Sticky And Sweaty Before The Swelter

14 June 2025

It’s the rainy season in Tokyo now, but the forecast is for a wet weekend followed by a couple of weeks of sweltering temperatures. Even though it’s relatively cool, I’m sweating like a pig. I feel for our Aussie plants, many of which also struggle with the humidity of the Japanese summer.

This week was an excruciatingly busy one and I made lots of blunders. Fortunately, our garden has plenty of beautiful flowers at the moment, and they provided some delightful sights.

Amid the fumbles, I got a great look around at the Intermediatheque museum in the Kitte building in Marunouchi, and was thrilled by some of the slightly bizarre exhibits, which are dominated by osteology specimens that give plenty a boner, I bet.

Not far from there I got to check out the district’s amazing Aussie garden, which is a real delight and beautifully curated throughout the year.

My cycling has been drastically curtailed again this year, but I got to ride a little bit. And probably could have ridden more if I’d focused on taking action instead of remaining worried about whether an expected heavy rainfall would hit today before I have to attend a meeting tonight. It didn’t!

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....
Sunrises Over Far North Queensland Wet season sunrises over Cairns in Australia’s Far North Queensland. オーストラリア北部にあるクィーンズランド州の北部都市であるケアンズにおける雨期日の出。...
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...
Awe-tumnal! Glorious autumnal weather and a magnificent event lighting up the coloroful leaves made for an outstanding occasion at Showa Kinen Park. Mrs. Kangaeroo and I enjoyed a hot date on a cool day by spending the early evening at the park, travelling there and back on the scenic Tama Monorail....
Pushing the Paws Button Even by the generally lousy standard of 2024, this morning was a pretty rotten one in some ways, yet even that couldn’t deter gaining pleasure from our kangaroo paw. The flowers have hit peak bloom. They bring me unbridled delight. I’ve still got hope some of the plants we have...
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...
Bonzer Bonsai! Given that this site started with the intent of spreading information about Japan and Australia and matters related to these countries, including languages, and then how much focus I have placed on gardening over the past couple of years, it’s surprising that I haven’t had much to say about bonsai....
Springing Into Life With Flower Power It was an extraordinarily hectic day of being flat out from go to whoa, but also extremely productive and fulfilling as I was propelled by the thrill of the garden’s explosion of color through flowers. I started the day with a ride, dealt with some of the village’s board responsibilities...
Everlastings Love! Everlasting daisies have become the first plants I’ve potted after starting to grow them from seed. I planted the seeds in humidity pods on February 19. They germinated in a flash, with buds clearly visible within a week. They were starting to grow too big for the pods, so I...
Feast of Flowers There’s much to love about Tokyo in May–long, warm days with little rain (for the most part), lots of greenery and things settle down after the hectic early months of spring when much of the country starts and ends the business year. Little, though, can beat the delight that the...
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...
Just Flowers It’s a sodden day with rain punctuated by drizzle, but the flowers in Kangaeroo Corner are brightening an otherwise bleak day. The grevillea are simply gorgeous and our star tree is filling with flowers that I have to learn to deadhead so that we get even more. Snow in the...
Get Off Of My Cloud! Riding today was like floating through the heavens at times, reminding me of one of my favorite songs by the world’s greatest rock band: The Rolling Stones‘ Get off My Cloud. I’d have loved to have been able to keep the scene for myself as I rode through the mists...
Minding My Peas, and Queues In my Aussie plant grow from seed experiment, desert peas moved outdoors today, with more budding plants queueing to join them. Only three of 12 desert pea seeds germinated, but did so strongly. Nonetheless, having struggled with clumsiness when repotting everlastings last month, I was better prepared this time. By...
Oops, I Did It Again! After having repeatedly vowed to myself that I would post content with substance that may be interesting for anybody who ever stumbled across it, I’ve gone ahead and posted more sunrise cycling pics because Mother Nature just keeps turning on the stunning starts to the day. After another near-sleepless night...
Some of the Cycling Camerawork that can be Expected These are the types of shots that I’ve been able to take of bikes....
