Japan Wildlife / nature - I'm afraid!!

Oddshoes

Hi everyone,

This is going to sound mental but I'm interested in going to Japan to teach English and what I need to know is is there much animals / birds you'd encounter on a daily basis?? I'm absolutely terrified of everything, and I mean everything - pigeons on the street interrupt my daily business!! The only thing I can sort of handle is dogs!! Lucky for me I was born in Ireland, not too much to handle but if I ended up working in a rural part of Japan, or even in the city, will I be reduced to a shivering wreck, rocking in my apartment?!!

Thanks in advance!

KonFusion

That would depend on the part of Japan you're going to. Japan has differing climatic zones resulting in different wildlife.

Any ideas where you want to go?

One could presume a city will have less wildlife than a rural area.

Monkeyto

The Crows here are really BIG and LOUD. But you get used to them very quickly. During warm months April-September you'll also hear a lot of crickets, but won't see them

FruitLover

Cockroaches can be quite common in cities, don't remember seeing any in the countryside though. The aforementioned Godzilla crows are about the only animal you tend to actually see around the streets other than the very occasional dog or cat.

There are snakes and spiders in the south (Kyushu, Okinawa), bears up north (Hokkaido) and deer and monkeys around the middle, but again, not very likely you'll see them in the streets (other than deer in Nara or Miyajima).

shindig-jp

  Yeah, you won't survive the vampire mosquitoes who are specially trained to get through the nets and will pounce just as you are about to sleep, you will be a nervous wreck should you encounter a salamander in the bathroom , absolutely shocking stuff should they be living in the blue rubber boots just outside the bathroom or worse is to find one in the oven gloves on yer bicycle .

Ficheall

Would you not be more worried about the radiation?

Beruthiel

You might want to read up on what you're getting into if you move there.

Just Like Heaven

I heard the spiders in the trees are ****ing massive? I'm the worst person in the world for spiders

eljono

I spent six months in Tokyo and the mozzies really got to me. I used get bitten on a regular basis at night, I unconsciously trained myself to wake up when they were buzzing around the bedroom, leading to many disrupted nights trying to kill them. There were four of us in the apartment and only two of us used get bitten, not sure why.

Had a few cockroach experiences too, big ugly looking baxtards. Some of the insects you'd see flying around look more like small birds, wasps especially.

Mostly it was fine, but I guess it would be different in a rural area. There is an online forum for english teachers in japan, you should check out what people's experiences in the countryside are.

Giruilla

I once saw some sort of giant hornet in Tokyo that scared the feck out of me! It was about the size of ones fist!

osarusan

Make sure you don't eat anything in the open air or the Japanese black kite might swoop down to grab your food. I still have a 1.5cm scar on my finger from 5 years ago.

Other than that, cockroaches in your apartment in summer time (pretty much impossible to keep them out), and stray cats. I've seen snakes twice too. And the summer drone of the cicadas living their short, pointless life.

FruitLover

Ficheall wrote: »

Would you not be more worried about the radiation?

They're hardly going to be sending people off to Fukushima right now, are they :rolleyes:

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

I heard the spiders in the trees are ****ing massive? I'm the worst person in the world for spiders

They have some fairly big ones in Okinawa and possibly Kyushu, but I only saw the little jumping spiders in Tokyo. Didn't see any at all in Hokkaido.

I've been through two Japanese summers and haven't seen very many mosquitos at all tbh, not sure why some people seem to get mauled by them.

hibby

FruitLover wrote: »

There are snakes and spiders in the south (Kyushu, Okinawa), bears up north (Hokkaido) and deer and monkeys around the middle, but again, not very likely you'll see them in the streets (other than deer in Nara or Miyajima).

You'll see monkeys in the street (or at least, in the road) in Minoo in Osaka-fu. If you do meet monkeys, don't think "cute monkeys, I wonder if they would like a biscuit". Because they will jump right in your face, open their mouths wide to expose their long, sharp, yellow fangs, roar at you, grab the whole box of biscuits out of your hands and run off leaving you shaking with terror.

I've seen a snake with a frog in its mouth in Hikone. I've seen a salamander on the shores of Lake Biwa. And I've seen those huge "kumonbachi" wasps that apparently have the most painful sting in the world.

In Kumejima I saw a sea-cucumber in the shallow water. Wondering what it was I poked it gently and it spewed all its intestines out one end like somen noodles.

About those giant wood spiders, it's not just the size of the spiders that's impressive, but the size of their webs. They make a net of about 6 or 8 feet in diameter and then sit in the middle of it waiting for you to go blundering into it in the dark and end up with the web wrapped around your head and the big yellow spider stuck to the middle of your face.

Actually the spiders they really warn you about aren't very big at all - they're the Australian redback spiders - seakagokeguma.

cocoshovel

Those giant asian hornets would be the most of my worries.

I like to call them Cazadores. Perhaps thats a bit crude though in light of recent events.

funky penguin

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the mukade yet!

Giant centipedes that nobody really likes around here......Concentrated in the south mostly.

