Settling Back Down To Being Unsettled

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1. 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....
2. 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...
3. 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...
4. 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...
5. 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....
6. 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...
7. Big Red Wins The Blue, But Still A Toot For Astuto I’ve finally got one of my 2025 goals back on track in what has been my most prolific month for cycling in several years, courtesy of a dry, hot July. This morning I caught up with my target of averaging 1,000 or more kilometers per month across the year. This...
8. 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...
9. 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...
10. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 13: Last Leg On Last Legs At long last, the Big Red Bike Tour is over. What a wonderful time it was! Originally, I’d planned to take some time off work and cycle across the Japan Alps and Nakasendo highway. But Dino falling ill put paid to that plan. I needed to stay close to home,...
11. 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...
12. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 12: Morning Glory With a commitment to mow the lawns at the retirement village where I live and work resuming tomorrow, this morning was supposed to be the end of the Big Red Bike Tour, but I am going to try and sneak in one or maybe two more rides if I can....
13. 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...
14. Procrastination Propagation Winter is probably the worst time of the year to try to grow plants from cuttings, except, like for me, you’re desperately trying to avoid doing something unpleasant and you’ve been handed unseasonably fine weather. So, instead of taking a trial test for a potential new job as I could...
15. Of Banksia and Birdies It’s the most glorious day of the year so far in terms of weather and I am sitting in my back office, stuffing myself full of chocolate and lollies and preoccupied with bloody banksia and birds. I’m stuck here because I’m waiting on delivery of the newest member of Kangaeroo...
16. Craving Procrastination, But Will Procrastinate Tomorrow Well, what a bloody awful rabbit hole to fall into. Today was supposed to involved delivering choccies to some cycling associates in Kawasaki. But getting up and about with half an hour or so free before Mrs. Kangaeroo was due to head off to work and hanging out with the...
17. All Sorts of Returns Kangaeroo.com is back online after a few weeks of being grounded. There were myriad reasons for why nothing got posted. But an old friend from NewsonJapan played an important and much appreciated role in getting the site back on track. Other everyday items making comebacks of sorts include my spare...
18. Campbelltown Forest of Wild Birds A Slice of Oz in Sleepy Saitama Campbelltown, which is situated about 50 kilometers from Sydney’s central business district, were almost made for each other, even if only serving as satellite cities for their respective countries’ largest cities. Koshigaya and Campbelltown are Campbelltown Forest of Wild Birds in Koshigaya could arguably be one of the Kanto Plains...
19. Laudable by Libs (Outside of Office) and Skillful Journalism For much of my life, I was something of a political animal, tempered by social requirements, but eventually tamed and then driven into apathy by circumstance. However, given a chance this week to watch a series of brilliant documentaries about Australian politics with a Tokyo connection, I felt stirrings of...
20. 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...
21. Wonder Undies! Kanageroo hasn’t really won a great deal in lotteries or the like over the years (despite hitting the jackpot in so many other ways), so it was a pleasant surprise last week to win a great prize! That prize was a gift coupon for undies! Kangaeroo won the undies through...
22. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 1: Chilling With Chooks Chooks and geegees played an unexpectedly pleasant role as the Big Red Bike Tour Stage 1 got underway. Unsure where to go and uneasy to leave the ailing Dino the rosy faced lovebird alone for too long, I decided to enlist the aid of Mrs. Kangaeroo. Mrs. Kangaeroo is a...
23. 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...
24. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 10: Washout! Raindrops and more kept falling on my head and everywhere else today, putting paid to Stage 10 of the Big Red Bike Tour, which became a washout. Admittedly, I didn’t have anything planned and was just going to let things go as they flowed. And flow they did, thanks to...
25. Strolling Through The Centuries In The World’s Largest City One of my great delights is that I get to work in an office located in the heart of Tokyo, the world’s largest city with a population of 37.4 million, and I’m never more than a few footsteps away from incredible historical highlight. I got to spend my lunch break...
26. 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...
27. Open Up Your Eyes, An Everlasting Bud! Kangaeroo’s Aussie seed experiment is moving forward, and today resulted in its first buds. Seedling growth came from an everlasting, a pink, yellow and white flower native to Western Australia. I potted everlasting seeds last weekend in humidity pods. They’ve been growing under lights daily ever since, except for Tuesday...
28. Glad to be Alive Kangaeroo is easy to be critical and cynical, less so to be thankful. Today, he is taking a moment to be thankful for life. Kangaeroo loves life, even though he has largely made a mess of his own until recent years. Life interrupted this week, preventing any significant entry here,...
29. This Is Democracy Manifest! Get Your Hand Off My Succulent Sausage! Very glad to have grown up in a society that still seems to ostensibibly respect democracy and the rule of law, I was delighted to visit the Australian Embassy in Tokyo and partake of democracy manifest in the form of a snag. The bleak, wet day (eerily reminscent of my...
30. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 11: Mama’s Got A Squeeze Box With a return to work–and the commute to the office–imminent, the slow wind down of the Big Red Bike Tour started today with a chance to head into central Tokyo. I was there to catch up with some old mates and ply them with superb brownies Mrs. Kangaeroo baked. I...
31. 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...
32. Breaking The Banksia It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we’re finally going to get a banksia flower in the garden. We’ve had a banksia in the garden from the outset, but yet to get a flower some three years down the track. And we’ve had plenty of troubles along the way. In addition to...
33. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 3: Dino’s Fabulous Flight Dino, our ailing rosy faced lovebird, went on the most fantastic flight of her life today, albeit courtesy of Kangaeroo pedal power rather than using her own wings. Dino traveled about 60 kilometers from home as the bird flies — or didn’t, in this case. I packed her in a...
34. 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。...
35. Slowly Settling Into Place It’s been a great year. I’ve been in full-time employment since April, the longest unbroken stint of working since September 2008. Mrs. Kangaeroo pleaded with me for some stability and I feel like we are close to getting there. Our company got bought out over the summer. Our office moved...
36. ‘Bitch-face’ Lovebird I’m the ‘proud'(?) parent of a rosy-faced lovebird, who I must admit brings an immense amount of joy into my life, but I also learned a new Japanese phrase over the weekend that perfectly sums up these tiny avian pterrors! Kozamesu, a contraction of the term kozakura inko mesu, literally...
37. 「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。...
38. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 9: The Knights In White Lycra Thanks to my annual leave, and a message from a fine man committed to giving back to society, I got to spend Stage 9 of the Big Red Bike Tour visiting a video night to showcase the 500-km charity ride the Knights in White Lycra made in June. The Knights...
39. Own Your Own Japanese Castle for $100,000 Aussies can buy an (almost) authentic Japanese castle for only about $100,000, it has been revealed recently on social media. Century21 Japan is selling the 6-story castle (with a restaurant on the second floor) in Akabira, Hokkaido, at a price unimaginable to potential home buyers Down Under. Of course, at...
40. 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...
41. Reflections Today’s gonna be a demanding day, but hopefully a magical one in all sorts of ways. I’m connecting with wizards who I am hoping will whisk me away from the uncomfortable spot my professional life has found itself in, but the imposter syndrome is already really strong. At least I...
42. Trying To Kid Myself On Children’s Day Blessed with glorious weather and little wind, it was almost appropriate I spent the first part of Children’s Day trying to kid myself that I am something of a decent cyclist. I did manage to build up an almost acceptable pace considering the countless number of traffic lights I had...
43. Seeing the Light It’s getting darker in the mornings, already much more noticeably than before the equinox, which was still less than a month ago. But there is some sort of light on the horizon, literally and figuratively. Although we haven’t seen much of it this week, the sun shines over the horizon...
44. Goodbye Possums… Barry Humphries, the creator of characters such as Dame Edna Everage – the Moonee Ponds housewife famous for her flamboyance and shouted greeting of “Hello Possums” – Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone, and himself an entertainer and icon of Straya in many parts of the world, has passed away....
45. 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...
46. Far Canal! Had No Idea Boating Is This Much Fun! Tokyo is a city built on rivers and streams, and much of its history is built around waterways, yet it took until last weekend to finally enjoy a really decent yakatabune boat ride. I’ve been here for decades and been on cruises and even ridden in yakatabune, which are long,...
47. 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...
48. No Making A Blue When It Comes To Big Red As anyone who knows Australian slang could tell you, anything with a hue as azure as the latest bike in my fleet could only possibly be given a name like Big Red. So that’s exactly what it got, and that’s not making a blue in the slightest. Big Red came...
49. Waking Up Early Helps Dreams Come True I don’t want to sound like I’m virtue signaling or anything like that, but my experience has been that the more active I am in the early morning, the greater the likelihood that I’ll gee myself up into being a decent person and go about making the most of the...
50. 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...
51. Looming Spectre Arises From The Past One of my worst fears has come true as the spectre of my past that looms over me has arisen. My mate who found me this job informed me that the guy who fired him is out to get me. That bloke had previously managed the section and interviewed me...
52. Bountiful Blessings This morning was another gloriously beautiful late autumn morning with the full, beaver moon glowing until well after the sun had risen and mists floating up above the Tama River to create wonderfully serene scenes. Pity the mess in my head can’t turn in a similar direction. I’m a wreck....
53. 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！...
