Tag Archives: rhino beetle

Disaster

12 Aug

Every summer we go to a beach resort and stay a few days.
This year we planned to go there from Sunday, August 9 until yesterday (Tuesday, August 11) because all five of us had those days off from work or school clubs.

We checked the weather forecast for those days last week and it said that it would rain a little bit on August 9 and then it’d be nice the rest of the time.
But that’s not how it turned out…

When we arrived at the beach on Sunday, it was a bit cloudy but still nice weather and very hot. So the kids went swimming a bit. If they had known that that’d be their only chance to swim, they would’ve stayed in the water longer.

After they finished swimming, they took a shower and changed their clothes and we went for a walk around.
My second daughter caught a カブト虫 (rhino beetle).

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Then it began to rain.

We went back to the room and ate dinner. And we turned on the TV and I checked the weather forecast.
A typhoon was hitting the east coast of Japan! 😦

The forecast said that the typhoon would be gone and the weather would clear up on the afternoon of August 11. The day we we going back home!

And then, while we were eating dinner, an 地震 (earthquake) struck!
The area we were in registered a “level 4 earthquake” on the Japanese shindo earthquake scale. (The Japanese scale goes from 1-7).
It was an unwelcome fright! But luckily it wasn’t strong enough to knock anything down where we were.

The weather forecast was correct. The typhoon stayed the whole time we were there. It ruined our beach trip.
The wind and rain was very strong the entire time we were there. Both the beach and the nearby waterslide pool park were closed.

And then yesterday morning at about 5:30AM, another big 地震 (earthquake) struck! This one had the epicenter in 静岡県 (Shizuoka Prefecture), and registered a “level 6” (out of “7”) there!
Where we were it registered as a “level 4” again. Once again, not big enough to do damage where we were…but big enough to wake us up!
I hate earthquakes!

But we still had fun together. Indoors.
We played games, watched TV, talked, and enjoyed time together.

We planned to take the 6:30PM train home yesterday (August 11).
At about 5:00PM, I noticed that the typhoon seemed to have passed and the weather was clearing up.
Just my luck! The weather was miserable the whole time we were there…and then clears up when were getting ready to leave!

Since we had time, and the storm passed, we took a walk around again.
There were many surfers taking advantage of the big waves brought by the typhoon.

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Even though we didn’t get to swim as we planned, we still had a good time.
And as I said, we go to this beach every summer. This was the first time that the weather wasn’t beautiful while we were there.
Hopefully it’ll be nice weather again next year!

Skinny-dipper in Tokyo?

8 Oct

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!

都民の日

1 Oct

Today is 都民の日 (Tokyo Citizens Day).
All of the prefectures in Japan have Citizens Day at different times of the year…for Tokyo, it’s on October 1.

On this day, public schools are closed and many zoos and aquariums in Tokyo offer free admission.
(These places usually offer free admission three times a year…on 都民の日 (Tokyo Citizens Day), 緑の日 (Greenery Day (May 4)), and the anniversary of the opening of the establishment.

For example, 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) is open to the public for free on October 1 (都民の日 (Tokyo Citizens Day)), May 4 (緑の日 (Greenery Day)), and on March 20 (the anniversary of the zoo’s opening on March 20, 1882).

So, my daughters have the day off today (I have to go to work). My wife and kids decided to go to 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) today.

It’s gonna be crowded, I’m sure! A couple of years ago, we took the kids to 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) on 都民の日 (Tokyo Citizens Day).
And it was nice to get in for free…but it was really crowded.

Actually, when we go to 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo), we normally only have to pay admission for my wife and I because children aged 12 and under are always free, and so are Junior High School students who live and/or go to school in Tokyo.
We live in Tokyo and my kids go to the Junior High School nearest our house.

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Anyways, our 甲虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that I mentioned in this post died today 😦

R.I.P. カブちゃん!

カブちゃん

27 Sep

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:

Photos

28 Aug

I went thru some of my photos and decided to post a bunch of them on my blog. Mostly as Slideshows.

For convenience, here’s a menu of the pictures, slideshows, and video on this post:

Turtle Butterfly Beetle
Cicada Kawasaki Halloween Kamakura Horseback Archery
Asakusa Horseback Archery Asakusa New Years Tokyo Disneyland
Park Cherry Blossom Viewing Ibaraki
Yokohama Kameido-Tenjin Harajuku / Shibuya
Ueno Tokyo Tower Tokyo Dome area
Tokyo Stn / Imperial Palace University of Tokyo Tobu Zoo
Ryogoku Bottom of this post

First are some of the small animals that have been living in our house recently.

Our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

My YouTube video of our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

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The アゲハ蝶 (Swallowtail Butterfly) (and his (cocoon)).

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Here’s a slideshow of our カブト虫 (Rhino beetle) eating gelatin.

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A slideshow of our (Cicada) emerging from it’s moult (outer shell).

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Here’s ハロウィーン (Halloween) at 川崎 (Kawasaki):

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And here’s a slideshow of the 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery) at 鎌倉 (Kamakura):

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And the 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery) at 浅草 (Asakusa):

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And here’s a slideshow of New Years at 浅草 (Asakusa):

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東京ディズニーランド (Tokyo Disneyland):

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A park near our house:

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花見 (Cherry Blossom Viewing):

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茨城県 (Ibaraki) is a countryside prefecture to the north of 東京都 (Tokyo):

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横浜 (Yokohama):

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亀戸天神 (Kameido-Tenjin Shrine):

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原宿 (Harajuku) and 渋谷 (Shibuya):

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These photos are from 上野 (Ueno):

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東京タワー (Tokyo Tower):

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The 東京ドーム (Tokyo Dome) area (including the amusement park and 小石川後楽園 (Koishikawa-kourakuen Japanese Gardens)). There happened to be a cosplay event on the day I took these photos:

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東京駅 (Tokyo Train Station) and the 皇居 (Imperial Palace):

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東京大学 (The University of Tokyo):

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東武動物公園 (Tobu-Doubutsukouen Zoo):

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両国 (Ryougoku), the area of Tokyo with the 国技館 (Sumo Arena):

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Please leave a comment of what you think of these photos!

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