• Daily Life

    Flock ‘N’ Roll

    It looks like the rainy season might have finally hit Tokyo (though only today within this week is currently forecast to rain all day) and the down side of being unable to do anything outdoors is being able to get the chance to delight in garden and the flocks of birds in Kangaeroo Corner. Although we legitimately get a lot of birds visit the garden over the winter, where the Fountain of Strewth provides a much-needed source of drinking water for our avian mates, it’s rarer to have birds in the garden other than the permanent flock on decoration. And…

  • Daily Life

    Enoura Observatory: Putting the WOW! Into OdaWOW!ra

    Enoura Observatory, a short trip from the center of Odawara and which I had never heard of before Mrs. Kangaeroo dragged me up to earlier today, is simply sublime and a breathtakingly beautiful gallery well work the trek to get there. The installation created by New York-based, Japanese-born architect Hiroshi Sugimoto is stunning from the point of entry through to departure and filled with stunning designs along the way. And the mountaintop location with spectacular vistas, which blend with some of the works on display, creates a complementary effect that truly makes this a must-see for those with the time…

  • Daily Life

    Strewth Prevails

    Spring finally seems to have arrived in earnest in western Tokyo after what has been a funny kind of first few months of 2024, and I know this because of the Fountain of Strewth. Our fountain is finally sprouting proudly in the morning sunshine where just a few weeks ago I had been lamenting that it was no longer working. It was operating perfectly, as it turned out, but the problem was that the solar-powered fountain wasn’t pumping water into the skies. It took hearing that veggie prices were skyrocketing for the pump’s poor performance to finally sink in: it…

  • Daily Life

    Little Things Bringing Great Pleasure

    Spring can never come fast enough, especially now that I’m into gardening and have been able to experience the almost indescribable delight of watching the seasonal transformation of plants. But, having been teased into taking action only for nature to take a U-turn, I’m being drawn to the less obvious delights on show in Kangaeroo Corner. Heading into the last few days of March, my expectation was that we could see plenty of flourishing grevillea, bottlebrush, banksia and protea, not to mention the explosion of pink from Japan’s national flower, the cherry blossom, which transforms the country into what I…

  • Daily Life

    Paws for Effect

    Blessed by warm, sunny weather and the sight of spring blossoms, I boldly decided to divide our kangaroo paws to try and get better flowers to make Kangaeroo Corner look even more effective. I’ve grown these kangaroo paw from seed that I brought back from Australia when I visited in September 2002. I didn’t think I’d be able to grow them, having never even conceived of the idea before getting a garden in 2022, but decided to give it a try anyway. I brought back dozens of varieties of seed, but the only ones I really, desperately wanted to succeed…

  • Daily Life

    Well, Wattle Ya’ Know!

    Spring can never come quick enough, and even though Tokyo had a warm winter, the wait for warmer, brighter weather seems interminably wrong, as symbolized by the blossoming of the wattle trees in Kangaeroo Corner. Although temperatures may have been warmer than average in the 2023-2024 winter, the fully fledged onset of spring is as slow as ever, we’ve had more days of snowfall and, at least as far as my guesses go, it’s been a darker year than usual. My reckoning is that 2024 has been cloudier and seen less sunshine than normal for a winter in Tokyo, which…

  • Daily Life

    Inuit ‘Innit

    It’s snowing in Tokyo again, reminding me that the Inuit are supposed to have 50 different words for snow and making me wonder if the equivalent to English’s “Oh no” is one of them. I’m not the biggest fan of snow falling on Tokyo, mostly because of the paralyzing effect it has on the city. Hailing from Australia, the idea of snow was something of a dream when I first arrived in Japan back in 1988. We got the odd spattering of snowfalls akin to those that would hit Melbourne during my initial stay here until the day of my…

  • Daily Life

    Fountain of Strewth Frozen Over!

    It’s a gloriously sunny morning today, but bloody freezing, as attested to by the Fountain of Strewth freezing over. Birds are coming to Kangaeroo Corner throughout the day every day at this time of year, largely to enjoy a drink or a bath from the Fountain of Strewth. I broke the ice so our avian mates would be able to imbibe if they wanted to, but couldn’t refill the bath as the hose has frozen over. My sports drink formed ice crystals during the morning ride. I’m not a great fan of the cold, but Tokyo has a pretty good…

  • Daily Life

    Mean and Green

    After a few months of being jealous of my neighbors for enabling their lawns to evade the effects of the blistering hot summer, I woke this morning to find myself transforming from being green with envy to being verdant with chlorophyll! Kangaeroo Corner’s lawn, which started May in a generally strong state albeit being slightly patchy, took a drastic turn for the worst in early June. At what should have been the onset of the rainy season, I made the mistake of heavily fertilizing the warn to boost its strength for what I expected would be a hot and wet…

  • Daily Life

    Stop that Pigeon!

    Lots of serious stuff is going down at the moment, yet the biggest gripe in my mind is how to deal with a bloody pigeon. One of my escapes has been the garden at Kangaeroo Corner, and one of the areas of which I had been proudest was the flourishing lawn. Except, it’s no longer flourishing. In May, I went heavy-handed on the fertilizer in the expectation of warm, dry weather followed by the rain and warmth of June and July. The rain barely came and the heat was dry and blistering. I didn’t realize that I needed to compensate…