The Bug Goes South

The cicadas are starting their dramatic death demonstrations. They've been really quiet to-day due, I think, to a major wind storm. I was planning to go hiking on Monday but cancelled when I started seeing typhoon warnings which'll be in effect until Tuesday evening. So far it's just been really windy and rainy. And blessedly cool.

Here's another pretty bug, very much alive at the time I saw him.

More abandoned shoes. These are some baby Nikes.

Finally, here's Virudhaka, aka Zouchouten (増長天).

He's a Buddhist deity, guardian of the south.

I saw him at the local Nara cultural hall when I went to see one of my schools' brass bands perform. I don't know what he was doing there but, to paraphrase the Ninth Doctor, lots of places have a south.

Summer Sunlight

Heading into summer, which around here means bugs, flowers, and rain.

Students have been carrying big thermoses of water or barley tea ("mugicha") to school. Practicing "are you/Yes, I am/No, I'm not" sentences with first year students, I asked one girl, "Are you a cat?" and she didn't hesitate to reply, "Yes, I am."

(Not a photo of the student).

I've been visiting two after school clubs in my current school--the handmaking club and the computer club. The handmaking club is for various crafts. Mostly the students are making origami, baking little resin charms, or knitting scarves. These kids are so productive.

Many of the students are also drawing in the handmaking club since this school has no art club. Mostly they draw characters from Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen. I'm about seven episodes into the latter and it continues to be pretty good. It features a main character who strategically allows a demon to take over his body at times. The advantages being that the demon can slaughter his enemies and heal his severed limbs, the disadvantage being the demon wants to kill his friends. I continue to be fascinated by how brutal these two massively popular shows are, despite attempts by some authority figures here to regulate the moral content of the media kids take in.

I'm also thankful the animation is so good after so many years of cheap looking, cookie cutter anime.

Brought to You by Rain

Anyone know what kind of bug this is? I think it's a cicada but I can't seem to find this kind with the pine needle wings when I google. I feel pretty sure I've seen them in anime before.

It's the end of a rainy week with more rain to come here in Kashihara, Japan. I was home from school for two days due to the emergency but luckily, unlike other parts of Japan, there were no fatalities here.

I've been seeing more and more cats lately. And spiders, especially these little green ones.

Here's a picture of me from a school poster. I'm on the left. I have absolutely no memory of what I was doing. No clue what my hands are doing.

Twitter Sonnet #1371

Remaining gold awaits beneath the sod.
The seconds ticked across the granite slate.
Impassive beats surround the nervous god.
A heavy question touched the burdened pate.
Reluctant webs deploy about the bug.
A shaky grid becomes a tangled mesh.
The fire wants a kind of liquid hug.
Becoming real requires bone and flesh.
The dance remembered floats upon the pool.
In sequence stars became a drifting line.
Along the branch we wrote a single rule.
We fell asleep beneath the silent pine.
Assorted bugs require certain smells.
There's certain songs would ring the wooden bells.