Japan – Insects

Japan – Insects

Hello you out there, I’m not (yet) dead and my blog also not. I’m not experiencing that much right now. Therefore, this time it is only a filler contribution. Although I was today in the Prefecture Art Museum and had the pleasure of a special exhibition about the ancient Japanese art / ink style, but photos are prohibited as always. In addition, museums in Japan seem to be smaller than in Germany (at least the ones I’ve seen so far), I often only need around half an hour. In Germany, normally at least 1-2 hours. But then I had an interesting encounter with an older Japanese lady. First she just asked me if I’m French and if she can take a picture of me because I’m so tall. After that we had a long conversation. Whereby she has talked the main part and I just desperately tried to understand as much as possible because of my limited Japanese abilty. She could speak a few words of English, so I often knew a little bit easier what was the topic. She recommended Nara and Kyouto as excursion destinations. They are already on my wish list, so I hope to be able to report it here in the future. Besides, she was so kind to give me Kaki fruits to try, because I actually had not eaten them yet. I was content with only two, it could have been much more. This is another of my episodes of the friendliness of Japanese people, except for some questions about whether everything is alright just because I’ve been study a public maps for a while. I will also remember this conversation for a long time because of a different reason. I did not expect her to suddenly praise the virtues of the Japanese Yamato Nadeshiko. The Yamato Nadeshiko is the classic ideal image of women in Japan. Of course, this also changes over time. To explain this is a bit complicated, so my explanation falls too short. It’s a mix of a geisha, samurai and housewife. A pretty, strong-willed, graceful and caring woman. Traditional clothing is not obligatory, but certainly desirable. It is also interpreted quite differently and is wide-ranging. The name Yamato comes from the province of Yamato, the original province of the Japanese state, and the flower Nadeshiko, which is a symbol of women.
But it must be made clear that this is not an japan island bonus, but a mental attitude and hard work. It is also a pursuit for perfection, which incidentally is present in many aspects of Japanese culture. Even if this is not enough, the Japantimes linked here gives an impression to English speakers.

But now to the actual topic for today, the insects. Japan has a lot of these and they are often bigger than in Germany. Also a lot of colorful spiders, although I have yet to find out if they are also poisonous and and nobody could tell me.
In addition, one should not underestimate the spider webs. In Germany they are comparatively weak. It actually takes some strength here, which is hard to define, but you notice the spider threads are thicker and stronger.
Here is a colorful mix of pictures, including 2 praying mantises.

 

This is / was a Japanese cockroach. A dubious pleasure. Approximately 3-4 cm in size, without feeler. With a hard chitin tank.

 

This spider here was about as big as my palm and also with a hard chitin tank. Funny was that the next day at the laboratory cleaning was a same spider, which I had to remove incidentally, and I have been told that she also kills cockroaches.

Here are a few Japanese crickets / cicadas. There are mainly two different ones here, this one and a smaller one. The big one here is active from mid-June to the end of August and unfortunately damn loud. One can create about 120 decibels, I have my room window out to the garden …. Thanks to the huge colonies, I can not sleep from about 4:30 to 5:00 in the morning. Until punctually around 7:00 to 8:00 o’clock they are quite active.
But from one day to the next, it stops immediately and is replaced by the smaller ones. They are also quieter. The sum is nevertheless not to be underestimated.

This mosquito was not only big, but also good to hear.

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