A pleasant morning surprise...

So I get up this morning, go through my usual routine, and then head out to jump on my bike. I'm just about to turn the corner around the building and hop on, when I come face-to-face with this.

My first thought, after my heart slid down my throat and back into my chest cavity, was "Holy $%&^ that's a big, creepy spider!" And, as you can see, it was blocking my bike. Unbe-friggin-lievable. This thing wasn't here yesterday. Must have been some night.

Anyway, I grabbed a rock and tore down half its web, careful not to get closer than I had to to the infernal arachnid. Incidentally, when I came home today, all that remained was a pile of weeds on the ground. The landscaper or whoever must have come by for his yearly destruction of the jungle that is the building's little front yard. Good timing...hopefully the spider won't be back, but I will remain vigilant. Man, I hate these things. Not as much as I hate deer, though.

Denizens of Japan #1: Jorou Gumo

It's that time of the year again. Time for...Jorou gumo![/日本語]

These little buggers freaked me out quite a bit last year as I ran into them on several occassions. They errected some webs near the cafeteria at my high school, and seemed to rule quietly and creepily over a stretch of highway in the mountains near Nagasaki. Luckily the couple times I lived in Kanto I was never around for their life cycle. They seem to pop up around late summer and hang around until late fall or early winter.

From what I can tell, they aren't horribly dangerous. They're venomous, but not life-threateningly so. But man, are they creeeepy. I mean, look at those colors - black and yellow, and females have red blotches on their abdomens. That's the kind of spider that in my mind bites you and gives you mutant superpowers. Or kills you.

Autumn is my favorite season in Japan, but I could certainly do without these little guys.