What Little Girls Are Made Of

Two of my three kids bring the Outdoors in... and it's not my boys. It's Big Brother and Little Sister (middle brother Teddy tends not to bring me bugs--he'd rather go fast.  At seven he asked me whether Jr. High was 'grown up', and could he have a motorcycle...).

It's in the washing machine...

Yesterday Cici came bombing in the door shouting that her school hat was stinky.

Why?  (...do I even ask?)

Because it was filled with dirt, leaves and Dangomushi.  *Naturally*.

Armidillidium vulgare... terrestrial crustaceans

These little guys-- did you play with these when you were a kid, too?

I did, but the Japanese name for them is so appropriate that  I had to look them up on Wiki to find out what the common English name was-- oh yeah!  Pill bugs.  Roly Polies.

Dango-- the kind you can eat

The Japanese name is "Dango--Mushi"... a Dango Bug, because they roll up into a small sphere like a Dango-- which seems more appropriate than 'pill bug', since pills are usually flat discs and not spheres.  Roly Poly works fine,though, and since it's a cute word, I think I'll use that word instead.  Maybe I'll remember it that way...

Papilio xuthus... Agehachou, Swallowtail butterfly

Aack-- lack of transition!


Here-- look at this butterfly...


*intermission music*

...the other day she came bombing in the door demanding a cucumber.

Why?

I hafta feed the snail!!

Ah... of course.  I see. *gets cucumber and knife*

Den den, mushi mushi, Katatsumuri... Mr. Snail

...or Miss Snail... Mrs.?

How in the world does one determine marital status in snails?

You don't suppose I subconsciously encourage this behavior in my children, do you?

The Sort of Thing I Find in my Sink

Boys are boys, no matter where you go...;-)

Papa got home around seven this evening (*very* early for a Japanese Salaryman).  Put his briefcase down and walked back to the bathroom to wash his hands.



I heard a loud, startled "Ehhhhh!!"

Procambarus clarkii-- the Louisiana crawfish, an invasive species.

Poor Papa-- coming home tired after a long day at work... only to find his sink filled with Zarigani (crawdads).  :-))

Three big ones (and five smaller ones in the bucket)--and although I called them Zarigani, the species endemic to Japan  (Cambaroides japonica) is rapidly losing ground to the introduced "Amerikan Zarigani", as it's called.

It's considered an invasive species (as you can see;-)).  *Boys*... mata asobou, ne!

Tsutsuji Fair!

Rhododendron subgenus tsutsuji-- evergreen Azaleas

 Komuroyama Koen  (Komuro Mountain Park)

Ever since my in-laws built a house down on the Izu Peninsula, we've gone every year for Golden Week to see the Azaleas at Komuroyama Park (near Ito City).

We can actually walk to the Azalea park from the house by walking through the Camellia park...

Tsubaki... Camellias have over 3,000 cultivars...

It's the loveliest walk...                                            









  though I prefer walking there with my mother-in-law since we both like to amble
and stop to admire Every. Single. Camellia along the way...

Camellia japonica... but which cultivar?

 ...but since she didn't come with us this time,  I was unceremoniously hustled along, getting in only two lovely tsubaki photos and no time to note the cultivar name...

Ah, well-- the camellias were nearly done anyway, and we had come to see the azaleas...

 ....glowing rows of azaleas line the street...

...bushes crowded with shocking pink blooms,






...or purple,

 

...or deep red.

Climbing the stone steps to the top of the bottom slope of Komuro Mountain, the view is beautiful...

...then gorgeous,

 

...then positively spectacular.  Most of the plants are the small-flowered variety (and mainly pink, though the hillside--shown in the top photo--mixes in deep red, salmon pink, and white).      

The large-flowering variety (the evergreen azalea Tsutsuji), of which we have a border behind our building, wasn't quite out yet at Komuroyama.  Just a few, not the whole hillside.  From the side (as at right), it's easy to see that Azaleas are actually Rhododendrons.  A subgenus, in fact, though they used to be thought a completely different genus.

Rhododendron subgenus tsutsuji

Azaleas are now two different subgenera of Rhododendron, the deciduous Pentanthera and the evergreen Tsutsuji, whose name has simply been borrowed directly from the Japanese word for Azalea.

These are the kind that smell good-- that's where you'd be, if you were a bee...  I wonder if the spot pattern is like runway lights for bees, guiding them in?

some are pruned to shape, some left to grow naturally

Deep red azaleas beneath graceful willows...

