Old Japan

Today we went out for a ride on our bicycles. Went a lot further than we'd planned and ended up at the Saitama Farming Museum. Very relaxing though small place. Basically, a few old farm buildings salvaged from around Saitama and lovingly refurbished and laid out according to the plan of an old farming hamlet of a couple of hundred years ago. There are fish ponds, mini rice paddies and various farming implements of the long blunt stick type. The weather was beautiful, and the overall atmosphere about as idyllic as a Hayao Miyazaki animated movie. Beautiful day, but didn't actually get a lot of photography done. Will definitely be going back again though :)

The Mandibles!!

It's got my finger!!

Well, Professor Ewan got his first pet of the summer, and in an unexpected location. We opened the front door and there on the porch was a Japanese stag beetle (kuwagata). It was a surprise to say the least. With a totally uncharacteristic turn of speed the Prof picked it up and transferred it to a pet box while I was still pointing at the spot on the ground. It seemed like he'd been training all his life for this moment! Anyway, our guest has adapted well to his new home, possibly because of the abundant supply of jelly that my son has lavished on him. It's getting to the point where I'm afraid I'm going to wake up one morning with a 2 meter set of mandibles locked around my neck!!

About the right size for my son to ride it!

 Actually, stag beetles make great pets. They're easy to look after. All they need is a suitable piece of wood to hide under, a reliable source of jelly and can be carried around on a finger. With two you can enjoy the spectacle of them trying to fling each other off the piece of wood! One thing to avoid is holding them to close to the face. They have a very beetle like habit of spraying fluid out of their back end. You can see this in the video :)

Micro Martian Monster

Was walking through the fields watching out for some of the local wildlife I could photograph, like herons, lizards or perhaps a snake and not having much luck. Everything seemed to be hiding. Seems I was casting my view too wide. Sat down in the grass for a bit of a rest, when I noticed this green speck on my arm. Could barely see it as my eyesight is not that great, so tried to take a macro photo and see what turned up. Out of half a dozen attempts this is the only one that worked out. The micro monster from Mars, more commonly known as a greenfly ;)