豪カンガルー島で動物園が激安販売中　南オーストラリア州カンガルー島にカンガルーかコアラやエミューなどオーストラリア独特な動物を中心に飼っているhttp://www.parndanawildlifepark.com/パーンダーナ・ワイルドライフ・パークが只今販売中、とnews.com.auが４日付報道した。　パークは、１００種類以上の動物が住み、面積が約20ヘクタールで僅か豪ドル595,000（約4779万円）で発売されている。　販売しているエルダーズ・リアル・エステートによる、販売価格が動物の他住宅、お土産屋、バーベーキュー・ゾーン、倉庫や車庫などを含める。 Want to buy a zoo? There’s one for sale on Kangaroo Island, South Australia...
Mates’ Paws We had a busy and fruitful weekend, welcoming friends over for a party yesterday, working for a new future and getting to enjoy kangaroo paw that others are growing. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I grew kangaroo paw from seeds and got amazing results, which I delighted in “sharing” with friends...
A Handmade Tale Some of Japan’s finest cycling handiwork was on display at Handmade Bicycle 2025 held at the Science Musuem in Tokyo on Jan. 25-Jan. 26. Given that I had no other plans, wanted to do something special to celebrate Australia Day and needed to go for a ride with a decent...
Should’ve Been Astuter With Astuto Someone stole my Astuto bike and I’m feeling pretty lousy about it. The bike was special because a lot of people showed me kindness and generousity so I could build it up from scratch. I should have kept her inside the house, but we simply don’t have the room. I...
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...
Don’t Think! A good mate of mine often quotes William Shakespeare’s Hamlet by reminding me that, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Kangaeroo is prone to over-thinking, and this week is looming as a tough one. There’s plenty on the schedule, both professionally and privately. And...
Going Out To Lunch With Godzilla I’m fortunate enough to work within a short stroll from Godzilla, the (sometime) scourge of Japan and frequent destroyer of Tokyo. I took advantage of my lunch break to head down to visit Japan’s most famous monster. Of course, it’s not the real Godzilla, otherwise I probably wouldn’t get much...
オズのアホ使い　考えRooの母国であるオーストラリアでは、国名を省略して「オズ」と呼ぶことがある。　偶然に、考えるRooの生き方は馬鹿な言動が中心となっていた。　つきましては、「オズのアホ使い」と呼ばれても全然問題ないと思う。　具体的なことを言えないが、分かる人は分かる。いくらでも成功する機会が与えられ、裕福になれてもおかしくない過去があった。　しかし、貧乏で終わって、キャリアも何もならなかったというかキャリア事態はなかったというほど達成感がない。しょうがない。　それはそれでも変えられない。このもんだ。それでも十分。というか、これで満足しています。「オズのアホ使い」らしい生き方をして、最後までもそうだろう。　結局、考えRooはもう少し考えるべきだったかもしれない。...
‘Sno Business Like Snow Business March in Tokyo always feels like a bit of a tease as expectations of immediate warming are invariably let down, which is a feeling probably stemming from childhood in southern Australia where there is a clear demarcation in the transition from summer to autumn. And today we got snow, albeit...
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...