A riot of Azaleas...

...framed by somber pines

A whole hillside of Azaleas

Some of the bushes are tall enough to walk under.  Well, tall enough if you are a small Japanese woman.  Or a child--I thought those tall azalea bushes looked like the most wonderful place to play house.  I would certainly have taken my dolls and stuffed animals and crayons and notebooks and spent hours playing under bushes like that when I was a kid.



...but, of course, I hadn't any toys along and so had to be content to stand under the tall pink azaleas and suggest to Cici what a marvelous play-place they would be...

Friday Field Notes-- Distracted by Spiders...

Nephila jurassica...  (found in the Daohugou beds in northeastern China)

...And this is exactly why I can't get *anything* done.  That up there is the biggest spider fossil ever found (thanks, Alice!!).  Not just any old spider, either.  I took one look at the name and said, "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Nephila!!"


That's right-- that amazing, 165-million-year-old Mid-Jurassic fossil is in the same genus as my beloved Jorougumo (Nephila clavata).  This one, remember?

Nephila clavata (Jorougumo...the Binding Lady)  Compare the legs!  The Betty Grable of spiders...;-))

And with this fossil, genus Nephila is now 130 million years older than previously suspected (the oldest known fossil prior having been a mere 34 million years old).  But just look at those legs!  There's no doubt that the Jurrasic had orb-web spiders.  It's spiders that spin huge, sticky webs that sport those beautiful, curving, fine-tipped legs that can dance across an intricate web evolved to trap insects without getting stuck themselves.  According to the Smithsonian article, those fossil legs stretched 6 inches! (Go read the article--they think it may even have been able to catch and eat small bird-like dinosaurs!)

Carefully...carefully...or she will eat you...;-))

Unlike modern members of the Nephila genus, however, some researchers think the Jurassic species was not sexually dimorphic--that the male was possibly roughly the same size as the female.  A 130-mya male spider fossil of the Cretaraneus genus found in Spain was the same size as the female, leading researchers to postulate that Nephila at that time may also not have been dimorphic.

Wheee! I am so addicted to spiders:-))

Araneus diadematus... Niwaonigumo (European Garden Spider)
Click to enlarge...you know you want to;-)

The other day I was walking home from school and saw this *darling* little spider, who was so itty-wee my camera wouldn't focus on her.  Had to put my hand behind her so she'd be in focus instead of the background foliage.  But I don't know who she is!  Spider Experts of teh Interwebs-- HELP!  Who is this spider?  Found
April 17 in Yokohama, Japan in a bush next to the street at eye level... should I put her on milk cartons?

Update:  I do now-- should have done more homework before posting.  But I thought I'd be days searching for "small brown spider" on Google image search...   So, after smacking my head into the table when I realized that she was sitting on an orb-web...well, duh.  I could have put "small brown orb-web spider" into Google and gotten there much sooner.  So she's "just" a garden spider--also called the Diadem Spider or Cross Spider because of the markings on her back (interesting side note:  "The white dots result from cells that are filled with guanine, which is a byproduct of protein metabolism.").  In Japanese, she's "Niwaonigumo"--the Garden Ogre Spider.

Here's where things get interesting, though.  Turns out, Nephila clavata above, Araneus diadematus here, and Argiope bruennichi below used to all be classified in the same genus-- Epeira, a sort of catch-all taxa for a wide range of spiders in the 19th century.  Curvy legs and round web?  Into Epeira you go!  Until, that is, somebody noticed that Epeira was getting *awfully* full, and started splitting.  The Golden Orb Web spiders (Jorougumo above, and also apparently the new Chinese fossil as well) were given an entirely distinct family to themselves (the Nephilidae) and four separate genera (Clitaetra, Herennia, Nephila, and Nephilengys).  More than enough space for everyone to get his own bedroom.  Epeira was dumped in favor of Araneidae (the former now being considered a junior synonym of the latter), into which family both the above Araneus genus (my pretty Diadem Spider) and the Argiope genus below (the gorgeous silver-faced Wasp Spider) were placed.

