Mukade attack!

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One of the bugs us newbies to Japan were warned about within a few weeks of getting here are Mukade. I'd never heard of them before, but this is basically the Japanese giant centipede. Back home I've always thought centipedes were kind of cute with their multitude of little legs.....but I now have a new and unpleasant perspective. Here is the description of the Mukade:

"Their reputation is well deserved. These centipedes climb up walls, and sometimes drop on to their victim from above. Although few accidents are reported, some of the species contain so much poison that a bite to neck can kill adult human being. Also they have nasty tendency to crawl to human body cavities, such as nose or ear when subject is sleeping.

Mukade eat cockroaches and flies and spiders. They are predators with amazingly fast movement. They might lay still for long time, and when disturbed they move swiftly. When killing them one should be careful, because if you cut them in half, the biting end might attack you. It is necessary to hit the head.

The Mukade live in dark and moist places, such as in kitchen sink sewer. They are said to live up to seven years."

So guess what was crawling around on our sleeping bags at 5am Saturday morning when a few of us crashed at my friend's house for the evening! We were all pretty freaked out, but luckily Jane had some industrial strength bug freeze spray that blitzed the blighter. I bought some for my house just in case and am now wondering if I should purchase a bed (I only have a floor futon).

Saturday we headed up to Komagane national park for a treehouse camping weekend. After volleyball in the day (during which I ducked out after five minutes having managed to get a ball in the face!), then BBQs in the evening. The treehouses were cool, although I did manage to get bitten to pieces by the bugs and woke up with a beetle crawling around under my nightshirt - yuck!

One thing we've all noticed here in Japan is it is never silent. By this I mean wherever you go, even in the cities, you get the sound of cicadas, crickets, frogs etc forming a background hum, all the time - especially at night. The cicadas can be deafening at times - like weird chainsaws. We were speculating how it must be weird for a Japanese person to come to the UK and experience the silence we have. Here's a recording of the noise that surrounds my house at night.

Oh, and on the random poisonous creature's topic, I stopped off at the local farmer's co-operative on Sunday evening as I had a hankering for sweet potatoes, and they proudly showed off a snake in a bottled one of them had caught. Weirdly, the little brown, striped snake was for sale for 2,000 Yen - why someone would want to buy it I'm not sure, unless they are tasty cooked!

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Comments

[Helen Strain]

Hi Vic. I\'ts not just Japanese creatures that are nasty. Last week when I went to Vale I got stung on the neck by a bee while walking over Abingdon bridge - hoping this doesn\'t happen today. More later - hope all\'s well Helen