Creatures
June 4 — Trips from the Road
Despite rainy weather, we decided to make a day trip for abalone. The swell wasn’t the predicted 2 feet that we hoped for, but it wasn’t too bad. The water could best be described as “sharky”, due to a combination of runoff from the cow pastures, tiny bubbles mixed into the dark silty water and … Continue reading
Jurassic Island
On the Garden Island of Kauai, there are many, many chickens. They greeted us at the airport when we set down, begged for food (especially the fried chicken) and crowed early in the morning. You could live off of a diet of chicken and fruit for free in this patch of earth in perpetuity. Chickens … Continue reading
All The Little Live Things
Living and traveling around Kyushu, I saw all sorts of strange, beautiful, disgusting, and fascinating creatures. Here are a few that I encountered in my last few weeks around. A butterfly at Daikanbo. On this day, the clouds were sweeping up and over the caldera toward Kuju. This spider wove a white zig-zag pattern into … Continue reading
Attack Of The Venemous Caterpillars
Merin was holding the ladder for me, when she brushed up against these caterpillars and noticed that the little bastards had envenomated her. So I did what any responsible older brother would do. I cut off the three leaves that held 50 of the evil creatures, put them on top of a pile of kerosene-soaked … Continue reading
Baka Hebi
Last night I ate dinner at the Takahashi’s, enjoying a huge “hamburg” and introducing them to the liquid red pleasure that is Shiracha. Their daughter and one of my sannensei students, Fumi, is going to Thailand for two weeks this summer and so I thought I’d help to prepare her for the spicy foods that … Continue reading
Resonance
I recieved this story written by one of my Daiichi High School ichinensei (as an assignment of the VHS program in Kumamoto), and it reminded me of the cat that Justin and Merin rescued. The only differences are that the fictional kitten was rescued from the top of a sky scraper during the day. Justin … Continue reading
My Favorite Places To View Hotaru
One of my favorite ways to spend a spring or summer night in Japan is to go out and watch the hotaru (fireflies) flicker on and off in unison. The Hotaru Festival in Kyokushi (North of Ozu in Kumamoto-ken) is worth checking out, and easy to get to. During this celebration, beef ranchers like the … Continue reading
Nature Is Disgusting
Let’s face it, nature is a dirty place, dirtier than places like the middle-class suburbs, but mostly cleaner than third world countries, slums, and shanty towns where the population’s excrement co-mingles with their drinking water. Ah, the suburbanites have the luxury of crying about how tragic it is that their kids won’t get to experience … Continue reading
Cynops pyrrhogaster
This is a Japanese Firebellied Newt that one of my students caught in the Tamarai River that runs next to my Chugakko. Yesterday, my JTE decided to have class outside, and to “wing it”. As would be expected when kids are taken outdoors and there is no lesson plan, the kids didn’t learn any English, … Continue reading