A Day in Osaka

Just a couple of pictures I took yesterday in Osaka (where I work). A small butterfly enjoying a flower and a cool little alleyway.

I Kill Bugs

I'm not a heartless man, but sometimes I simply don't pay attention to where I walk. Cicadas of Japan....BEWARE!!

Japan by Photo

Here are some pictures I took during the last week using the iPhone app Instagram. they are random and a lot of fun I think.

Hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave a comment below if you'd like to see more pictures in the future.


Japanese Beer Garden?


A Sunday morning breakfast audience.


Dead beetle. An untimely demise!


Shoes belonging to the men of the house!


Soon people will be celebrating Tanabata in Japan.


Took this shot the other day after an early morning run. The sun was just rising and the flowers looked great.


Follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Dangerous bugs everywhere!

I'm beginning to get somewhat frustrated with my rash of colds and constant flu-like symptoms as of late. My chest cold has apparently flared up again and I wasn't able to run tonight. I was supposed to run 10 km tonight, but simply wasn't up to it. I did manage a short walk. Being a new father (I was up from 3-5 am this morning) combined with parents sending all of their very sick children to school these days, I have ben finding it hard to run 6 days a a week. I've only hit the pavement 4 days a week for the past 2 weeks. i will of course finish my next marathon running, but the time will be a slow one me tinks!

Last night while out walking close to my house, I spotted a rather large and interesting caterpillar! Check it out:


On the topic is insects and, there were certainly a lot of the venomous ones I mentioned in the previous video at school today. For whatever reason, several trees around my school were covered in some very green and dangerous critters.

I had a student last year who had the misfortune of accidentally touching one of these critters in a local park. He was in a world of hurt and had to spend the afternoon in the Emergency Room!


I even know adults who have had one of these fall on their shirts and then not be able to sleep for days because of the pin and massive swelling!

As someone from Nova Scotia, Canada, the idea of insects being dangerous is quite alien. When we saw a fuzzy caterpillar in NS, we picked it up as fast as we could to play with it because we knew it would be soft. Here in Japan, if it is fuzzy,stay away!

Cicadas Everywhere セミ

It's the middle of summer in Japan and if anyone who has ever been here this time of year knows; it's hot and sweaty. The average daily temperature in my neck of the woods (Kobe) are i the low to mid 30's, but with the humidex, they are pushing 40! After my father sent me a photograph of a dead cicada ("semi" in Japanese), I felt inspired to make a "cicada-only" post today.


This is the cicada my father found, just outside of Ottawa, Ontario in Canada. The North American species is sometimes referred to as the "Dog Days" cicada since it is rambling about during the dog days of summer! Actually, the ones here in Japan (at least the common ones around the Kansai area are about twice this size).

There are hundreds of types of cicadas all around the world and they are considered the loudest insects in the world. Cicadas are also completely harmless to humans and other animals. They don't bite or sting, but sometimes might urinate on you if you are walking under a tree filled with them. I know this from personal experience. I was whizzed on by more than one cicada last summer! Most people are pretty intimidated by this harmless insect due to its large size and very loud noise.

Cicadas can actually produce sounds up to 120db...THTA' REALLY LOUD.

There is a lot of great information on cicadas on Wikipedia.


Here is a very recent video from a very cool Japanese video blogger of a cicada crawling out of it's exoskeleton. I have seen them at night crawling in their "crab^like" shells before hatching, but I have never seen this!

Cicada Emergence




Here is another great cicada video from an an English speaking Japan-based vlogger fro last year. Here you can see the cicada crawling up a tree looking for a good spot to anchor itself before it's final stage emerges!

Japanese Cicada - Shinto Shrine Trees




This is a vlog I made a little more than a year ago. This one will give you an idea of how deafening the noise can be from a large number of cicadas early in the morning. They normally make their noises on hot sunny days and begin around 6:30am (in full force), This was filmed on a Saturday morning around 7:00am. I was in the midst of marathon training so I was waking up really early (for me) to run.

Cicadas セミ 蝉....Damn You!




Hope you enjoyed this very cicada themed post!