Fabulously Fulfilling But Frenetically Flat Out

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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. Merry Christmas 2019 All the very best for Christmas 2019! Have a wonderful festive season and take care. May all your Christmases be Chrissie. An Aussie Chrissie...
3. 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...
4. 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...
5. Totoro In My Neighborhood I had no idea until yesterday, but for years I have been living quite close to Totoro, a Shinto kami made globally famous through Hayao Miyazaki‘s utterly delightful 1988 animated movie, My Neighbor Totoro. OK, so it’s not the real forest-protecting spirit as depicted by STUDIO GHIBLI, but the topiary...
6. So Much For The Welcoming Hospitality…. Japan has secured the 2020 Olympic Games for Tokyo and people here largely attribute it to the undeniable hospitality of the people, though there are sometimes reasons for doubt. Here’s hoping it’s going to be a great year, though my doctor dropped a bombshell on me this month when she...
7. 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...
8. 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...
9. Superstar Prodigy Makes Cricketing History Australian-Japanese prodigy Ayaka Kato-Stafford has created cricket history. The 15-year-old all-rounder made her international debut playing for Japan, a cricketing minnow and still only an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council. But the dual national with a career batting average of 32.67 and bowling average of a miserly 14.25...
10. メルボルンがまた世界１住み易い都市、豪４つ都市がベスト１０に 　メルボルンが２０１１年２年連続世界一番住みやすいとなっている、と英国エコノミスト・インテリジェンス・ユニットがクオリティ・オブ・ライフ調査発表を１４日付行った。 　ベスト１０にはメルボルンをはじめ、４つのオーストラリアの都市が入っていた。アデレードが５位、シドニーが７位とパースが９位だった。隣のニュージーランド・オークランド市が１０位とオーストララシアが圧倒的に上位を占める。カナダもバンクーバー、トロント・カルガリーの３都市もベスト１０入り。 Melbourne rated world’s most liveable city in Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Survey...
11. 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...
12. 先住民視野を中心としたCommonwealth of Australia 考えRooがオーストラリアについてプレゼンをしましたので、その内容が以下の通りとなりました。コメントなどをぜひ送ってください。 今のオーストラリアの概要 * オーストラリアはラテン語で「南大陸」という意味 * 本土に加えてタスマニア島を含め数多くの島々で構成、面積はおよそ770万㎢であり、日本の約25倍ある * GDPが世界19位、一人当たりのGDPは世界9位 * 人口が2500万人弱、日本の約5分の1 * 住民の80%以上がヨーロッパ系の白人であり、その他にアジア人が約12%、先住民などが約2% * ヨーロッパ人在住が1788年から始まり、イギリスの刑務植民地として開拓された * 当時、イギリス法はオーストラリアを「無人」扱いだったが、先住民がそこですでに数万年間住んでいた オーストラリア先住民 * 昔、「アボリジニ 」として呼ばれた * まだ使われているが、「土人」という意味なので「先住民」、「原住民」、「ファースト・ネーションズ」や特定部族名を使うことが主流 * 先住民の定義は、植民地化以前にトレス海峡諸島民を含めてオーストラリア大陸及び周辺諸島に移住した人の子孫 * 現在、援助対象の場合を除き「先住民」認可は基本的に自己申告 * 植民地化当時人口が約３０0万人とされているが、今の先住民人口は約65万人であり、全体のおよそ２．８％ ドリーミング * 先住民の宗教にあたるのは「ドリーミング、夢の時」 * 個人のすべての過去と現在と未来がつながっていると信じる * 各個人のドリーミングが違い、独特なものである * 部族の象徴でも、習慣でもドリーミングになる * 全ての知識が先祖から集まると信じる * 死後、名前を使用することが禁じられている * 死後、再び土と一緒になると信じる　 * 宗教同様、多くの神話が部族によって異なった * 共通神話が「虹蛇」 * 虹蛇が創造神話の中心となっている、世界を創ったとされている *...
13. 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....
14. 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,...
15. 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...
16. 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...
17. 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...
18. 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...
19. A Season Of Sayonara And Au Revoir It was sayonara time. We farewelled our apartment that Mrs. Kangaeroo scrimped and saved to snare upon the end of her previous marriage. Then it was goodbye to being Tokyo citizens as we became Kanagawa Prefecture residents. And we moved on to say au revoir to the Printemps department store....
20. Deluge Opens A Door To Delightful Demonstration After weeks without rain, Tokyo finally got a bit of precipitation this week–hopefully without any great damage–but for us, it was welcome relief for the parched garden, as well we some beautiful sights on the bike. I’ve always been a sucker for reflection photos and the rain provides a plethora...
21. 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....
