Fuchu

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    フチューで「ナイス・タ－・ミッチュー」

    There’s McDonald’s in just about every town in Japan, but in Fuchu at the moment, there’s a couple of MacDonalds with a very special story, indeed.　日本全国どこへ行ってもマクドナルドはある。でも今、東京・府中にある“マクドナルド”はちょっとワケが違う。 Connor and Callum MacDonald are brothers from Brisbane, and both professional sports people whose games took them to different sides of the world….except for now.　ブリスベン出身の兄弟、コナー・マクドナルドとカラム・マクドナルド。ともにプロアスリートとして世界を股にかけて戦ってきた2人のキャリアが、いま再び交差している。 Connor MacDonald is in Fuchu as part of the Australian team taking part in the Japan leg of the World Baseball Classic, which will be held in Tokyo in March. The Aussies are based in Fuchu, which they have made their home away from home for the third time, and join a long list of Australian sporting teams to…

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    Tokyo’s Historical Fuchu Is Rooting For Australia

    Aussies might give a snarky chuckle at the title of the post, but even though Kangaeroo.com is at least somewhat concerned with the Australian vernacular, in this case we’re talking about barracking. Fuchu‘s history dates over 1,500 years when it was the seat of government in the Musashi Province and later served as a postal town on the arterial Koshu Kaido road in the feudal era before becoming the suburban hub that it is now. But it is also Tokyo’s Aussie town, and it is awash with green and gold and Australian flags and cheer right now. Fuchu’s latest adopted Aussies are the Australian baseball team in Japan to compete…

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    Wonderful Weekend Of Superb Cycling

    Blessed with outstanding weather and lucky schedule breaks, I’ve just finished an amazing three-day weekend of cycling. I got to get on the bike as part of a cycling club’s call for riders to share their cycling experiences. My duties to the local estate threatened to put paid to my riding over the weekend, but things worked out and I could ride on all three days of the event. Today was the highlight, and I was supposed to lead a ride from Tokyo Station to Inokashira Park in Kichijoji. We were to follow the delightful Kanda River cycling course, which weaves through the central city, through the leafy suburbs and…

  • Big Red Bike Tour Stage 2: Freaky Friday

    Pushed for time, yet pressed to get riding the Big Red Bike Tour, I turned to an old favorite for Stage 2 and headed out and about near home to see the local monsters. We’re short on time because we’re due to go drinking with a neighbor’s family tonight before they return to England. The neighbor’s daughter is married to a man who shares the same surname as the Kangaeroos, which I still find an amazing coincidence. Our not so common but hardly rare clan name managed to find two inhabitants in a foreign country of over 120 million people. So I am keen on going and learning more. They’re…

  • Totoro In My Neighborhood

    I had no idea until yesterday, but for years I have been living quite close to Totoro, a Shinto kami made globally famous through Hayao Miyazaki‘s utterly delightful 1988 animated movie, My Neighbor Totoro. OK, so it’s not the real forest-protecting spirit as depicted by STUDIO GHIBLI, but the topiary sculpture is wonderful. It’s a work that I’m pretty sure is unauthorized by Suzaki, a gardening company in the Tokyo suburb of Kokubunji. A cycling buddy posted photos of Totoro on social media yesterday, and with only a couple of pre-dawn hours available for anything today due to home requirements, I looked up the location and decided to make a…