cycling

  • Glowing

    Mother Nature greeted me with a glorious sunrise yet again today as I biked the Tama River Cycling Road. Most of the ride was in the dark, as is the case at this time of the year just before the winter solstice. But just as I was leaving the path and preparing for the ride up Tama New Town-dori (avenue) and the way home, the skies turned on a huge smile for me. Clouds and color made for a great shot. And my ego got a boost, too, when I was able to casually run down another cyclist on a pricey bike who had clearly been out to outpace me….

  • Flashes of Brilliance, but Lacking Focus

    Today’s title was a perfect summation of the photos I took on my morning ride, but could also describe my life to a tee. The skies were spectacular! My photography, not quite so. I am struggling to hold my phone still. My hands shake all the time. I got a late start as I communicated with my (retired) psychotherapist sister about how to deal with my current situation. I’m trying to avoid dealing with my emotions and reality. But I am going to have to face both, as the only solution lies within myself. And that was going through my mind as I rode off. Now I have to head…

  • 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. Over the past week, my boss has used her position of superiority to abuse me, sometimes publicly, for not using bold text, using the “wrong” font (in internal documents), directly addressing her in an email instead of just cc’ing her and blasted for not delivering work I was never supposed to deliver in the first place. Of course, this is…

  • Mondayitis….Every Day!

    Monday is gloomy and depressing in my soul-sucking job, with today being particularly so because I am the sole native English speaker working and we are inundated with work and every effort I make berated for its shortcomings. I woke feeling painfully gloomy, was shortly greeted by a Zodiac reading forecasting an awful day, my Wahoo didn’t work, and I just can’t spark myself to get into action. Yet, I was blessed on the morning ride. The full beaver moon setting over the Tama River was simply breathtaking. I stopped before starting and went back to pick up a real camera so I could capture it’s beauty (but made the…

  • A Cry in the Dark

    Riding in the morning now is cold, dark and gloomy….kinda like the state of my mind for quite some time now. But, and I guess this is like my mentality, too, there’s also an exquisite beauty to the late autumn mornings. Mists over the Tama River are breathtaking (that could be weight and age, though!). And the gradation of the sky as the sun prepares to rise is a delight, glowing a reddish orange at the horizon and slowly darkening into a deep blue, almost black the higher it goes. The pampas grass looks like a pink blanket over the riverbanks. The Tama Toshi Monorail also gives the otherwise somewhat…

  • Roo-ed Good Health!

    Not much is going well (except rude good health), but I got a lucky break today and feel pretty chuffed about it. Following the morning’s customary ride, I got home and discovered the kangaroo badge I had velcroed to my bike saddle bag just two days ago was gone. I kicked myself with the reminder of my incredible propensity for breaking, losing, damaging or otherwise rendering unusable just about anything I ever get my hands on. Then, I happened to look at Strava and noticed that a follower had posted a photo of the lost badge! “You bloody ripper,” I thought, believing that I’d be able to pick it up…

  • Unearthly

    This morning’s ride was like being on another planet. For a brief instant, it seemed like I was riding into one of those scenes of other worlds in outer space that used to be depicted on the covers of pulp sci-fi books. Unseasonal warmth continues and I still manage to wear a summer kit in the pre-dawn hours one third of the way through November: a time when I’m usually in full-fingered gloves and with at least a vest or long-sleeved summer jersey. Nice! Bring on the global warming (with apologies to the younger generations who’re gonna have to deal with its effects). Mind you, it’s supposed to return to…

  • 2023, A Japanese Odyssey

    A mate of mine has just accomplished a superhuman feat that filled me with admiration and maybe more than a little inspiration: a (barely) 10-day bicycle journey from the south of Kyushu to the northernmost part of Honshu as part of an event called the Japanese Odyssey. My mate, who I haven’t named because I haven’t sought permission to write about him and who I think is so humble he usually lets his actions speak for him, went on a trek of about 2,500 kilometers long and some 30,000-odd meters of elevation. And he finished this while only just into the 10th day of riding, and almost three full days…

  • Too Good To Be Truthful

    So, I pledged to myself to revert this blog to it’s original role of telling funny and interesting tales related to either Japan or Australia, I wasn’t totally honest to myself, which is always the case when convenient to do so. Not that it’s a despicable or harmful lie, but the morning was too wonderful to let go undocumented this morning, so it’s another set of cycling sunrises. My colleague similarly subjected to an unjustifiably huge pay cut announced his imminent departure yesterday with no word of a replacement, which I am assuming means a drastic increase in workload. In better news, a friend has an unused bike frame he…

  • 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 kangaroo playing air guitar. While on the topic, I’ll stick with the good news. The onerous (and highly costly) process of getting an Australian passport for my daughter was finally completed. Even then it had been a bumpy ride, fighting with my daughter over instructions to fulfill the extremely demanding requirements, then clashing with Canberra after they refused the submission…