• Daily Life - Strine Strife

    Where’s the Whist Amid the Wisteria?

    Being greeted by the sublimely serene sight of fully blooming wisteria in the outer suburban wonderland of Yakushiike Park only to have the calmness crushed by the piercing squeal of a little prick abusing and haranguing me for riding a bicycle in the park wasn’t really what I had been expecting at 5 a.m. As the angry man hurled invective at me, I felt my blood boil and the urge to smash him in the face was becoming almost uncontrollable. He screamed loudly, fiercely and incessantly as I tried to take photos of La Cangura amid the flowers. I envisaged…

  • Strine

    Biking Beauty

    I’ve been alternating between busy and broken over the past few days, resulting in fewer posts and less cycling, but still lucky enough to catch some tremendous snapshots of the bike like the ones here. Work has been proceeding at a furious pace as we have not replaced people who have left and remain terribly understaffed. It’s hard to get motivated, too, as my employer tried to cut my wage just days after inking my current contract and doing nothing to reassure me that they will not try the same thing again this year: if, in fact, they even offer…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    Brommies More Than Just a Mere Bike

    Several years ago now, I was very fortunate to stumble into buying a Brompton folding bicycle that has fundamentally changed my life and continues to have countless unimaginable effects. I’d already shown signs of developing into an avid cyclist and was using a Dahon foldup bike to slice my then two-hour each way commute into thirds when a Brompton-riding co-worker inspired me to get a Brommie of my own. I didn’t realize that I should be caring for it and putting effort into maintenance, which is really dumb and naïve, but totally on brand. So, after finally getting gainful, permanent…

  • Strine

    Golden Girl

    La Cangura is the name of my bike, a beautiful gunmetal and gold-trimmed machine from Orbea, a manufacturer from Spain, hence the name (which means The Kangaroo in English). She looks delightful in among the canola, the yellow hues of the bike and the flowers a wonderful match. Just wish I was having as much luck with my flowers and other plants in the Kangaeroo Corner garden. I’m relatively new to the gardening caper, only having really taken a great interest in it since Amazing Alex made the Aussie garden for us in March 2022. While the garden is, for…

  • Daily Life

    Blowin’ In The Wind

    Tokyo spring tends to be windy, and it is blowing up a gale in the suburbs of the Japanese capital right now. This morning I got to fly for a few kilometers, backed by a tremendous tailwind. Of course, barring a meteorological miracle, where there’s a tailwind, there’s almost always a headwind that needs to be addressed. So, while the first stage of the ride literally flew by in no time, the home straight was a much greater grind. Still, it did allow me the time to stop and take a look at the late-blooming cherry blossoms, with a stretch…

  • Daily Life

    Otherwordly!

    Strange things are at play today, starting with a sunrise that for a fleeting moment created a scene like the cover of a pulp science fiction book from the ’50s or ’60s. The sun was shaped like a perfect disc and rose above the horizon, turning the early morning sky into a hazy shade of pink. Gradation of light meant that this blended into the gray and specks of blue that were also evident and made for a spectacular sight. It was lovely to ride. The light is enormous, and being able to see from the get-go makes a huge…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    離婚ベント同士!

    Fate smiled broadly on me today as I finally dragged myself out on the recumbent (or the rikonbento as we’ve come to call it), and was rewarded by getting a meeting I had yearned for years. Following yesterday’s glorious weather and my most recent viewing of a weather forecast showing us to be in store for more of the same, I woke with high expectations. I was shattered, then, to see it had rained overnight and it was cool, overcast and bleak. We’d transplanted the carefully cultivated seedlings yesterday based on the weather reports only to go out and have…

  • Daily Life

    Marching Onward

    March draws to a close today, ending the first quarter of the calendar year for 2023 in what seems a stunningly speedy period. Time is, of course, relative. Each year, the relative amount of time each period occupies in our whole lives is shorter. So. it’s only natural that time seems to pass quicker. At least, that’s how I think it works. Spring is beautiful in Tokyo, especially when it’s not raining. After a disjointed week for all sorts of reasons, I got to ride this morning as usual. With the spate of repairs that I carried out and diminishing…

  • Daily Life - Strine Sports

    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 able to see the faces of people using the Tamagawa Cycling Road at the same time. We’ve only been silhouettes to each other for an interminably long time until now. There’s a chance to smile and greet instead of furtive glances while trying to stay safe in the dark. Today…

  • Daily Life - Strine Tucker

    Saving Things For a Rainy Day

    It’s drizzling and miserable weather today, which provides a wonderful opportunity for an update as my customary lunchtime ride can be substituted. Lots has happened since my last post, but there’s little time to write about it, so this is a bit of a summary of the past couple of weeks. Perhaps most important is the passage of the first anniversary of my garden, Kangaeroo Corner, earlier this week. Amazing Alex, his mate, Mrs. Kangaeroo, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law built the garden as I was out with a broken leg at the time. It has since become one of the…