The Blog Matsuri theme this month is about unusual things in Japan. I almost wrote about grapes and the moment I realised I was the only person in the room not peeling them before eating. I suppose you do what you have to when fresh fruit are scarce and a single strawberry can cost 200 yen.
This summer, however, my attentions are elsewhere. Every day for the past two weeks, I’ve checked on the progress of several tanks of kabutomushi beetles at my workplace. I’ve watched these creatures grow from larvae buried in the ground to shiny, black-cased bugs. I like shiny things.
The summertime craze for collecting insects in Japan is single-handedly responsible for anime like Mushiking and Pokemon. Some schools even have special programs which aim to give a kabutomushi to every child. So whenever I mention that my country simply doesn’t have beetles this large to Japanese people, their reaction is often one of surprise. It seems that for many, not having these beetles around is even stranger.
(The photos for this post are below, just in case there are phobic readers.)
This is perhaps one of my least favourite things about Japan. Mostly because my kids catch on quickly that those things scare the bejesus out of me and like to show me their bugs. Worst were the teachers though. They were just cruel in showing off their bugs. Terribly traumatizing, that was…
The kids tried to scare me by thrusting them up into my face, but I scared them even more by asking to hold them. I came to Japan not very comfortable with bugs, but now the only things I fear are spiders and cockroaches.
Last year at my school, we had a pair of those huge beetles as our school mascots. The female died shortly after giving birth (we took care of the larvae until they were at the large, gross white stage, then gave one to each of the kids to take home), and the male died of loneliness a month or so later. We held a little funeral for him and buried him behind the school, with the kids in attendance. ^_^
Personally, I think the smaller metalic green- and copper-hued beetles you see around here are gorgeous, and don’t mind picking them up to freak out some of my students. XD
I heard they die pretty soon after breeding, but we’ve yet to have a funeral for them.
The metallic green ones? I think they are called ‘mamekogane’, but don’t take my word for it.
dude, i come from australia so we are pretty used to having the most deadly, venomous creatures on earth or in the sea. but honestly, i’m not sure about these big ar$ed bugs. they look like they should be able to do a lot of harm. are feeding one like a pet in the first piccie. :-)
They’re completely harmless. Well, unless left together in the same tank for too long. T then you start to hear this weird metallic scratching sound. I know where Japanese horror movies come from now!
I had heard of Japan’s beetle-keeping in an entomology class, but I didn’t know it was to this extent! They’re actually kind of cute, and probably extremely interesting to observe as they develop and go about their daily beetle lives. Great matsuri post!
Thanks. :)
I think they’re cute and people were very surprised that I enjoyed holding them. I have some great photos of delighted kids holding them or having beetles crawling all over them, but I’m not okay with posting them online.
we got those in Somerset too
Really? That’s good to know. I’ve never seen them!
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