Mike vs. the Insects

One of the more fairly disgusting things in my life are bugs. In Canada, the bugs are pretty small and harmless...well, at least that ones that most people in the city have to deal with.

Japan, is a climatologically temperate country, but the humidty makes it feel all that more tropical. Places as far south as Miyazaki Prefecture might actually fall under the sub-tropical zone, and I'm sure Okinawa is a pretty close candidate for tropical.

So unlike the small bugs we have to deal with in Toronto, Japan's chitinous fauna are a lot larger. Let me narrate one story, my first real encounter:

One night on my third or so week in Japan, I was returning from my bath to have a cold beer and watch some television. As I navigated my darkened kitchen and reached the sliding door to the living room, I stepped on something lightly. I leapt back in surprise, and saw in the dim light emanating from the partially opened door a dark shape scurry away and under the fridge.

I knew then that I had stepped on a cockroach, and I knew it was much larger than I was used to. You see, the cockroaches here, I know from experience, are upwards from an inch long, and more frequently 2-3 inches, and can also fly.

I shuddered and closed the door, realizing that I would one day have to face that roach again...

That day came almost a week later. As I slid open the door, the light from the living room fell across the kitchen floor. There, framed in the fluorescent light that peeked over my shoulders was the cockroach. Though I had no proof that it was the very one I had stepped on, I somehow knew it must be so.

I stood stock still for a moment, wondering what I should do. I grabbed a nearby slipper and threw it, but my aim was off and it scrambled away. Next I grabbed a collapsable laundry pole, and attempted to squash it. I clipped it and took out a leg, but still it was alive. It scuttled away to a dark corner. I had been on my way to bathe, but just the thought of it crawling around my kitchen made me shudder. I had to kill it, and to do that I needed some cockroach spray.

I donned my jacket to go out, but when I opened the door I saw that it was raining much harder than I had thought, and going to the nearby convenience store would be impossible. I returned to my kitchen and looked in the cupboards, and was lucky enough to stumble across roach killer spray that my predecessor had left. I grabbed it, and my flashlight, and went in search of my foe. I checked the crack between the wall and gas range unit that I had seen it disappear into, but it was no longer there. I sprayed that area for good measure, and proceeded to look elsewhere. However, it was gone and I was about to concede a draw.

I went into the adjoining room, to see if it had somehow escaped there, but found nothing. As I stepped back into the kitchen, I heard a scritching sound by my head. I turned my to face it slowly, and not 10 inches from my me was the cockroach, hugging the wall.

I yelled in panic and leapt away. Scrambling for my cockroach spray, I spun around, took aim, and let it have it. As the toxin made contact, the roach fell to the floor with an audible clack and started to writhe. It was time for the finishing blow. I took aim once more and let out a long spray of poison. It's movements soon slowed, then stopped. It was dead.

I sighed in relief. The cockroach I had killed was about 2.5 inches long and black as night. It was my first encounter with Japan's "mega-fauna". There have been other incidents. In my storage shed, where I keep my bike, I killed 2 large, 4 inch spiders. There's a smaller one there now, but it looks a lot more deadly (the 2 spiders I killed we spindly and tarantula-like, where as this one has an altogether more venomous look to it).

I am at peace with the small spiders that live in my apartment. But soon may come the time that I bug bomb my place...