Bug Wars

If there's one thing i hate about summer here more than the humidity, it has to be the bugs.

I've never really been afraid of bugs- i quite like ladybugs and butterflies and the like.  Used to catch crickets and beetles and rolly-pollies, and dig up worms as a kid- hell, even spiders i was okay with.  Would even hold them sometimes.

But for some reason, i just can't deal with cockroaches, which unfortunately appear abundantly here!  I remember back in May while watching TV with S in our hotel in Tokyo, seeing a commercial for cockroach traps and laughing at the silliness of it and the morbidity of the fate of poor papa and son cockroach.

I have to say though, that the other week i considered getting one of these.  If you're friends with me on Facebook then you've already heard the story, but i'm telling it again because it was just horrifying.  I turned on the A/C in my room before going to bed, and as the little flap dropped down to let the air out, out fell a huge cockroach right over me!  I screamed, and it scurried under my bed and disappeared, so needless to say it was not easy to fall asleep that night.  Luckily the next day a friend brought by some cockroach "caps" for me (little black domes with poisoned food enclosed) and i stuck them under my bed.  Went to straighten my shoes before going to bed only to find the huge bugger hiding amongst them, and he again scurried under my bed.. hopefully to make a meal of the poison.  I've still been paranoid since though.

Even worse than the roaches, though, are definitely the mosquitoes.  I can't remember a time this summer that i haven't had at least a few bites that i'm trying my best to not scratch.  According to the Japanese i can attribute my deliciousness to my blood-type (a lot of things here are attributed to one's blood-type), which i am willing to believe.  Doesn't help me though, or make it any less irritating.  And it also doesn't help that my skin overreacts to the bites, so i end up dotted with huge, ugly reddish-purple bumps everywhere..

One last thing about bugs- there are some pretty monstrous spiders here!  Like i said i'm really not bothered by spiders, and even had the guts to hold my sister's pet tarantula she used to have.  Regardless, it's still a little unnerving to walk into a room to find something this huge just chilling there:

Which is what happened at the guesthouse in Osaka.  We were all freaking out after we found one hanging out in the shower room, but i found out later that they aren't poisonous or anything, which is good, and it makes me feel kinda bad that one of the guys ended up killing it.  You can read more about them at this guy's blog.

Gonna go now and enjoy the interesting variety of movies on TV!  And ice these bug bites.