Today is bleak. Weather is debilitating. It’s drizzling, bleak, wet and cold. Perfect for work … if you have to work indoors. (Not too good for those who earn a living outside, though) It’s too wet to ride, to do much outside to be honest, but not wet enough to fully rule out any activities under the skies. This kind of weather does my head in. Kangaeroo has also just switched employers, so there is a massive amount of stress and the fear of the unknown. Transition is not moving altogether smoothly, either. One bonus of not being able to…
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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 central districts and suburbs, taking as many photos of the blossoms as possible.
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This has been a strange kind of week. Meetings kicked off the week, continued throughout and were punctuated by work and lots of cycling and photography. Oh, yeah. And looking after the pet dinosaur. Amid that, feelings went up and down. Mostly down. Now, as the working week draws to a close, it feels like things are getting better. The next couple of weeks are going to be demanding. The next few months even more so, actually. But for today, things are comparatively calm. And that contentment has put a spring in the step, appropriate considering the season.
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Waking early is never easy, especially as the nights get longer and the temperature cools. But nature sometimes does its best to reward those who drag themselves out from under the covers as the birds begin to sing. The photos here come from one of those times.
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Summer is not always the most pleasant season in Tokyo as it’s stinking hot, humid and frequently raining. Sometimes, though, nature turns on the charm and you get some delightful goodies. This week’s sunrises have been precisely that. Blessed (?) by a series of bicycle mechanical failures, Kangaeroo.com got a day to take it nice and slowly along the banks of the Tama River forming the boundary between Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, resulting in these delightful pictures.
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Having completed about two-thirds of a circumnavigation of Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, the final day was supposed to be an easy jaunt to the train station and a comfortable ride home to Tokyo for the Kangaeroo crew. “Ha, ha,” laughed the devil. On paper, the last leg of the Biwaichi circumnavigation was a mere 60 kilometers on a flat course, nearly all of which was isolated bike tracks. For the first hour, that was precisely what Kanageroo and the missus got as they headed out of Seta and off toward Hikone. The bitter taste of a terrible time at…
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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 completely flat course. Nonetheless, it’s a demanding distance for irregular cyclists, so Kangaeroo had cause for concern regarding the missus, who admittedly cycles day, but does so on an e-bike and not an old foldup with no track record of triple-figure journeys. Anyway, putting aside the concerns, Mrs. Kangaeroo remained…
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Our tour has reached Kyoto, remarkably with only minor injuries and not a single puncture in the more than 11,000 kilometers the cyclists covered collectively since setting out from Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, on the morning of October 1. The group battled a barrage of rain on the most prominent of climbs on Mount Aso and Koyasan, but got through unscathed each time. The tour drew to a close in a journey between the two ancient capitals of Nara, where participants frolicked with the deer roaming freely through the city and saw its lauded Great Buddha at Todaiji, and Kyoto, where…
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Japan, the land of the gods, threw everything at the Tour de Kagoshima-Kyoto on Day 8, but the riders came up trumps, scaling the queen stage unscathed. Despite persistent drizzle, the tour made it to the World Heritage List site Koyasan without injury or incident. The tour’s first flat even still remains unclaimed! Following the previous day’s travelling exertions, it was back on the bikes from Wakayama. Almost half of the day’s ride was occupied on a beautiful cycling track with barely anybody else using it. The track ran along the Kinokawa River and offered some nice views of the…
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Shikoku’s glorious mountains seemed less and less attractive at times while pounding the pedals to push on upward even higher, but a wonderful descent followed on the final day of riding on the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Leaving Uchiko later than most starts, it was a steady climb upward for the remainder of the morning. The strenuous efforts of the climbs were rewarded by priceless views across seemingly endless mountain ranges, whose splendor was enhanced by the brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies. More climbing continued after lunch (the day would eventually top 1,100 meters of elevation). An exhilarating…
