Hitting The Early Morning Jackpot

After three days of incessant rain, we finally got a dry start to a morning, which enabled me to get out on the bike and end up being rewarded with the most extraordinary sights for getting out so early.

Wet roads are my enemy as I don’t have the grip strength to brake sharply, and using rim brakes on my bicycle means their performance in the wet declines significantly.

So I had an added degree of caution as I started riding, but about a third of the way through my customary morning ride, I began to suspect I may be onto something special when I saw how resplendent Mount Fuji looked with the cold and wet of the past week leaving it covered in snow so it resembled its classical appearance. (Ironically, I got no photos despite having my camera with me.)

Riding into a park, I was blessed by a bunch of puddles that made for some amazing reflective photos that took advantage of the now rising sun.

And from there, the next gift came from the sharp rise in temperatures compared with the previous few days, and it arrived in the form of lovely mists rising up over the waters of the rivers I rode alongside.

In the early morning light, the mists were gorgeous and I reached a point where they formed a cloud over the river as the sun rose to form a hazy backdrop and blooming cherry blossoms offered a wonderful frame for a picture I could not resist trying to take. The results were fabulous, but nothing near the beauty presented to my naked eye.

And then, it was back to reality. I got home to face the massive fears brought on by the Trump tariffs the U.S. president announced yesterday that are to be laid on every other country in the world in a move the Financial Times described as being historically and economically illiterate.

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

  • Why Do Aussies “Spin A Yarn”?

    Aussieが「Spin a Yarn」と言うのはなぜ？ 「毛糸を紡ぐ」わけではありません キャンプファイヤーを囲んでいると、一人が昔話を始めました。 カンガルーに追いかけられた話。 片手で巨大な魚を釣り上げた話。 ヘビと格闘した話。 話が終わると、誰かがニヤリと笑って言いました。 “You’re spinning a yarn!” もちろん、本当に毛糸（yarn）を紡いでいるわけではありません。 spin a yarn は、「面白おかしく話を盛る」「ホラ話をする」「長々と昔話を語る」という意味のStrineです。 Expression spin a yarn 発音 /spɪn ə jɑːn/ Meaning 面白く話を盛ること。 ホラ話をすること。 聞き手を楽しませるように物語を語ること。 必ずしも「ウソをつく」という悪い意味ではありません。 事実を少し大げさにしたり、ユーモアを交えたりしながら話を聞かせることを表します。 Example Grandad loved spinning a yarn about his days in the Outback. 「おじいちゃんはアウトバックで過ごした若い頃の話を、面白おかしく聞かせるのが大好きだった。」 また、 I don’t know if it’s true or if he’s just spinning a yarn. と言えば、 「本当の話なのか、それとも話を盛っているだけなのか分からない。」 という意味になります。 日本人ならどう言う？ 日本語なら、 などが近い表現です。 ただし spin a yarn には、「みんなを楽しませる語り部」という温かいイメージがあります。 Aussie × Japan 広大なアウトバックで働く人々や長距離を旅する人たちは、夜になると焚き火を囲み、お互いの体験談を語り合いました。 その中には、本当の出来事もあれば、「ちょっと盛った」話もあったでしょう。 そんな文化の中で spin a yarn は、Aussieらしい話し上手を表す言葉として親しまれるようになりました。 Aussieには、話が上手な人がたくさんいます。細かい事実よりも、「面白かった！」と思わせることを大切にする場面も少なくありません。だから spin a yarn は、単なる「ホラ話」ではなく、人を楽しませる才能への褒め言葉として使われます。 関連記事

  • Wisteria Hysteria

    For the second time this week, I headed off to nearby Yakushiike Park to get photos of the glorious wisteria there, this time with the hope that they would be in full bloom. I was probably still a bit too early, but it was beautiful nonetheless. And the short trip was made even more enjoyable because I was caught riding a bike inside the park by a loudspeaker-blaring jobsworth of the type I associate with the place. But I was left alone after dismounting even though I noticed the officious guard had come after me with his guard stick in hand only to head in a different direction when he…

  • Well, Wattle Ya’ Know!

    Spring can never come quick enough, and even though Tokyo had a warm winter, the wait for warmer, brighter weather seems interminably wrong, as symbolized by the blossoming of the wattle trees in Kangaeroo Corner. Although temperatures may have been warmer than average in the 2023-2024 winter, the fully fledged onset of spring is as slow as ever, we’ve had more days of snowfall and, at least as far as my guesses go, it’s been a darker year than usual. My reckoning is that 2024 has been cloudier and seen less sunshine than normal for a winter in Tokyo, which I tend to view as having bright, sunny days with…

  • Biking Biblically

    This morning’s sky was, for a brief instant at least, biblical, in the sense that rays of the rising sun briefly broke through the clouds of the overcast morning as though some majestic deity was bursting forth to greet the day. I’m not a believer, but I pray…almost constantly. Fear dominates my life. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Never really works….always feel completely out of my depth, helpless and hopeless. I try to counter that by reminding myself of what I should be grateful for. There is a lot….

  • |

    米ＴＶ局：豪の不思議な怪人の存在確認

    　オーストラリア先住民の伝承怪物であるヨーウィーは、豪北部で存在検証するオーディオが入手したと米国テレビ局「アニマル・プラネット」関係者が28日付けで報道されている。 　ヨーウィーはヒマラヤのイエティや北米のビッグフット同様、巨大類人猿のような見た目である、独特な足持ちとされている。時には目撃者などが現れるが実際の存在を検証できる証拠が未だに発見していない。 　しかし、「アニマル・プラネット」の「ファインディング・ビッグフット（ビッグフットを捜せ）」という番組の取材チームはこのごろ「これほど質のいいオーディオを録音したことがないだ」と同番組のビッグフット・ハンタージェームズ・フェイ氏がいう。 　ちなみに、日本ではヨーウィーの存在は全く知られていない訳でもない。実際の架空とされているヨーウィーの上に、チョコに囲まれているおもちゃのヤウイは昔市販で買えて、一時期人気あった可愛い商品だった。同物は、今でもオーストラリアでの販売が健全だ。 関連記事 Yowie Chocolate Australian Yowie Research Cryptomundo – Tales of the Yowie Yowie File Animal Planet TV crew capture audio they believe proves existence of yowies （有料サイトのため、記事を下記も掲載しています）

  • Bird Bother Has Us Flying…By The Seat Of Our Pants

    Our dearest–in terms of both emotion and bloody expense–little mate gave us a bit of a shock the past few days as Dino, our rosy faced lovebird, appeared to be petering (ptering?) toward the brink only to slowly move toward recovery. I’m guilty as I’ve been sharing meals (and snacks) with Dino for years now, and she also shares my love for carbs and cheese, making her as fat and unhealthy as I am. You’d never know it, though, as she is vigorous and active, spending nearly all day out of her cage and flying freely throughout our home. But something seemed amiss on Friday when she was clearly in…