05-07-10 10cm "Mukade"

05-07-10 10cm "Mukade"
Originally uploaded by skawt_p.

im cheating for today's post. i will post the exact same post as I put on my other blog on here. please don't hate me, I figured grading and stuff was more important than writing lots of blogs today, sorry. and now with no further adieu or apologies, here is... my blog.

I think i have the name correct. This is what I found in the woods in Japan. Here I thought this country was safe: that yoour borders were protected, that your people praised the way of non-violence and ultra-strict gun-control, that you had killed the only really dangerous predator (the wolf) long ago, and even your only posionous land-based snake the mamushi is not really all that dangerous since it's teeth are small and it doesn't put out a lot of venom. Here I thought I was pretty safe as long as I wore a bell in the woods, and stuck to the path. Boy how little did I know. These incredibly fascinating critters, are very fast, as is evidenced by the fact I couldn't get him in my photo frame, nor could I get my boot in there for a size comparison, run in packs of two and grow up to about 15cms. Why on earth did no one tell me about these crazy killer centipedes that leap out at you and, from what I read, are very aggressive. My students tell me they are called "mukade" and since i know no better, I am willing to beleive them.

Funny, it seems that the information on them is a bit scattered. One student says, very dangerous one says not dangerous, one says, 'only if they bite you three times.' everyone who asks says that it hurts if they bite you and thus I suspect it the chances are pretty remote I will get bit more than once. Besides, I learned to check my shoes and boots in Tucson, and usually pay close attention to where I am stepping, so I sincerely doubt i will get bit at all (knock on wood) but man, I wish someone would have warned me before I went around rooting in the bushes in the damp, sticky forests!

Don't get me started on the big hairy spiders.... ooooo give me cold cool Aomori with its general dirth of icky crawly bugs. Bears I can handle, they are big and you know to be afraid of them, don't touch the big toothy hairy thing, but small little scuttling bugs that hide and bite ya when you aren't looking, that is just uncool!