Big PeopleがなければBig Thingsが揃わない　オーストラリア各地にある「Big Things」というB級観光名所の正確な数が不明だが百数十件から200件件以上の間は間違いなくある。　ほとんどの「Big Things」が動物や設置されている地域の名産物などを称えるが、中には「人間」の姿をしているものもある。　彫刻など芸術性を重視するではなく、ほかの「Big Things」と同じようにコミカルな印象があり、キッシュが中心となっている。　また、オーストラリアの歴史も「Big Things」そのもの歴史も人間像に見える。　たとえば、南オーストラリア州都であるアデレードの一角であるメンディンディーという町にBig Scotsman（巨大スコットランド人）がある。　これは1963年に作られ、事実上オーストラリアの「Big Things」の最も早く作られたものだった（ニューサウスウェールズ州にあるBig Bananaが自称＜初めて＞とも言うだけど、、、）。　初めてとは言えはっきり言ってイメージとしてオーストラリアと関係ない。　同じく、「何で？」と思わせる「Big Things」がニューサウスウェールズ州にオーストラリア固有種のナッツであるマカダミアテーマパークにある。　そもそも変なのは同遊園地のテーマがヨーロッパ中世風のお城だ。　そして、それらしくかもしれないがオーストラリアらしくないのがお城の真ん前にある医大騎士であるBig Knightだ。　しかし、そのほか人間像の「Big Things」が国の歴史ともう少しつながりがある。　豪経済を昔も今も深い関わり合いがある鉱業を称えるオブジェがみつもある。　南オーストアリア州カプンダにある鉱山労働者像Map the Minerがある。　同町がオーストラリア初銅鉱業があり、それを称えるために1988年のオーストラリア建国200周年記念を祝う行事一つとして作られた。　しかし、2006年にあるティーンエージャーが同像を目立つように軽油をかけ火をつけてから写真撮ろうとしたが、ボヤーとなってMap the Minerを全焼した。幸いに保険がかけられたため作り直すことができた。（ちなみに、余談だが、このオブジェがあるカプンダはオーストラリアで最も幽霊が多い町とされているらしい。）　金が同じような鉱業労働者像の共通点である。　まず、19世紀半ば頃ニューサウスウェールズ州バスハーストという所に金が見つけられ「ゴールド・ラッシュ」となった。　今ではバスハースト中心街に入る道路を通ると迎えてくれるのはBig Gold Pannerである。　砂金を探している男の「Big Things」だ。　オーストラリアの産業化に重要な役割を果たしたゴールド・ラッシュのキックオフがバスハーストにあったかもしれないが、最も大きかったゴールド・ラッシュがほぼ同じ時期にビクトリア州バララットというところに起きた。さらに鉱業関係の「Big Things」が以前に掲載したクイーンズランド州ザ・ジェムフィールズにある数箇所も忘れてはいけない。　またオージーらしく鉱業並みに同国の経済に貢献した農業（厳密に言えば農家だけど、、、）を称える南オーストラリア州ウッディナにあるBig Australian Farmerだ。　しかいし、このオブジェは他の「Big Things」と違ってあまりコミカルやキッシュな面がなく最も真面目な物だ。　考えRooの個人的な見解だがこれが「Big Things」より彫刻だ。　また真面目だけどもっと「Big...
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...
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...
Three-Day Monk One of my favorite phrases in Japanese is mikka bozu, literally a three-day monk, and it’s a term used to describe the length that most people can maintain their resolve. I’ve got to admit to being an archetypical example of the concept. Having accumulated a huge spare tire and found...
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...
Flockin’ Wonderful Time All sorts of amazing things are happening at the moment, and I’m taking me time to let them settle in. Biggest is the new job, which is taking up most of my time at the moment and, naturally, has a huge impact on my life and that of those around...
Brush Aside It’s a sodden May morning, so rather than risk my luck and hoping I’ll be able to brake properly, I’ve spent the morning enjoying the blooming bottlebrush flowers in our garden and being played with by my dinosaur. It used to be my habit to wake and immediately set off...
‘Umble…That’s What You’ve Gotta Be Humility is a trait I desperately seek, but, like Uriah Heep in Charles Dickens‘ masterpiece, David Copperfield, who constantly espoused the need to be humble, I implore myself to be modest, but the only area in which I have consistently done so is my track record in life. For those...
「Naughty」と「Nice」コリアの五輪メダル表で北朝鮮が豪フリーペーパーに激怒　オーストラリア東海岸３都市に無料で配れるフリーペーパーｍXが2012年ロンドン五輪メダル表に「Naughty Korea」と「Nice Korea」と北朝鮮と韓国をそれぞれ表示したことに対して北朝鮮の国営通信社である朝鮮中央通信社（KCNA)が猛烈に怒りを示した。　KCNAはｍXのメダル表が「イジメ」「オリンピック精神違反」「浅ましい」など、同紙を強く批判した。　「Naughty」は「悪い」という意味が「Nice」の反意語としてよく使われ入るし、その場合「やんちゃ」というニュアンスもある。　批判に対してｍXが配布されているシドニー、メルボルン、ブリスベーンの各編集長が共同声明を発表した。　「ｍXはニュースに対しての非礼な解釈がよく知られている。表は、世界が二つのコリアがどのように見られていることをユーモアを込めて示そうとしただけで、北朝鮮でも韓国でも選手や国民に対して軽蔑する意図が全く無かった」といった。...