54. Treading Through The Tulips Much as I would love to have been tiptoeing, I’m way too fat to do that, so when Mrs. Kangaeroo and I headed off to the Hamura Tulip Festival, it was stomping heavily through the gorgeous flowers. Mrs. Kangaeroo and I had done some cycling tours together in the past,...
55. 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...
56. Golden Girl La Cangura is the name of my bike, a beautiful gunmetal and gold-trimmed machine from Orbea, a manufacturer from Spain, hence the name (which means The Kangaroo in English). She looks delightful in among the canola, the yellow hues of the bike and the flowers a wonderful match. Just wish...
57. Warming Up After yesterday’s spectacular start and the promise of a 20-degree day, I woke with great expectations of another brilliant beginning. Anticipations of even greater things arose with the warmth being decent enough to enable the year’s first early morning ride in shorts and short-sleeves (albeit with a heattech T-shirt). Wanting...
58. So It Goes… Today marks farewell to Premiership Palace. Kangaeroo is no longer a Kanagawa kenmin (resident of Kanagawa Prefecture) from Kurokawa. Well, at least not after today. If nothing else, at least the pandemic allowed Kangaeroo to explore the neighborhood, getting to know what a delightful place it was. Time in Kanagawa...
59. 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...
60. 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...
61. 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。...
62. 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,...
63. A Turn For The Worse Professional life has become crushing. This has turned out to be a really lousy year. I was determined to make my cycling goals this year, but now have to focus on saving my job. It should have been a triumphant time. It was a magnificent year for cycling, as my...
64. 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...
65. Wattle Y’Know As the tiny yellow blossoms slowly starting to open on the wattle trees in our garden are showing, spring is gradually inching closer to realization, but it can never happen fast enough. Cold seems to linger for an inordinately long time at the end of every winter, especially as I...
66. Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Sappy It’s hard not to wax lyrical when greeted by a spectuclar morning where the moon is waning lyrically and the sun about to wax. The waning moon, Venus and, I think, Mars, really stood out in the pre-dawn skies as I set off on my ride this morning. I’ve long...
67. Watch Your Words! Many foreigners guffaw at the frequent mangling of English that some Japanese can achieve and there’re plenty of websites and the like dedicated to highlighting these flaws, but they should note that this can go both ways. Perhaps a tad of extra time and consultation could have gone into the...
68. Nothing Is So Freeing As Liberating From Berating Almost precisely a year ago, I got to through off the shackles of near constant torment to hurl myself into an opportunity that I could not have even imagined presenting itself. As a result, I’m now feeling valued and appreciated in my workplace and not just within my family and...
69. Angels Without Wings Blessed by sublime weather, I got to experience the delight of helping out a canicross–canine cross country–and spent the day being surrounded by literally hundreds of doggos, thse glorious little angels without wings. They were taking part in Dog Marathon 2025 Shonan Beach Canicross on Tsujido Beach in Fujisawa, Kanagawa...
70. 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...
71. 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...
72. 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...
73. Kangaroo Cookies, Tim-Tams, Cakes and Cuppas: Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This Mrs. Kangaeroo whipped up a few culinary miracles (making the impossible look simple and all while not having slept a wink) including kangaroo cookies and Tim-Tams to put the most amazing topping on what was a magnificent day. We welcomed my oldest friend and the person who brought me to...
74. 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...
75. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 5: Beating Around The Bush Considering the Big Red is made to go pretty much anywhere, I shouldn’t have been beating around the bush about going off road. But I have: until today, when we hit the dirt. I can’t go far from home as I need to look after Dino the rosy faced lovebird....
76. Winds Of Change Are Blowing Mrs. Kangaeroo and I are pretty close to finding a new place to live; a move driven by the unreliability of company support in the wake of a disastrous fall in the status of the company. Mrs. Kangaeroo has been looking for a new place for a while now and...
77. Bloomin’ Wonderful Time Cherry blossoms are on the verge of reaching full bloom in the western Tokyo area. The flowers are not quite at their peak, but they are still exquisitely beautiful. Cycling this morning was a delight....
78. 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...
79. 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...
80. Enjoying the Cycle of Life Kangaeroo is not a young marsupial. He is old, fat and lazy. Exercise is not his thing. Yet, thanks to the humble bicycle, this exercise-averse old codger can enjoy a relatively healthy lifestyle. Every morning, almost without fail, Kangaeroo wakes, dresses, has a cup of joe and gets on his...
81. And Now, The End is Near It began to sink in on this morning’s ride along the Tama River that this aspect of my life, such a crucial activity over the years of the covid pandemic, is drawing to a close. Many people are fixtures along the river, just as I suppose I must be for...