22. 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...
23. 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...
24. Akiya Akita (空き家、飽きた), Or How I Got Sick Of The Idea Of A Japanese Home Too Cheap To Be True Having lived in Japan for decades, it’s suddenly strange to see the country become what seems to be the global flavor the month, particularly when it comes to the phenomenal interest in akiya, one of the millions of empty homes throughout the country. All of the photos in this post...
25. 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...
26. 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...
27. Gentle Soul During a brief visit to Australia last year, after a separation of about 40 years I got to meet a schoolmate who I had greatly admired as a teen-ager, and he referred to me as someone “who always was a gentle soul.” It was one of the, if not the,...
28. Slanging Garden With Birdies On Wasn’t going to write anything today, but a delightfully sunny winter morning got me fawning over Kangaeroo Corner and feeling absolutely thrilled to have this little garden, especially when it’s attracting the local birds to our Fountain of Strewth. With a later than usual start to riding planned, I got...
29. 豪の謎な「マンゴ・ミステリー」が解けちゃった オーストラリアの不思議なキッチュオな町おこしオブジェ「Big Things」のひとつである重さ10トンに高さ約4メートルのBig Mangoが今週一旦盗まれたり、見つけられたりして、これに関連して最終的にさまざまな出来事がチキンチェーン店のPRスタントであったことが26日付で分かった。 　Big Mangoは、豪北部クィーンズランド州にある同国マンゴ生産一ボエンという町に2002年に地域名物を称えるうえに観光を促進するために設置された。 　設置してから2007年にヒュー・ジャックマンとニコール・キッドマン主演「オーストラリア」のロケ地となった期間を除けば同町が平凡な田舎町としてやってきたが、今週24日となったいきなり有名な町象徴ひとつであるBig Mangoの姿が消えていた。 　同日、監視カメラが撮影した映像では同オブジェをクレーンが運んでる場面が映られている、という発表があった。 　また、翌日、同町内にシートに囲まれている巨大マンゴが見つけられた。 　そして、見つかったと同時に米国ファストフードチェーンであるナンドーズが「ボエンの方々に感謝しています。少しの間あなたたちのマンゴをお借りしております。ちゃんと戻すととも理由などを説明いたします」と豪法人ウェブサイトで声明文を出した。 熱帯雨林地の美味しい宝物のBig Mango Big Thingsクイーンズランド州編 Where the Cluck is the Bowen Big Mango? Big Mango tourist attraction stolen from Bowen has been found ‘Stolen’ big mango revealed as a hoax by Nando’s...
30. 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,...
31. 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....
32. 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....
33. 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...
34. 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...
35. 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...
36. In Dog We Trust Our time with Uyu the border collie is drawing to a close and it has been magnificent. We have complete conviction that our canine companion is a gift from the gods. But it has also been draining. All of us, Uyu included, were exhausted last night. The typhoon skirting by...
37. 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...
38. Vegemite Chocolate, Wild West In Chiba And Dreams I got to taste one of the most unimaginable fusion foods when Cadbury produced a limited edition Vegemite chocolate. Mrs. Kangaeroo and I also got to ride the wild horses along the beach at Sunshine Stables. And I met some interesting folks around the workplace....
39. 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...
40. 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,...
41. 豪のクリスマス・ソング：Twelve Days of Christmas Aussie Style 　クリスマス・ソングと言えば恐らくまずこの「クリスマスの12日間」を思い浮かぶ人が多いだろう。 　それで、珍しいがオージー版もあるんだ。 　曲の流れやメロディが伝統的な曲と同じだが、「梨の木のヤマウズラ」などじゃなくてもらう物がコアラなどオーストラリア独特なものだ。 TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AUSSIE STYLE On the 12th day of Christmas My true love sent to me 12 parrots prattling, 11 numbats nagging, 10 lizards leaping, 9 wombats working, 8 dingoes digging, 7 possums playing, 6 brolgas dancing, 5 kangaroos, 4 koalas cuddling, 3 kookaburras laughing,...
42. Carn Tiges! Eat ‘Em Alive! Richmond take on Geelong in the AFL Preliminary Final tonight at the MCG. An easybeat team for the better part of 2 1/2 decades, the Tigers ushered in a glorious era in 1967 by beating the Cats in the 1967 Grand Final. Relieve that moment as Richmond seeks to create...
43. 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...
44. 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...
45. 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...
46. 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...
47. Happy New Year! Welcome to 2020, the Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese zodiac. A rat is as close as you’ll get to a kangaroo in the Far East, so Kangaeroo is looking forward to this year. And if that’s not good enough, Kangaeroo’s track record suggests a rat is not...
48. Riding A Bike Is The Cycle Of Life My life has been filled with great loves, some enduring, most fleeting, but few can compete with the relationship I have with cycling. Most Japanese kids can cycle before they reach school, but I was one of the few in Australia who did that. I didn’t know it at the...
49. 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...
50. 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...
51. 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。...
52. 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...
53. 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...
54. Fatal Attraction Following slovenly Saturday where I did basically nothing for the whole day, today has become a bit of sprightly Sunday, being busy from the get-go, with the Death Machine taking a prime position. The Death Machine is, of course, the nickname I give to my Performer recumbent bicyle. It gets...
55. 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...
56. Pedal Power Giving New Lease On Life Really starting to get into my cycling, both as an active participant, and as a spectator sport. Human-powered wheels are a wonderful way to see the local surrounds and I regret not having gotten into cycling earlier. Very grateful for my Brommie and looking forward to doing ever more riding...
57. 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...
58. 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。 　 　 　...
59. 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...
60. ‘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...
61. 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...
62. Getting Off to a Good Start So far, the winter of 2022-3 has been fairly kind to Tokyo. Unlike 2022, when the early days of January saw snow and generally gloomy weather, this year has been warm and sunny on the whole. Kangaeroo got on the bike early today and headed downtown to meet some mates...
63. Big Red Bike Tour Stage 8: Mr. Do Little Walks And Talks With The Animals  It was a beastly time to kick off the double stage Big Red Bike Tour today. Literally, as I headed off to Tama Zoological Park. The zoo is close by and I made a whirlwind visit before racing home for the day’s second stage and a cycling-oriented event in the...
64. Springing Into Action After an interminably long wait, it finally got warm this week, prompting me to spring into action. It was hard to believe that just last week Tokyo got blasted with heavy snow. Short sleeves and shorts were the watchword, even for typically well-covered types such as Mrs. Kangaeroo. Even though...
65. Too Far Ahead Of Ourselves We tried to make a concerted return to normality at the start of the month, but within a couple of days, it was clear that things are not the same and it’s still not safe to be out and about, and it was back to isolation. I’d enjoyed the rides...
66. 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...
67. 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...
68. 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....
69. 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...
70. No Time to Paws Work is dominating my life at the moment and I have little time for anything else, yet we are fortunate that our kangaroo paws are leading the way in a thriving summer garden. I’ve detailed my attempts at growing Australian plants from seed. While most failed, the kangaroo paw, the...
71. No Holding The Horses When It Comes To Presenting Credentials* Japan’s Imperial Family undertakes as much pomp and paegantry as other countries with royals, though perhaps a little more subdued, with the profession of Presentation of Credentials being a good example. When an ambassador to Japan is appointed, they are given the option of getting a horse-drawn carriage ride from...
72. 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。...
73. Where Does It All Come From? We’re in the process of preparing to move house and I am bewilered where all my junk comes from, though I am well aware of being a lifelong hoarder. I’ve yet to see the new place we’re going to, but I am packing stuff up daily after returning from work,...
74. Squeezing In More Than I Thought When I started writing the title, my intention was to talk about how I am getting more done day-to-day than I expected, but I realized it was also just as apt as my daily battle with clothes. I’ve struggled all my life in a battle against weight, but have been...
75. Gonna Be A Great Year Hard to believe we’re a month into the halfway point of the 2010s. It’s been a great start. Work is challenging and enjoying. But I really love the people I work with. And the company I work for is also great. I also get to wander through the streets of...
76. 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...
77. Bye-Bye Brompton in Pal-ace For me, riding a Brompton bike is about more than mere cycling. I didn’t realize it when I first picked up one of the prestigious folding bikes a bit over a decade ago. At the time, I just wanted a fold-up bike that wouldn’t break after a few rides as...
78. 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...
79. 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...
80. Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto Day 0: Izumi Participants rolled in, bike fittings are over, the briefing dinner is done and all are off to bed to ready themselves for the real ride, starting tomorrow. People assembled from across Australia, but mostly Sydney, to take part in the trip. The journey will start from Izumi, traverse Kyushu, head...
81. ‘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...
82. 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...
83. The Lady In The Lake Not much has been going on recently, but just living life has kept us busy. During a quick lunchtime ride yesterday, the skies and setting gave me a ripper chance to take photos of La Cangura in the shallow waters of a wading pool in a park beside the Tama...
84. A Pleasant Dalliance With Death After a couple of months with wet weekends and pretty much a week of incessant rain, the brightcomp sunshine and lack of wind was too great to resist, so I got out on the Death Machine while I could this morning. I was rewarded with a delightfully smooth ride that...
85. 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...
86. 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...
87. 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....
88. 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...