There!  A nice, neat family, dusted and cleared of clutter.  Sort of.  Looking up Araneidae to see which genera were put there, I find... 30 genera starting with the letter "A".  170 genera all together in the Araneidae family.  I'd say there's a bit more spring cleaning to be done..;-)
__________________________________________

Oxytate striatipes... Wakabagumo

I also found (and nearly stepped on--gomen!) this lovely one whose name in Japanese is "Wakabagumo".  A name which means, appropriately, "Young Leaf Spider"--and he's exactly the color of a glowing new leaf.  Yes, that's right, He in this case.  This species is sexually dimorphic (the male being about 8-10mm, the female 12-13mm), but not so much as Jorougumo.  The male is more easily  distinguished by his narrower abdomen than by his size.  Not an orb Web spider, though-- this one is a Green Crab Spider (family Thomisidae), so called because of the way they hold their front legs and the fact that they can scuttle in a manner similar to crustaceans.

Tiny new Ginkgo leaves illuminated by the morning sun...

See?  Same color...

"Hey! Giant person! Look out!"

 ...the only reason, in fact, delicate little Wakabagumo was saved from being squashed was a young grasshopper who jumped in front of me.  I stopped to look at him, then thought I saw another.  But, no!  Almost the same size and color, but a new (to me) spider!  Squee!

 And I almost stepped on him!  I tried to tiptoe after that, big hulking giant that I am...


*********
...and in other spider news...

Nagakoganegumo... Argiope bruennichi (Family: Araneidae)

...striking silver-faced Argiope, the Wasp Spider (a writing spider), whom I posted about last fall, I'm hoping to see again soon.  At the end of that post, I put up a photo of her egg sac, which was precariously pasted into a chain-link fence.  I kept an eye on it all winter.  And in January...

they made it!

Now I have to think of baby spider names...












Mata asobou, ne!

p.s.-- I promise I will post the rest about Tsukushi.  That's a whole 'nother rabbit hole, though... nodes and spores and strobili and...

Shhh... Listen--the Nightingale is Singing...

There's nothing much to see in this video because the Japanese Bush Warbler is notoriously difficult to spot since he's tiny (about 15cm long) and drab (he's nearly the same color as the leaves and branches).  You're far more likely to hear than to see him.  This is his springtime breeding song--doesn't he sing beautifully?  He's sure to have the ladies swooning...;-))

Uguisu... Cettia diphone

Not my photo, as I've never been so lucky:-((  But in the Wiki photo you can see why he'd be so hard to spot.  He tends to sing from deep within the bush or tree, so once the leaves are out... well, good luck trying to spot him!  The reason the video above is panning around those bushes (at the temple where I go to pick up keys) is because I *did* see him!  I saw him fly right into those bushes!! I did!  And he hid right inside those bushes, singing his heart out.

"Hooooo-ko-ke-ko!"

He sits right over in the cherry trees across the street...

This is why hanging up laundry to dry is my favorite (if there can be such) chore.. at least, this time of year it is:-))  On a warm day, with cherry blossoms across the street, serenaded by the Japanese Nightingale... that's a household chore I don't mind at all!  This, in fact, is why he's also sometimes called the "Hanamidori"--the Spring Flower Viewing Bird... 


*Note: I think there's a new Uguisu across the street!  He's not singing the full song, and sounds tentative.  I think we have a youngun' over there practicing (gambare!)... I'll try to get him recorded, too, so's to compare.  There's a definite difference--I knew it was a different bird from past years as soon as he started singing, and wondered whether he wasn't maybe a young one just learning.  A trip to Wiki confirmed that notion:   "Young Japanese Bush Warblers do not initially perform the "hoohokekyo" song skillfully, but gradually learn to sing by imitating others in the vicinity."

Enjoy!   Hooooo-ko-ke-ko!

Hanami-- Cherry Blossom Viewing

Sakura tunnel beside the river...

You wanted to see a zillion photos of cherry blossoms, right?  Good--because this week's posts will be full of them:-)  The trees over the weekend were "Mankai", in Full Bloom (the TV news reports every day from the day the first blossom opens, what percentage "open" the trees are.  That's right--the opening of the cherry blossoms is front page news.  This is a nation that has its priorities straight, I tell you... ;-).  It rained Saturday, but not hard enough to knock the blossoms off (a common occurrence).  Sunday was sunny and lovely, though, and there was hardly room to sit beneath the blossoms.

Come take a little walk with me--there's almost nothing nicer than walking through a tunnel of cherry trees in full bloom:-)



Gambare, Nihon!

Furiai Hiroba--Playing With Bamboo at the Fall Festival

Or:   What The Fourth Graders Did

As promised, here is the rest of the piece on the Fall Festival held at my kids' school two weeks ago.  The first time I posted on this, I wrote about what the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth graders did for the festival.  Everybody but the fourth graders, because it would have made the original post too long.