82. Brommies More Than Just a Mere Bike Several years ago now, I was very fortunate to stumble into buying a Brompton folding bicycle that has fundamentally changed my life and continues to have countless unimaginable effects. I’d already shown signs of developing into an avid cyclist and was using a Dahon foldup bike to slice my then...
83. 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...
84. Well, Well, What A Surprise We’re back at the company where we originally worked, but on drastically reduced terms compared to what we have been on, with the move occurring precisely to the day that makes the company legally permitted to do what they’ve done. It’s a shifty, nasty, dirty act, all carried out secretly...
85. 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...
86. Snow In The Summer Is Only Supposed To Be A Name In an uncustomary May I was absolutely delighted to poke my head out of our backdoor and see a lovely little white blossom greeting me. The flower was on our melaleuca linariifolia, a tree generally known as the snow in the summer. It gets that name because it blooms when...
87. Farewell To The Little Kiso, A Magnicent Blessing In My Life One of the finest people I have known in my life has passed. She lived a long and fruitful life, part of which involved me and my selfishness returning her immeasurable generosity and kindness with excruciatingly painful rudeness. Yet, she still responded with warmth and openness, right to the end....
88. 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...
89. Meeting Little Mate Is An Absolute Tweet Thanks to the courtesy and support of colleagues, I could whip out of the office early, get on my bike and be greeted with the delightful chirps of a little bird ecstatic to see me as I arrived at the Yokohama Bird Clinic. Dino, our rosy faced lovebird, chirped excitedly...
90. More Climbing Continuing on from yesterday, today was another day of climbing through the mountains on the beautiful Belladonna (a Cervelo R5 road bike). Kangaeroo is too exhausted from the energy-sapping ride and a rush to get out to go into much detail. But he is eternally grateful to cycling for giving...
91. Canny Kate Raises Tokyo Comedy Bar Acerbic Aussie comedian Kate Hanley Corley‘s razor sharp wit got a cosmopolitan crowd (including superfans who traveled to Japan just to see her) at the Tokyo Comedy Club guffawing loudly. The comedian on a whirlwind tour of Japan put on a rapid-fire display of comedy focused on love, marriage, life...
92. Sticky And Sweaty Before The Swelter 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...
93. 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...
94. There’s Something Coincidental About Serendipity Serendipity has shaped my life much more than I would ever have expected. Two of the most fateful moments of my existence arose by coincidence, both of which involved bumping into someone I’d never expected to see again. These accidents led to me spending most of my life in Japan,...
95. 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...
96. Rufus the Couch Kanga Rufus is an orphaned kangaroo that loves lying on the couch. He’s on Instagram. And he’s got his own website (selling plenty of merch!)...
97. Abe First Japanese PM To Visit Japanese-Bombed Darwin In 1942, Japanese forces launched the only attacks on the Australian mainland, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first premier to visit Darwin, the most heavily damaged city bombed by the Japanese. Apart from Darwin, Japanese forces also attacked Sydney, Broome, Katherine, Wyndham, Exmouth, Port Headland and Townsville...
98. Hammered By The Cycling Gods Despite a short work week, life was busy and the cycling gods dealt another blow that made it hard to stay on the bike. After riding more than 30,000 kilometers in 2021, the fates have combined to drastically curtail my riding as I’ve been affected by work, play, family, health,...
99. Strewth! ヴァージン・オーストラリアのストライン（豪州英語）離れが続く Strewth!元々オーストラリア市場で出来るだけオージーらしくやろうとしたバージン社の航空部門のストライン（オージー英語）離れが急速に進んでいる。 　今週からヴァージン・オーストラリアの乗務員が客に向けて具体的な指示がある場合を除き「mate」と呼ぶな、という命令が出たらしい。オージー英語では、mateと呼び合うことがごく自然なことだが、同社がサービス向上に伴ってもっとビジネスらしく客と接したいということだそう。 　その関連で乗務員が再教育を受けざるを得ない。しかし、客が事前に「mate」と呼んでほしい申請すれば、乗務員がそう呼んでもかまわない、と同社がいう。 　同社のオーストラリア市場進出は2000年だった。その当時、飛行機が主に赤いだったため、オージー英語で「赤いものをブルー＜青い＞」という習慣にかけて社名をヴァージン・ブルーとした。 　しかし、昨年11月会社のリブランディングによって社名をヴァージン・オーストリアに変更し、一般旅行者よりビジネスを中心に戦略も変えた。カンタス航空に次ぐオーストラリア２位の航空会社の同社がオーストラリアに馴染めれば馴染むほどオージー離れが進むようだ。 Virgin Australia公式サイト 「やばいリンガル」Mate 豪キャブラリー： Matey （動詞） The Strine Why Atorkin: Natchrule Strine...
100. 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...

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