• Daily Life

    Seeing the Light

    It’s getting darker in the mornings, already much more noticeably than before the equinox, which was still less than a month ago. But there is some sort of light on the horizon, literally and figuratively. Although we haven’t seen much of it this week, the sun shines over the horizon at certain photogenic points along the Tama River, enabling some pretty impressive photo opportunities. For an instant, too, it seemed like the long wait for new hope on the career front had finally arrived, too, but it doesn’t seem to have turned out how I had sought. But the rainy…

  • Daily Life

    Pawing My Heart Out

    June continues rolling on and the rainy season has yet to appear, which is an immediate blessing yet also a warning, but for the time being the kangaroo paw are leading the way in bringing me unimaginable delight. The rainy season can be pretty bleak with day after day after precipitation. I also find the low pressure systems that dominate the weather have a tendency to drag me down. But with a few years in the garden, I’ve also learned how much plants appreciate the rain. They like the unadulterated dose of water with all its nitrates that gives them…

  • Daily Life

    Forget Tiptoeing thru Tulips and Plod thru Paddies

    Normally, we’d be smack-bang in the middle of the rainy season by now (and we are, officially), but the skies have held off for the past few days, providing great cycling weather which has made for some wonderful rides, including this morning’s through the rice paddies of outer suburban Tokyo. May seemed a little cooler and damper than usual this year, and all sorts of appointments meant I wasn’t able to ride as much as I would have liked. June is a hard month for cycling as there is so much rain. I have pretty much given up on riding…