• Daily Life

    Bouncing in All the Wrong Places

    Despite the presence of kangaroos and their proclivity for jumping, there’s a bit too much shaking and bouncing going on in and around Tokyo, with dozens of earthquakes shaking their nearby Izu peninsula over the past week or so. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake that crushed large parts of Tokyo and Yokohama, killing over 100,000. And that quake was preceded by quakes in the same area that they’re happening now. Tokyo is overdue a natural disaster with earthquakes and volcanoes frequently smashing the metropolis every few decades in its roughly 4 1/4-century existence. (There…

  • Japanese Kangaroos - Unknown Nichigo

    Plastic Roos and Fuji Views

    The Izu Peninsula about 100 km southwest of Tokyo is a sheer delight in many ways, not the least of which is that there’re plenty of kangaroos there at the moment! Not that they’re real roos jumping around here and there on the peninsula. Some of the zoos and animal parks in the area, which is blessed with glorious coastlines and numerous mountains, do have their marsupials. But the kangaroos that stand out most to the ordinary visitor are the life-sized PVC statues plugging Izu Shaboten Zoo (notable for its various different types of cacti). The zoo is located at…