tiny country, fricken huge insects

so here are some things i learned (or re-learned) during my trip to japan.

1. gari (pickled ginger that gets served with sushi or sashimi) and the reason why it’s served with sushi is because it cleanses the palate.  more info here. ginger also contains anti-microbial and anti-fungi properties so it helps you in not get sick from eating raw food. izu, we were walking around a town full of summer-time vacation homes which have been vacant (since summer is over), and the exterior and gardens and entry way of these homes were surrounded with LARGE (think big, like about 1-1.5 meter in width) spider webs and its dead center is a large spider. it’s body is about 2cm in length and if you include legs, some of them are as big as 3-4cm. the thing is HUGE!
and they looked like this or that

my parents and i did a bit of hiking in the mountain and occasionally i look up to find these spiders and their web RIGHT above my head and it was so creepy i couldn’t focus. i wondered if they’d jump out of their nest to attack me.

….speaking of jumping spiders, japan’s got one, and they’re known as “fly-eating-spiders” or “mosquito-eating-spiders”. it’s kind of amazing because japanese mosquitoes are about 5 times the size of mosquitoes commonly found here in CA.

oh and another huge insects in japan? roaches.

and speaking of roaches… ok.