• Daily Life - Strine Sports

    ベロ👅にヴェロ🚴 (A Taste for Cycling)

    Cycling is one of Kangaeroo’s great loves. And so is chocolate. It’s rare when the two meet, though it’s not unfair to claim that the prospect of guilt-free gluttony of chocolate is a motivating factor for Kangaeroo’s cycling. But in this week when chocolate assumes center stage in Japan, it was a delight to come across cycling chocolate sets. It was this great delight that Kangaeroo managed to come across the sets, which are selling for a measly 184 yen apiece (for a boxed package of five decent-sized chockies!) The sets contain chocolates in the shape of a bicycle, a…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    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 a website called Miles. Miles is a downloaded phone app (at least that’s how I use it) that keeps a record of all my travel. A bit ominous perhaps, but I have nothing to fear and my phone is tracking my every move and sending all the data anywhere, anyway.…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    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 that the guy I crashed into on Friday would hit me up for damages caused in the crash. I think our paths crossed, but no words were exchanged (and no trouble occurred). Of course, it’s still early in the day, so there’s plenty of time left over for it to…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    Wahoo for Wahoo, and Thanks Y’s Road Lads

    Further to the weekend’s bike device calamities, Saturday’s mess turned into a much better Sunday. Saturday was supposed to be a day for getting the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt repaired. But an untimely drop in front of a couple of passing cars resulted in the device being utterly destroyed. Already worrying too much about too many things, Kangaeroo knew that pondering was not an option and a planned tough ride on Sunday would need guidance. Moreover, Mrs. Kangaeroo had gone to work and forgotten her mobile phone, so rather than asking for permission, actions would have to be apologized for, which…

  • Strine Sports

    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 the prediction was that it would be intermittent and not heavy. That was exactly what happened. Rather than hit the dark bike path where many people dress in black and are hard to see at the clearest of times, Kangaeroo decided to stay on the main roads, which were hard…

  • Strine Sports

    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 near Tokyo Tower. It’s Coming of Age Day in Japan, a national holiday, and the first when legal adulthood in Japan is designated as 18 years of age instead of 20, as it had been up until this year. The holiday is also one of those made flexible a few…

  • Strine Sports

    Nature’s Double Delight and Not a Skerrick of Proof

    Nature turned on a absolutely glorious morning – albeit a freezing one. There was a huge moonset in one direction and a delightful sunrise simultaneously in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the only camera Kangaeroo was carrying was on a smartphone. This rarely takes decent pics at the best of times, let alone trying to get a lunar shot, which is challenging at the best of times with the most sophisticated equipment. Then, blessed with a delightfully colorful sunrise and otherworldly cloud pattern on the return journey, positioning and timing rendered photographic evidence impossible. Kangaeroo was not in a good spot…

  • Strine Sports

    Trekking Up Takao

    For the last day of the 2023 new year’s break, Kangaeroo and Co. headed up to the delightful Mount Takao in Hachioji. Leaving late in the morning, a short trip by bus and train had us at the foot of the mountain. A healthy walk of little over an hour had Kangaeroo at the peak. Normally, Mount Takao affords an amazing view of Mount Fuji. But this time, the clouds that frequently cover the iconic Japanese mountain won the day, but the view was still magnificent. A bowl of soba noodles on the top of the mountain, then back down…

  • Strine Sports

    Doing Something Better than Nothing

    Kangaeroo had a rare late night, typically torrid sleep and woke with great reluctance when it came time to take a customary morning cycle. Eventually, Kangaeroo did get up and drag himself out of bed thanks to the events of the previous day. For much of December and continuing on into the new year, Kangaeroo had been gutsing himself daily. Pigging out is a traditional way to greet Christmas and the new year. And this year was no exception. With a year of substantially reduced inactivity and greatly increased stress and pressure (that resulted in damaging emotional eating as an…