• Daily Life

    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. We were there for the Autumnal Evening Stroll, an event held to mark the changing color of the leaves as the winter approaches. I grumbled about being charged an additional fee to take part in the event at the park, which is nationally run and named in the memory of…

  • Daily Life - Strine - Strine Dictionary 豪語辞書

    Tray Trees Make Bonzer Bonsai

    Reluctantly dragged out of my comfort zone, I was rewarded with a bonzer trip around the Japanese Bonsai Garden inside Showa Kinen Park to see the autumnal trees in trays, lit up as part of the Autumnal Night Stroll. Related posts: 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 Magnificent Ms. Minogue Bloomin’ Slow to Flower Of Sloths And Sloth Inuit ‘Innit Saying It With Flowers オーストラリア特有の恐竜、カンタス、、、サウラス The First Class First Nations Film Festival Lots. And Nothing Economic Organizations/経済団体 Powered by YARPP.

  • Daily Life

    Of Sloths And Sloth

    Closing my eyes on ethical concerns for a couple of hours, Mrs. Kangaeroo and I got on the Tama Monorail and headed to Moff animal cafe in LaLaport Tachikawa, where in addition to getting bird-brained, we enjoyed playing with various types of creatures, including a sloth. Ironically, as that would turn out. A day later and blessed with glorious weather perfect for exercising, I am stuck inside due to various infirmeries. And I have barely moved. But done enough to write this post. Related posts: Akiya Akita (空き家、飽きた), Or How I Got Sick Of The Idea Of A Japanese Home…

  • Daily Life

    Bird Brained

    Dominated in our day-to-day lives by a delightful little dinosaur (one of their modern day descendants in the form of a rosy faced lovebird to be precise), Mrs. Kangaeroo and I decided to spend a rare shared day off by playing with birds. And our flying visit to Moff animal cafe in Tachikawa left us feeling chirpy after spending a couple of hours with our avian mates. Related posts: 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 Magnificent Ms. Minogue Inuit ‘Innit Saying It With Flowers Economic Organizations/経済団体…

  • Daily Life

    Autumn Perfect For A Fall

    Autumn is finally upon us, just days before its scheduled calendar end, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not ideal for a fall. And taking that literally, I decided to head out for a ride on the Death Machine, the nickname I give to my recumbent bicycle for its propensity to make cycling strenuous and dropping a doddle. I woke well before dawn, but my bravado withered with memories of riding in the dark, which is harder on the recumbent where you’re laying down and vision is always harder, even in the best of conditions. So, I waited until almost…

  • Daily Life - Unknown Nichigo

    Tokyo’s Wonderfully Whirled With Aus

    Walking around central Tokyo over a couple of days this week, I got to discover a pocket garden filled with Aussie plants, including blooming grevillea and kangaroo paw. This little circular garden created a wonderful whirled of Aus, right in the Marunouchi business district. Flowers weren’t the only wonderful sights of the city. Walking around gifted me plenty of wonderful sights to see. Related posts: Garden of Weedin’ A Pheasant Makes Things Pleasant Bromocalypse, Now! Sunrises Over Far North Queensland Bonzer Bonsai! Catching Up with Some Old Mates Pawing My Heart Out Winter is Here Get Off Of My Cloud!…

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    Bloomin’ Freezing

    After an Indian summer and unseasonably warm autumn, this morning finally sent a message that winter is on its way, even as the warm weather grevillea in Kangaeroo Corner continued to thrive. We have three grevillea trees in the garden, all of which are fantastic growers. (And a fourth, ground-covering, grevillea that has also done well this year.) Only one of them has ever flowered, though. But, oh how well it has bloomed! The star of our garden began shooting flowers in about April and has not stopped. It currently has about eight buds ready to flower. The onset of…

  • Daily Life

    Jama on the Tama

    Autumn is a delightful time for cycling, and unfortunately for running, too, which means almost daily encounters with one of my least favorite Japanese words: jama. Jama, 邪魔, literally translates as “evil magic,” but means something like hinderance, impedance, or, as I prefer, bloody nuisance. Autumn brings out all the joggers onto the Tama Cycling Road and, despite a perfectly good path below the levy on which the track for cyclists has been made, runners take over the path. They’d be fine if they kept to the rules and ran to the edges of the path, but rare is the…

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    Mist-ical

    Nature conjured up a mystical morning as the warm air over the icy Tama River created a fabulous world of mist. It’s common around this time of year to have mist over the river. The effect creates a surrealistic atmosphere. It’s difficult cycling as visibility is greatly reduced, and my eyesight is already too poor for pre-dawn riding. But the upside of that is being presented with the opportunity to slowly pedal through the fantastic scenery. And the cold, dark early hour of my rides means that I pretty much get to have the sight to myself. Moments like this…

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    Crapper Crisis

    We’re facing possibly one of the greatest calamities imaginable in a modern society outside of a natural disaster: our washlet is broken! On a bleak, cold and dark morning, I struggled to drag myself out of bed, but my rumbling bowels made it easier. I was horrified, though, to find that I couldn’t get the comforting spray between my cheeks that I have become accustomed to after bombing the bowl following decades of life in Japan. Hoping that it was nothing more than a mere glitch, I removed the washlet’s power plug and headed out on a ride, praying that…