White Noise, Red Sun: Mushi + Monkeys = Weekend

White Noise, Red Sun

A little chunk of the web dedicated to keeping our friends, family, fans of Mike's noise and anyone else who for whatever reason cares updated on our year abroad in Ichinomiya, Hyogo, Japan.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Mushi + Monkeys = Weekend



Midday Saturday we met up with Marie Claire & Owen and headed to The Herb Garden, an all-organic, grown-on-the-spot restaurant about 45 minutes away in this little town called Kosai. (Repeat visits soon, I'm sure.) After the amazing food, we decided to visit the local beetle dealer. I don't know if we've mentioned it before, but Japanese kids love fighting beetles (aka cockroaches) and there's a freakishly popular - like Pokemon-ish - video game with all the different beetles of the world. Owen & I went in joking about getting mushi pets, but both left actually wanting them. Some of the bigger ones (we're talking 5" or so) aren't my thing, but I don't mind the little guys so much. The pic above is actually my plastic mushi Nokogiri. He's the closest I've come to making the jump... yet. I was pretty close Saturday too, but I don't think Colleen is sold on the mushi yet.



Sunday was pretty relaxed all around. Colleen disappeared for a few hours when on a "short" walk, she ran into the vice principal of her school, who lives pretty close to us, & ended up having a lengthy visit & tour of his property. After dinner we managed to catch some sort of Monkey Olympics on TV. They had them golfing, rollerskating, driving go-karts, and competing in other equally-stupid and hilarious events. Topped that off with the Ashley Judd/Morgan Freeman flick "High Crimes" (nothing but the best of the best American films on TV over here...) and called it a week. Yes, I am turning into a Japanese nine-year-old.

Mike

posted by Shiflet @ 11:13 AM 2 comments  

2 Comments:

At 10:29 PM, Mike and Colleen said...

Just for the record, I think mushi are pretty darn cool. I really enjoyed listening to the shop keeper tell us about these amazing creatures. The one he took out with his hand, Hercules, is from Trinidad/caribbean area. It grips down on the surface it's climbing (your skin if it's in your hand!!! yikes!), but if you tickles it's back/read end, it will ease it's grip. A great "worst case scenario" tidbit to keep in mind. Anyway, I'm against keeping a tropical bug in an apartment in which you can see your breath all the time. Oh, and Hercules can cost over $100. I wouldn't pay that much for a puppy!
-Colleen

 
At 10:57 PM, Michelle said...

that picture is disgusting. i wanted to barf when I saw it, and I saw this picture AFTER I saw a cartoon of a blood-spattered Hitler (not on purpose; the internet is weird), so you know it has to be bad. I was pretty sure it was fake (well, I was hoping) and was relieved when I read that it was. Please do not spend money on a cockroach. I'm sure you can get all the roaches you want for free when you come back to America-better than free if you are good at trapping them and can get someone to pay you to haul theirs away.

I think this trend may be yet another example of the "just because it's from Japan, doesn't mean it is good" genre.

by the way, colleen, I don't know if you should worry about the beetle's health in the apartment; tropical or no, I doubt they can feel heat or cold--maybe ask good ol' shopkeep for his opinion?

 

Post a Comment