The fourth graders, for the second time (last year's fourth graders were the guinea pigs, apparently), made charcoal out of bamboo, as well as a number of traditional toys.  I stopped by school several times to watch the sumi-making process ("sumi" is charcoal or ink)

After they'd gone across the street to cut bamboo (with help, of course, from the teacher and a couple of community members who live near the school), they spent the last hour of the school day one afternoon sawing the long stalks of bamboo shorter, then splitting it so it would burn better.

...Koshi manfully wrestles with the saw:-))  It was harder to saw through than he thought!  The group members had to take turns as they got tired...

(Yes--they really trust 10-year-olds with actual sharp saws in Japan.  Not yet an overly litigious society...)

the split bamboo

....one of the maintenance guys used the iron rings below to split the bamboo length-wise.  Then it was cut a little smaller to make pieces of a uniform size for burning to make charcoal.  Watch the video below to see how he uses those tools to split the bamboo!

...sledgehammer and iron bamboo-splitting rings (small, medium, and large for various sizes of bamboo).







See?  Tap the bamboo down onto the iron ring with the sledgehammer, turn it upside down, and push.  Voilà!  The bamboo was then dried for a week, and the following Friday put into this contraption:

...I was so waiting for Bilbo Baggins to walk out of there...

...he had to seal the edges with clay so the smoke would only go out the actual smokestack...

...and as you can see, this is a completely hand-made affair.  Plugged up with a can of DyDo coffee...  But it worked just fine--made lovely charcoal (which burned over 24 hours), deep black, perfect to put in the fridge or the shoe box to absorb odors or to filter water in the manner of a Brita.

 ...Lovely black charcoal, still clearly a piece of bamboo...

 ... after cutting the charcoal into uniform sizes, the kids bound it with twisty-ties and bagged it for give-away at the festival...




 
 On the day of the festival, I discovered that the kids had made a lot more than just charcoal out of all that bamboo...

Pakah! Pakah! Pakah!  Clip-clop, clip-clop!  Horses' hooves made from bamboo.  You probably had a pair of these when you were a kid, but maybe made out of plastic or cans (stand on top, hold onto the strings, and try to walk).  I thought the bamboo made a more realistic, more satisfying, clip-clop...

...the ring toss game--a common game world-wide, but not often made of bamboo...













...low stilts, a nice size for kids to practice walking and balancing on.



....then there were the games the kids had made for parents and siblings to try at the festival, like the bamboo spinner below--as simple a toy as ever there was, consisting only of a flat piece of bamboo and a piece of string threaded through a hole drilled in the center.  Markers were out for us "O-Kyaku-san" (Honorable Customers) to decorate if we wished...







Watch Papa below play with the Spinner:







In order to get a baggie of charcoal, we customers had to go around and play with/make all three toys the kids had prepared--the Spinner, the Shooter, and the Take Tombo (Bamboo Dragonfly).

...the Shooter.  You stuff wet toilet paper inside this, then use the piece on the left to "shoot" out the toilet paper.  Papa was much better at this than I was--he made the pasty toilet paper go at least 10 feet!

My favorite toy, though, is the Take Tombo (Bamboo Dragonfly)--a very traditional children's toy, which in all likelihood originated in China (though it doesn't do to say so to the Japanese ;-)).

...one of the kids is getting ready to make the Bamboo Dragonfly fly!  It takes some practice to really make it go--but once you get the hang of it, it's great fun to make it fly far and high.

And most interesting of all (at least to me), was watching an older gentleman whittle one.

Watch:



Did you see how he whittles from the center out, but on opposite sides to balance it so it flies straight?  Here's the last bit, where he whittles the handle and puts it in, then demonstrates how to make it fly:



I love those Bamboo Dragonflies--they remind me of the oak seed pods my sis and I called Helicopters and played with as children (another natural toy :-)).  But by far my most favorite thing that day was this table full of animals and bugs made of leftover bamboo bits (made by a community group that makes hand crafts like this):

rice straw boots, bamboo animals and bugs

...the Crab...





...the Stag Beetle below...

      ...the Preying Mantis...

...the Dragonfly...

...and the Kitteh (with the Fox and another Crab visible in the background).

Outside, the fourth graders had also made bows and "arrows" out of bamboo, though I didn't get a good photo of those.  I do know, though, that those kids were having a ball that day:-))





Mata asobou, ne!