Glorious Grevillea Although the harsher than normal seasons this year have made it tough for our garden, our consistently strong grevillea has survived and thrived....
The Day of the Chicken Today, February 8, is The Day of the Chicken in Japan, according to the Japan Anniversary Association. The anniversary was chosen because of one phonetic reading for the date. In Japanese, phrasing today’s date would be 2月8日, which is literally the “second month and eighth day” if rendered in English....
Cracking Kakegawa Is Shizuoka’s Stunning Secret Sometimes, delight arises where it’s least expected. And that’s precisely what happened for me over the weekend with a visit to the unexpectedly delightful Shizuoka Prefecture city of Kakegawa. We had the most amazing time in the city, watching birds, visiting traditional and modern attractions, and enjoying fine dining. I’d...
Arrows of Outrageous Fortune Mrs. Kangaeroo invited me out on a date today, which turned out to be an absolute ripper (how could any event with Mrs. Kangaeroo not be?), but involved horses, of course! Mrs. Kangaeroo is an avid equestrian and her devotion, best seen when it comes to living and providing loving...
Charmed And Cheered Thanks to a minor quirk of fate, my life has turned completely around and I’ve gone from cursed to content, all within the space of a couple of months. For the first time in years I’ve got a great job in a prime location. My company values me and goes...
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...
Springing Into Inaction Spring in Tokyo is always a delight for me, particularly as I age and the cold makes it harder to get active and the winter seems to linger endlessly, but sometimes it’s hard to see the silver lining in the clouds and today is a case in point. I’ve got...
Going Down in a Haze of Story For various reasons, I got to look at YouTube for the first time in years this morning and, by sheer coincidence, got to see a video captured exactly 10 years ago to the day. The footage came from a fire that had broken out on the spectacular Rainbow Bridge, which...
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...
Blowin’ In The Wind Tokyo spring tends to be windy, and it is blowing up a gale in the suburbs of the Japanese capital right now. This morning I got to fly for a few kilometers, backed by a tremendous tailwind. Of course, barring a meteorological miracle, where there’s a tailwind, there’s almost always...
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...
Hello Cocky! Spring is drawing closer by the day, if not actually here already in Tokyo, but that doesn’t mean the warmth has arrived yet, though the cockatoo in Kangaeroo Corner couldn’t care less. Every morning is getting lighter and the flowers are blooming. Kangaeroo Corner’s wattle is resplendent! We were originally...
Warm Weekend This spring has been uneasonably warm. Though only the first weekend in April, the cherry blossom season in Tokyo is over. Normally, it is only just starting. It was a tumultuous week for Kangaeroo, as mentioned in the previous post, but continuing over the weekend. All sorts of stuff happened,...
Gifted With A Glorious Walk Not being overly busy and blessed with sublime weather, I got to take a walk around the office neighborhood in the central Tokyo district of Marunouchi, and it was simply spectacular. The skyscrapers were breathtaking and I loved the way they basked in the spring sunshine. Lots of pocket gardens...
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...
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...
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....
Flashes of Brilliance, but Lacking Focus Today’s title was a perfect summation of the photos I took on my morning ride, but could also describe my life to a tee. The skies were spectacular! My photography, not quite so. I am struggling to hold my phone still. My hands shake all the time. I got a...
Why Is It Snowing, It’s Supposed To Be Summer? It’s cold and wet, and we’re three days into summer. As I mentioned the other day, the snow in the summer in our garden is supposed to be because of its resemblance to the phenomena, not its materialization. It’s less than 20 degrees. The sky is dark and bleak. It...
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...
