The Insect Isle

Japan loves bugs, or at least the little boys do, which is great since I find them fascinating and encourage the kids to investigate nearly every insect they come across. There is a whole culture and industry built around finding, collecting, and observing insects. It is made easy when nearly every home store has an entire aisle devoted to insect collecting. Even the 100 yen store has a dazzling array of nets, tanks, substrates, and food jellies. 

You can even pick yourself up some adult rhinoceros beetles if you don't want to go out and collect your own.

And here is where I'm going to go on a bit of a rant: I believe that the fear and disgust of insects and arachnids is a completely learned behaviour that children, especially girls, have forced upon them. I'm sure a sort of wariness is an innate human response, but for most children that are really afraid of insects you don't have to look very much farther than their parents to see where they picked up that attitude. Planting and nurturing extreme phobias and irrational hatred in your children seems pretty cruel to me. We are grossly outnumbered by bugs on this planet so we might as well try to embrace it and reduce the unnecessary stress their lives. 

A face only a mother could love

I want my children to grow up with a relentless curiosity, love, and respect for the natural world instead of becoming adults who turn into a panicky mess at the sight of a spider or cockroach. I make a point to show them photos of insects they shouldn't try to pick up, like mukade and suzumebachi, but always explain that insects don't hurt us because they are cruel or vicious, but because they are protecting themselves or that it is part of their life cycle. I don't always love it when William shoves a handful of rhinoceros beetle grubs 1 cm from my eyes but I push down my initial revulsion and try to view them through the eyes of a child. Cute little bug babies and a tangible way to discover all the other creatures with which we share this planet.

Maybe you agree with me or don't at all and need more convincing, but either way I encourage you to read one of my favourite books, My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell. There is also a  fantastic movie adaptation that came out in 2005. But don't take my word for it...

Auto and Clock Museum

Here is something I should have written about long ago, but it's better late than never. In the end of February, we went to the Fukuyama Auto and Clock museum which is extremely close to our apartment. We bike past it at least once a week and finally decided to stop and take a peek inside.

One of three large rooms stuffed with awesome junk

It turned out to be a fantastic collection of odds and ends which provided a fun afternoon for the whole family. I got the feeling that the museum was started by a highly organized hoarder who decided to justify his obsessions by charging people admission to poke through his assorted junk. There was a collection of player pianos, street organs, rice cookers from the turn of the century to present, dozens and dozens of rocking horses, sombreros, old fashioned toys, WWII memorabilia, wax work figures, old painted squat toilets, old airplanes, and of course a large assortment of automobiles and clocks. 

The best part about it all was that they allowed and encouraged the kids to touch, climb, play, and get into everything. Who am I kidding? I had just as much fun running around exploring. Being surrounded by all that history really made me get a sense of what it would have been like to live in Japan 50 or more years ago. It was a really neat time warp-like sensation.

Trying out the old motorcycle fire engine

 It was surprising to me that a car which looked so tiny from the outside provided more than enough head and leg room.

 Super creepy wax figures of very random famous people.

Giving Theo a ride on a rickshaw

Me and my buddy James Dean

Getting a ride in the '50s  three wheeled motorcycle taxi. 

Speedy Gonzales

I am so glad that the days of the two of them driving around together and getting up to no good are far, far in the distance.

For now, they are happier going for these kinds of rides:

We all had an amazing time at the museum and highly recommend it to anyone traveling in Fukuyama, especially with kids.