• Daily Life

    Feast of Flowers

    There’s much to love about Tokyo in May–long, warm days with little rain (for the most part), lots of greenery and things settle down after the hectic early months of spring when much of the country starts and ends the business year. Little, though, can beat the delight that the month’s flowers bring. For me, at least. Of course, the real stars of the Japanese spring flora are the cherry blossoms, wisteria and azaleas as the main players, but they’re usually gone by the time May hits its straps in the middle of the month (and there are plenty of…

  • Daily Life

    So Close…

    Mid May, now basically, has become a tantalizing time of the year for me, with most of the spectacular blooming of the gorgeous Japanese flowers like cherry blossom, wisteria and azaleas (to name a few) having ended, but the Aussie plants in my garden not quite ready to spring forth. Plants are budding and growing, but flowers are few and far between now. Our garden superstar, the grevillea, has finally started to show a bit of flower growth with lots apparently still to come. I need to learn about deadheading to make the bloom a bountiful one. Kangaroo paw are…

  • Daily Life

    Wisteria Hysteria

    For the second time this week, I headed off to nearby Yakushiike Park to get photos of the glorious wisteria there, this time with the hope that they would be in full bloom. I was probably still a bit too early, but it was beautiful nonetheless. And the short trip was made even more enjoyable because I was caught riding a bike inside the park by a loudspeaker-blaring jobsworth of the type I associate with the place. But I was left alone after dismounting even though I noticed the officious guard had come after me with his guard stick in…

  • Daily Life

    Quick Cleanse

    Aging, if nothing else, has made rising early a common habit, and I was able to take advantage of that by slipping off to a nearby park and being blessed by the sanitizing surroundings. Yakushiike Park in Machida is not far from my home, so I got on my bike in the predawn hours and headed off to take some shots. The park is famous for its flowers throughout the seasons, and I consider it the best place to see wisteria in bloom in our local area. With past experience having taught me that the park is staffed by officious…

  • Daily Life

    Paws Before Thinking

    Times are tough and Mrs. Kangaeroo implored me to tighten my belt to cope with rising prices and crippling wage cuts, but I don’t think she was too impressed by my belt tightening efforts involving gargantuan eating practices and getting fatter. It’s been a gloomy year in many ways so far, including literally, which has had an effect on the plants I’ve been growing in Kangaeroo Corner, and which are providing incalculable amounts of joy. As I’ve mentioned before, I got to realize how little sunlight we’ve received in western Tokyo this year because of the performance of our solar-powered…

  • 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…

  • Daily Life

    Blowout! Even Fartilizer Couldn’t Help

    Well, strong winds have put paid to a lot of my experiment in growing seeds from Australian native plants, and even fartilizer couldn’t help. Gale-force winds daily for pretty much the past week made life tough for the little seedlings on the patio at Kangaeroo Corner. Watering, care, and even magical powders were not enough to save the golden everlastings, with one or two sickly looking seedlings barely hanging on and the rest returning to their organic origins. Two of the three desert peas that seeded were blown over and destroyed. They’ll get an Aussie garden burial anyway, in some…

  • 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…

  • Strine Sports

    Beating Jobsworths with Luck

    Waking early gave Kangaeroo a slice of luck this morning, enabling a visit to Yakushiike Park in Machida before the jobsworths arrived there and booted him out for bringing his bike. The park is a delight, unbelievably located in the Tokyo suburbs. It has some spectacular wisteria growing on trellises, with a huge pond (the ike of Yakushiike) surrounded by a picturesque garden currently flourishing with bright new leaves. The wisteria are yet to reach full bloom, so there may be another visit before we’re finished this year. Related posts: Strine Dictionary Strine (オージー英語)Dictionary 日豪共有バブル廃墟遊園地Atlantis Marine Park Lyre, Lyre, Pants…

  • Unknown Nichigo

    Rain, Rain, Go Away

    April in Tokyo can get wet, but it can also be warm and dry. Unfortunately, today it’s the former. On the upside that means more photo opportunities and a slower pace to enjoy riding. Make no mistake, though, April is when spring really starts to, well, blossom in the Japanese capital. Not far from Kangaeroo’s home is the delightful Yakushiike Park. The park has some delightful archetypically Japanese scenes, with the crooked bridge over a pond, terraced rice paddies and beautifully manicured gardens. Flowers and new greenery sprout everywhere and days are longer and generally warmer. Then there’s the wind.…