entomology 2 (life cycle of cicada)

The cicadas stick close each other with their asses. After mating, the female will lay eggs in tree trunk. Eggs hatch next summer and larvae spend as long as six years in the ground before becoming adults. While they have this long larva period, the life of adults is rather ephemeral, which lasts only for a few weeks. Around the time when I am writing this post, the female in the photo might have already laid eggs and have gone. Can you tell which one is girl? Since the position of their private action is so different from ours, I cannot tell. Sorry.

entomology

Cicadas are very summer incects in Japan. The commenest species is Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata (see the photo). You can find them almost everywhere as far as there are trees, especially parks and groves in cities. Very common throughout the country.

Its Japanese name is Abura-zemi. Abura means 'oil' and zemi (or semi) is 'cicada'. So the literal meaning is 'Oil cicada'. You may wonder why the name. Its appearance seems to have nothing to do with oil. Indeed, no connection. However, its buzzing is connected. For somebody who named the species, Abura-zemi's raucous song sounded like a noise of frying something in oil. Personally, I disagree.

If you want to try the buzz of oil cicada, access:
http://www.nat-museum.sanda.hyogo.jp/semi/abura.html
and then click the picture on the page.

limnology

The water body left is Lake Biwa, the largest Japanese lake. The lake is located within a five-minute walk distance from my parents' house.

Biwa's surface area is about seventeen times as large as that of Lake Mendota. The size itself is not a big thing compared with giant lakes like Baikal, Superior, and the rest. However, it is very old: the world's third oldest lake. This long history has developed lots of endemic species. Sadly, alien species are allegedly driving out the native fishes. The predetors are chiefly foreign bass and bluegill. Bass fishing lovers say that the causation of the problem is still moot.

By the way, aren't you assuming the biking guy in the photo is a mere stranger? Actually..., he is an utter stranger.

vortex

Cherokee's legend has it that a female grad student in Madison fell victim to leeches. Luckly for her, the girl was sucked nearby a compassionate hospital. She was carried into the hospital and escaped death. Yes. The most serious bloodsucker in the United States is leech.

Mosquitoes take over the position, here in Japan. As you know, the Japanese are insular. Interestingly, so are mosquitoes in Japan. The mosquitoes won't attack to you; they are less friendly for thoese who are new to them like foreigners. In Japan, summer without mosquitoes is supposed to be extremely bland like non-alcohol beer. We Japanese enjoy getting weary of swarm of mosquitoes. But they never approach to you. You would suffer from alienation.

The coil in the photo is a mosquito coil, which is indispensable for Japanese summer life. We burn the coil to kill mosquitoes. You might wonder why we kill them while we enjoy their annoying presence. The reason is quite deep. We believe in reincarnation. Hoping they could rebirth as human, we kill them. Hard to understand? Indeed, it must be an exteremely elusive idea for you.

son

You see different constellations when you travel to different parts of the globe. So some guidebooks mention constellations in the destinations. For example, Australia books encourage you to watch the Southern Cross, which is invisible from middle or high latitude parts in the northern hemisphere.

I know all of you want to know how the sun looks like from Japan because it is the brightest celestial body in the sky. Believe me or not, you cannot find any recognizable difference in its appearence as long as you observe it with the naked eyes. See the photo left. I took it just for you, not for anybody else.

I am fairly positive that NASA actually has found signs of extraterrestrial intelligent life, although they won't publicly admit it. I suspect the intelligent life assigned our sun to one of the stars consisting of their constellation, while the sun is not a part of any of our constellations. I sent an email to NASA to inquire about this point more than a few weeks ago. They have not emailed me back yet.

hello again

Hi folks,

I decided to resume my blog in response to enthusiastic requests from people in the molecular biology department. During this long cessation, I came up with a good idea. I renewed the blog as an electronic traveler's book. It will provide extremely hard-to-get information about Japan. Even the prestigious Lonely Planet won't beat mine.

However you will need considerable effort to understand my blog. As you see in the foreword, the contents of the blog is esoteric like modern physics. That is, reading this blog could be agonizingly difficult as the title speaks for itself (partially because of my English). Because of this difficulty my blog selects its audience. Ph.D degree in Japanese study or equivalent is basically prerequisite to read it. But, luckly for you, I am in an extraordinarily good mood these days so I generously open it for you freshmen.