Suburban Tokyo’s Little Slice Of The Godzone Aussies like to call our country the Godzone, a corruption of the phrase “God’s Own Country,” and we’ve been lucky enough to replicate a little bit of that zone in the suburbs of Tokyo. Thanks to the talents of the amazing Alex Endo, Japan’s premier author on Australian plants and...
Stumbling Across A Shogun’s Stimulator Just a few weeks ago I was extremely surprised to learn there is a monument to WIilliam Adams located just a few minutes from my workplace as I thought after nearly 40 years of life in Japan I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about the...
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...
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...
Back Attack Continuing a run of at least four new year seasons, I’m ailing yet again. After a cold, covid, the flu and another cold, this new year I’ll be welcoming in with a case of lumbago. Worse still, I owe it to a case of hubris, having twinged my back by...
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...
Welcoming In Winter Like it or not, and I’m firmly in the “not” camp on this one, winter is here again, but I’ve been kind’ve happy to see how well Kangaeroo Corner has held up this year as the cold sets in. This year is the second year of our garden and for...
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...
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...
Willow Worlds Cricket is one of the few things I really miss about life in Australia, and stumbling across the Japan Cricket Association website recently led me down a rabbit hole centered around willow, an integral yet often unremembered part of life in my two countries. Come down the willow wormhole with...
Prayers Gonna Pray I’ve been praying a lot lately, which is bloody hypocritical because I don’t really believe in having to rely on an imaginary friend. It’s been a rocky start to 2024 for Japan, beginning with the deadly New Year’s Day Noto Earthquake, a fatal crash at Haneda Airport the following day...
Saying It With Flowers Running out of time with a busy schedule ahead, but a flourishing garden at hand, what better way to say anything than to do it with flowers? So that’s what we’ll do, courtesy of Kangaeroo Corner’s enduring grevillea....
Not Getting Cocky Some years ago, I got too far ahead of myself and lost my humility with the upshot being daily humiliation now. Over the past 14 years or so, I’ve attended a 12-step group pretty much daily to make myself a better person, and to be more decent to others. As...
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 10 Thumbs, Odds Were Always For 1 Being At Least Malachite, If Not Green I’m notoriously clumsy, making even the simplest task a monumental one, but having 10 thumbs also increased the odds of at least one of them being green, if not a little shade of malachite. Nah…just kidding….I’m still bloody unco, and trying to prove I’ve got something of a green thumb...
Pop Goes The Blister And A Cracker Jaca I’m not quite out of action, but not far from it, thanks to popping a tiny blister on my finger over a week ago now. The bloody thing got infected and the infection started to spread up my arm. Pain has been excruciating, which has come as a total surprise...
Grass is Greener….Here, And Not On the Other Side! Kangaeroo Corner’s garden is about to enter its second spring, and is currently going through its first winter. And its grass is greener than could ever be imagined…literally! Although Kangaeroo comes from a family of avid gardeners, he had never really had a chance to do much gardening. Only an...
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...
Pushbike Paradise The few weeks leading up to the start of the rainy season in Tokyo are, for me, idyllic, and for the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to get an early morning bike ride in on most days, and today was a ripper. The sun rises...
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...
Weekend of Death In an otherwise nondescript weekend–almost no tours, tests, parties, interviews, meetings, events or obligations–death reigned supreme, and by that I mean the Death Machine was my prime mode of transport. Although as I noted yesterday, in the one appointment I did have, I was also killed off myself, albeit temporarily....
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....
Full Seed Ahead! Buoyed by the emergence of buds from everlasting daisies on Saturday and given the gift of desperation on late Sunday afternoon following a weekend of sloth, I planted the last of my seeds from Australia. With “budding” success from the humidity pods I have been using, I got enough confidence...
Bracing… Unfortunately, the bracing in the title of today’s post refers to readying for what looks like a rough ride ahead instead of the alternative meaning of refreshing. My job search has proved disastrous, and it’s hard to keep trying to convince myself that I should be grateful for the position...