Actually, the majority of the big creepy crawlies are in the south, so stay north if you're REALLY afraid. I'm in Kanazawa city and the worst I've seen is a cockroach in my house. Spray, get the little bait traps and you're sorted.

The biggest spiders around here are along the rivers, and they're big, but no where near as big as the south. There's some ancient looking hairy yoke that hunts cockroaches by jumping....no webs. Some people keep them as 'pets' to ward off the insects. :eek: Again, south.

There are a few bears in the mountains around here, and kids in mountain schools have to wear bells at all times.

Snakes exist this far north, but only in the country, and they're harmless.

The wasps (as mentioned) can be huge, but I've found them no where NEAR as curious/vicious as the ones in Ireland.

I'm one of the lucky few that seem to be of no interest to mosquitoes , but I believe they can be annoying.

Look, bottom line....I understand why you're asking. When I found out I was going to Japan, I looked all these creepy crawlies/animals up and said: FUCCK THAT I AIN'T GOING!

However, you really can't let something like that perturb you from coming here.

Ask yourself this: If the wildlife was really bad, would there be 130 million people living here?

Come over, it's great fun!

MrShine

My gf had a heart attack when she found a great big assassin bug on her arm the other day. I have to say, it was pretty funny.

I'm currently in Tokyo. Are those giant hornets common around here? If so, what time of year are they most common?

shindig-jp

MrShine wrote: »

Are those giant hornets common around here? If so, what time of year are they most common?

A fertilized female starts to build her nest before Golden Week (that's now) then while everybody has cleared off for the holidays , the Hornet gets busy and knows that she only has a week to get her place in shape before the housewife gets back so she spends most of her time fitting parachutes on her baby larvae .

MrShine

shindig-jp wrote: »

she only has a week to get her place in shape before the housewife gets back so she spends most of her time fitting parachutes on her baby larvae .

Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about here...

shindig-jp

MrShine wrote: »

I've been here in Tokyo for over two months now,!

above from a post on another thread.

MrShine wrote: »

Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about here...

Give yourself a little longer in the country . ...... You'll understand .

MrShine

shindig-jp wrote: »

Give yourself a little longer in the country . ...... You'll understand .

Haha, ok!

Does anyone have any anti-vermin tips. We're in a ground floor Apt, so we're a little worried about cockroaches. We've already had a bit of an ant infestation, but we've managed to stop it.

funky penguin

Get the little black-domed cockroach traps, that have poison in them and just lay them about the corners of your rooms.

there's also cockroach spray that's extremely effective. I was told by an American chap here that you can also spray this along the edges of your floors/walls, where the cockroaches tend to travel and it helps to keep them away.

MrShine

funky penguin wrote: »

Get the little black-domed cockroach traps, that have poison in them and just lay them about the corners of your rooms.

there's also cockroach spray that's extremely effective. I was told by an American chap here that you can also spray this along the edges of your floors/walls, where the cockroaches tend to travel and it helps to keep them away.

Cool, cheers! Do you have a name for the spray?

funky penguin

ゴキジェットプロ！＾＿＾

cocoshovel

How much of a problem are cockroaches in Tokyo/cities around this time of year? If there's one insect I cannot bear, its Cockroaches.

MrShine

funky penguin wrote: »

ゴキジェットプロ！＾＿＾

Awesome, thanks! I kinda recognized it, so I had a root around our cupboards and found a can the previous occupants left. It was empty tho, but I deffo know what to get now!

cocoshovel wrote: »

How much of a problem are cockroaches in Tokyo/cities around this time of year? If there's one insect I cannot bear, its Cockroaches.

I've been told by my co-workers there can be a fair few during the summer, specially in ground floor apartments. Apparently they fly too.

funky penguin

Yes, they can fly. But they rarely do it as far as I've seen. On top of that, I live on the ground floor and I've seen one, that's it.

To be honest, I really wouldn't worry about them cocoshovel, they're such a tiny inconvenience.

osarusan

We live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex and our apartment is, by Irish standards at least, sparkiling clean.

We had a total of 7 cockroaches during last summer, and the final score was 5-2 to me. 2 got away, but one of them was practically frozon solid, so I doubt he got far.

Cork boy 55

Japan sounds nuts, never been there I had a vauge idea their wildlife would be like ours.

Would those Japanese monkeys be able to live to Eire climate

daelight

Cockroaches can get quite large here. I saw one once in Tokyo station that at first sight I thought it was a young rat O_o

Compared to Oz it really isn't too bad a city for creepy pests. If you really want to ensure a cockroach free summer you could try a smokebomb thing...

cocoshovel

I didnt see any insects or cockroaches in Tokyo during may, despite the weather being about 27C each day. In Kyoto I saw a lot of those large hornets, but they're pretty docile and not intimidating unlike those horrible **** wasps we have here!

funky penguin

I've sen a couple of roaches in Kanazawa over the last few weeks. Ugh. Nasty feckers. Thankfully, none in my house yet.......