89. 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...
90. 日本が世界ヒットの引き金となった「Mad Max」のゲームが豪訛りを拒否し、オージーゲーマーが噴火 　日本と深い関わり合いがあるオーストラリア現代文化に根強く愛されている「マッド・マックス」映画シリーズのゲーム版最新商品が豪訛りのマックスが登場しないことによって多くのオーストラリア人の間で怒りを感じさせている、とNews.com.auが報道している。 　「マッド・マックス」が1979年公開映画であり、オーストラリア国内でヒットした後、日本で公開し、大ヒットとなった。そこからヨーロッパ諸国へ同じような成功をおさめ、最後にアメリカにも人気を呼んだ。1970年代「オーストラリア・ニューウェーブ」映画ブームの一作であり、1985年までメル・ギブソン氏を主役として続編2作も世界中に大ヒットした。今年、トム・ハーディを主人公マックス役で27年ぶり四作目「マッド・マックス・フューリー・ロード」を公開する予定だ。 　「マッド・マックス」の影響は、オーストラリアにとって偉大なものだ。 　一般映画ファンにとって人気なので興行収入が三作合わせて数億ドル及んで、ギブソン氏自身が1980・1990年代ハリウッド有数な俳優兼監督となった。「オーストラリア・ニューウェーブ」の成功例として見られるようになって、多くなオージーが誇りに思ったオーストラリア映画の一作でもあった。1980年代アメリカでの「オーストラリア人気」にも大きく貢献しただろう。典型的なオーストラリア映画と言っても過言ではない。 　しかし、その高い誇りに逆撫でする面もあった。もっともっとオーストラリア映画なのでオーストラリア訛りが特徴の一つだった。1作目がアメリカに公開した1981年にはアメリカ人がオーストラリア訛りが分からないだろうとされて同じ英語でもアメリカ訛り吹き替え版で公開された。当時、オーストラリア英語があまり国外で披露されることがなくて「視野が狭いアメリカ人がそのもんだ」と思われ笑い飛ばされた。 　だが、今も同様な状況となっている。 　4作目の公開に伴って新しいビデオ・ゲームが公開することになっている。 　6月13日、本社がスウェーデンにあるアバランチ・スタジオ社が「マッド・マックス」ビデオ・ゲームを公開すると発表し、予告編の動画を披露した。 　だが、ゲームに登場するマックスは、アメリカ訛り英語で話している。 　元の映画の吹き替え版の例があってにもかかわらず、今回のゲームでアメリカ訛り使用によってオーストラリアで反発を呼んでいる。 　「キャラがオージー・ゲーマーに深く愛されているのでこのように勝手に帰られてオーストラリア人じゃなくしたのはオージー・ゲーマーにとって侮辱的だ」とAusgamers.com編集長スティーブン・ファレリー氏がいう。 Mad Max video game ditches Australian accent in ‘affront’ to the country Mad Max I Trailer Mad Max II Trailer Mad Max III Trailer Mad Max Video Game Trailer...
91. 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...
92. Going Through Motions Work seems to be settling down. I still hate only getting one month at a time. But it seems to be the only available option for me at the moment. I’m enjoying watching the sparrows in the park while I eat my lunch beside the water....
93. 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...
94. Get it Over and Done With! Though I had no legs, I was gifted with a glorious morning today. Nearly every day this week has been tough going in the pre-dawn hours. Wind was the main scourge, and there were a couple of days when I had to take irregular routes because the wind was so...
95. 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...
96. Some of the Cycling Camerawork that can be Expected These are the types of shots that I’ve been able to take of bikes....
97. Satoyama For the past few years, I’ve been very fortunate to live adjacent to (and, more recently, nearby) a satoyama, a little strip of near-wilderness amid the hustle and bustle of suburban and metropolitan areas. Tokyo is the world’s largest city and it is densely populated. Much of the city is...
98. Gay Time With a Geisha Gay, in this context, meaning enjoying ourselves, and it was for a fleeting instant that the joy came through a geisha, but the headline was hard to resist. Still in Atami, we moved on from the Jacaranda Festival to the very surprising Kiunkaku. Japan’s Meiji era is an amazing time...
99. Almost Over The Line It looks like Mrs. Kangaeroo has decided we have been at our current home for long enough and it’s time to start looking for something bigger. It’s understandable, but given my difficulties in finding and holding jobs in our time together, we’ve had to take what we could get. Thankfully,...
100. Paws and Reflect Possibly the most meaningful part of my Australian seeds experiment arose today when I transplanted my kangaroo paw seedlings. The great experiment, which I expected would result in me proving to have a green thumb and presenting all my gardening mates with exotic plants has proven only that I am...

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