Catching Up with Some Old Mates From an early morning to a very late night, I got to spend a day filled with chances to catch up with old mates. Firstly, I raced out to Ueno Park and got to meet someone I originally met while being able to work as a guide for Japan Biking...
Tigers Trump Tenderfoots Richmond Football Club will contest the 2017 AFL Grand Final! The mighty Tigers triumphed over the Australian Football League’s newest team, the Western Sydney Giants, a talent-packed outfit created to boost revenue from TV broadcasts. Now, Richmond will play the rampaging Adelaide Crows to determine the Aussie Rules champion of...
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...
Whetted for Wet Rain is falling pretty steadily and though the rainy season in Japan gets me down, on the verge of its start, the precipitation has whetted the garden’s appetite for the wet; at least for the onset of the season, which could go on for months, or not happen at all,...
Princely Reward Nature, and Mrs. Kangaeroo, provided a princely reward for patience and perseverance as the little prince protea I had been nagging for months to have removed from our garden because it had died actually sprouted and proved that it was as alive as my spouse had been saying it was....
Sweltering! It’s boiling hot and the heat and humidity are energy sapping, but I still love summer in Tokyo. The heat means I can eat to my heart’s content and won’t gain too much weight, especially if I can continue cycling. I’m still able to ride at least twice a day...
Cherry Ripe For A Ride I always look for a sharp way to start of a post, hopefully with some sort of catchy word play that might draw anybody who stumbles across the blog into reading further. I was pretty sure today’s title would play that role perfectly. And then I wasn’t. A cherry ripe...
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...
Dark! It was already light when I woke at 4 a.m., but in lots of ways, it was also really dark, literally and figuratively. We had powerful winds carrying rain clouds over the Japanese capital, casting a bleak pall. But the winds also ensured the rain held off. And the YouTube...
The Fat Lady Sang My job is over. Finished. Kaput. Ended. I am officially unemployed for the first time in 10 1/2 years. All ties to my former employer ended a few moments ago as I sent off the computer and periphery items I had used at home, where I worked from pretty much...
Rain Yet Again Can Be A Bit Of A Drain May in Tokyo in my mind is a month of warm, dry, blissful weather, but for the second time in the four-day weekend this year for Golden Week we’ve had constant rain, which is frankly a bit of a drag. But being stuck inside with little to work on is...
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...
Paws to Reflect Having been gifted with the precious opportunity to maintain a garden filled with Australian native plants, one of the highlights of a trip back Down Under last year was bringing back loads of seeds that I hoped to grow and plant. Most of the propagation worked, but once the seedlings...
Snot Block Odyssey Something was amiss with the start of the weekend when I was barely able to sleep, spending a restless night ahead of plans to head into central Tokyo to pick up some parts, but little did I know that a vanilla slice “snot block” was on the way to rescuing...
Cycle of Life Life looks like it’s gonna be pretty busy for the next few weeks, so it might be something of a last chance to post for a while, and fortunately I got to kick off this period with a ride along the Tama River this morning. It’s been a funny rainy...
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...
Juggling Jobsworths And Feisty Photographers Even with a 4:30 a.m. start aimed at avoiding meddlesome obstructionists, I still didn’t get up early enough to escape the scrutiny of the local jobsworth. Riding my bike into Yakushiike Park just as the dawn broke, and entering down a ramp well past the park office, I thought I...
Washout Heavy rain put a dampener on any outside activity this morning, but it was a good chance for other activities, notably the family dinosaur throwing herself into a bath. She’s the clumsiest bather imaginable and watching her trying to bathe always fills my heart with warmth and hope that she’ll...
Magnificent Ms. Minogue Kylie Minogue dazzled Tokyo on March 12 on a whirlwind trip as part of her global Tension Tour 2025. The evergreen Aussie singer thrilled the packed Ariake Arena in her first show in Japan for 14 years. She clearly enjoyed being around the Japanese crowd and thanked them for the...
Untethered Beast I got to untether the Beast today, and by that I mean I got my first real chance to ride a new bike, and as much as I want to say it’s named the Beast because it is an amazing ride (which it has actually turned out to be), the...