Giant caterpillar

Look at the giant caterpillar that I saw this morning!

Young semi-chan

We were lucky enough to see this 蝉 (cicada) shedding it’s molt near our house!

Skinny-dipper in Tokyo?

Yesterday, a British citizen (who resides in Spain) was visiting the 皇居 (Imperial Palace) in Tokyo.

Supposedly, the group went to the palace guards to tell them, in English, that they accidentally dropped their bag into palace moat. They weren’t satisfied with the guards’ reaction (who probably didn’t understand them)…so the middle-aged British man stripped completely and jumped into the moat!

His crazy antics immediately drew a large crowd who began taking his picture with their 携帯電話 (cell-phones).

The police dispatched numerous officers to apprehend him. Some were in a boat (see photo above (by the way, I didn’t take that photo. It was from the Associated Press™)), and some were on the ground surrounding the moat.

The tourist began throwing rocks at the officers in the boat. Then he climbed out of the moat and found a construction barrier-pole and used to to try to hit the police officers. One officer rushed him and pushed him back into the moat.

The British man then swam to the other side and scaled the stone wall (knocking out one of the stones in the process).

After his climbed out again, the police arrested him.

Quite a crazy story! I’ve never heard of anyone swimming in the Imperial moat before…especially without clothes!

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Anyways, as I said at the end of this post, my daughters’ 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) died recently.
Well, my second daughter’s teacher gave her one of his beetles. It’s not the same kind…this one is even bigger! It’s a ゾウカブト虫 (Elephant Beetle).

It’s only in the 幼虫 (larvae) stage right now. It should change into an adult beetle next Summer.

The Elephant Beetle is from South America and some parts of the southern U.S.A. and looks quite different from the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get.

Here’s a picture of him in his larvae stage (the larvae of the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get is much smaller):

He’s a big bug…but still just a baby!

カブちゃん

About two months ago we bought a pet 甲虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle). We call him 「カブちゃん」 (Kabu-chan)…he was given this name because “Rhinoceros Beetle” is Kabuto-mushi in Japanese (and the suffix chan is often added to nicknames (usually girls)…kun is usually used for young boys. There are cases where chan is OK for a boy’s nickname…so, although our beetle’s male, he’s “Kabu-chan” because “Kabu-kun” is odd. (Maybe that’s confusing if you don’t understand Japanese culture!?)).

Anyways, we often buy (or sometimes catch) 甲虫 (Rhinoceros Beetles) every Summer…because, like most Japanese kids, my kids like 甲虫 (Rhinoceros Beetles). They are a popular pet in Japan in the summertime. The オス (males ♂) are especially popular (and more expensive) because they have long horns…and they fight each other (for the メス (females ♀)).

Japanese boys like to watch the male beetles fight each other. There’s even a game in Japan about fighting beetles (called 「むしキング」 (Mushi King)) that young boys like.

The life span of 甲虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) isn’t very long. Less than half a year (late Spring until early Autumn). So our 「カブちゃん」 (Kabu-chan) probably won’t be with us much longer 😦
So, today I was holding him and he walked up my arm up to my back. For an old guy, he’s still pretty 元気 (energetic)!

While the beetle was walking on me, my wife took a few photos of him: