Creatures

The only insects that I hate are those which suck my blood or are unreasonably agressive toward me. I will not hesitate to kill a mosquito or to crush a flea between my fingernails, but house centipedes test me on these self-imposed limits. Their grotesque body and movements fascinate me, but also give me a … Continue reading »

I found a commune of funnel web spiders in Kikuka this weekend, when exploring a huge rock outcropping in the hills. The spiders reminded me of the ones in the Hobbit, and I imagined hundreds of tiny, hungry eyes watching, evaluating me, patiently waiting. But these spiders were cool. There were tons of mosquitoes out, … Continue reading »

This is an akaushi (aka means red, and ushi is cow, as opposed to the *shooting from the hip* holstein in Justin’s picture) that I stumbled upon while driving the 40 into Ichinomiya. It’s interesting to see how people take care of their crops and livestock. It seems to me that the richer the rancher, … Continue reading »

Hahaha, it will be interesting to see if anyone is disapppointed by this post due to the misleading title. I think that these blue worms are a likely source of inspiration for those, uh… creative cartoon monsters, but on to the monster annelids. It is inevitable that on a nature hike with kids at English … Continue reading »

In the past four days, I have already seen 3 snakes. One I spotted on the road, smashed (most likely when it was sunning itself) and attracting flies. I saw two yesterday in Saga-ken. The first one I saw when I was visiting Kannon no taki (Kannon waterfall) in Nanayama-mura (Seven mountain village). I jumped … Continue reading »

There are two types of bioluminescence that I know of. One form is created by the mixing of the chemicals luciferin and luciferase. Animals such as fireflies and anglerfish either have organs that produce luciferin and luciferase (both internally and externally) or support colonies of bioluminescent bacteria who produce these chemicals in their bodies, living … Continue reading »

Unlike the racoon dogs that live on Justin’s island, ours have a diffr’n set ‘o priorities. We like awr Tawnookeys cuz theyyur wild boozers and bring their own sake jugs with them, nawt ’cause they add more sausage to the hootenanny.

…but I found another earthworm crawling around on the tile. Watching it inch around between the cracks as I took a shower last night made me nautious, and made me wonder; Where do they come from? How can they get into my bathroom? Are there latent annelid eggs spawning from the grout? Do my students … Continue reading »