ・ザ・イヤー」としてノミネートした（受賞しなかった）。ジョイス氏が秘書と出来ちゃった婚事件で国民党党首を辞表した。しかし、連立パートナーであった前首相スコット・モリソン氏がコロナウイルスの大流行中、外遊中時、ジョイス氏がちゃっかりと国民党の党首投票を呼びかけ世論も連立内で嫌われても国民党内の圧倒的な指示によって再び党首となった。恐らくモリソン氏が国内にいれば、国民党内の投票を辞めさせただろう、と多くのアナリストが推測する。ジョイス氏も国際的なスキャンダルに巻き込んでいる。2015年にジョニー・デップ氏と当時の妻アンバー・ハード氏がオーストラリアで撮影した際、ハード氏の愛犬を正しい入国手続きをしなかったことに対してジョイス氏が猛反対し、その犬たちを安楽死させるように強く主張した。デップ氏が謝りビデオを作成してことを済んだがジョイス氏の過剰反応が国内外でかなり批判された。ジョイス氏が国民党党首を2022年選挙敗戦に伴って辞めたが、今でもシャドー内閣の野党の重要人物である。考えRooも恥をたくさん起こした。特におい酒を飲んだ時。人のことを言えない。が、納税者の血税を受けながらジョイス氏のような行為をしていません。民間企業だったら許されるような行為ではないと思う。そして、保守系連立は犯罪は非社会的な行為に対して厳しい見解を示しながらジョイス氏に対してルールが違うように見えるのが不思議と思うのは考えRooだけじゃないと思う。...
Mean and Green After a few months of being jealous of my neighbors for enabling their lawns to evade the effects of the blistering hot summer, I woke this morning to find myself transforming from being green with envy to being verdant with chlorophyll! Kangaeroo Corner’s lawn, which started May in a generally...
Garden Shower Puts the Win Into Winter It’s raining today, and while that would normally be grounds for disappointment, considering the dryness of the year, the precipitation is actually welcome. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Kangaeroo Corner. The sprinkle made the garden sparkle. The yard always looks nicer after good rainfall, which makes the greenery...