Since we arrived in Japan, I've been warned repeatedly about the existance of enormous spiders that like to show up around the rainy season. I was more than relieved when at the end of rainy season I had not spotted any. Sure, I have issues with the cockroaches that seem to think my kitchen should belong to them, but at least they're smaller than my hand and unlikely to be poisonous. The only spiders I'd seen so far had been the little bitty ones that like to hang out on the walls and porches around here. I don't mind them. They're outside.
Then I went to help out with exams over at NJC Monday. The exam was an oral exam in which two students would have a conversation and two teachers would listen and grade them. The first two walked in and one of them immediately made a noise between a scream and a gasp, much like I make when I see a bug. The bug turned out to be a spider on the wall. It's body was the size of a quarter and with it's legs, it wouldn't have fit in my palm, not that I wanted it there anyway. For reasons that are probably very nature-friendly but still beyond my comprehension, the Japanese frown on killing these monsters. Instead, Luc, the other teacher in the room, suggested we ignore it and it would go away. Since this sounded like more fun than trying to catch it, I tried my best to ignore it. During the first group's exam, it crawled at an alarmingly fast pace around the room until it was directly in front of me on the opposite wall near the ceiling. Even Luc gave up after that. He pulled out a broom and dust pan and somehow managed to catch the thing between the two, at which point he hurried outside with it. Super impressive. I intend to make my students do that kind of thing if I see them in class.
The roaches, which I mentioned many times previously, have also finally broken through whatever magical barrier Zack had created under the sink. Two days ago he came upstairs and announced he'd had to kill one. It's the first time either of us have seen one since he cleaned up under the sink. Then last night (he asked me to report this, by the way), he killed no less than four in a row while I stood in the doorway pointing and shouting annoyingly. Clearly it's time to do something extreme again. I'm trying to get up the nerve to look under the sink and see what I can do, but I'm more inclined to wait until Zack has time to do it again. Still, they're way better than that spider.
And of course, another typhoon is working it's way steadily towards us. Usagi (which means Rabbit) seems to want to tour the whole of Japan. The nifty graphics on the base website depict it's path as basically following the island chain. It's going to be centered over southern and eastern Kyushu, and we're northwest Kyushu, so it shouldn't get too close, but we're scheduled for more rain and wind starting tonight and heading into tomorrow. Never a dull moment, right?
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