Hairy Ladybird???

Praying Mantis Alert

Alien attack!! You should visit http://myrmecos.net/ if you like creepy crawlies.

Selected photos from Enoshima 江ノ島

Enoshima is a great place to spend a quiet half-day. Hopefully these pictures tell a better story than just words. Definitely worth the extra train journey from Kamakura.

Be careful!! 注意！！

You see signs featured here everywhere in Japan. The bear warning sign being the most well known. And no this wasn't a sign seen anywhere around Tokyo. But the other 2 are.

カラス注意 karasu chuii　(beware of crow)
This is found near Tokyo high rise commercial area of Marunouchi （丸の内）warning that crow will attack for food and you should be very careful while you are enjoying your bento (弁と）or MacDonald.　
But if you work around that area, you might need to be more aware of glass garasu chuii （ガラス注意garasu chuii）2 days ago a piece of window glass fell from 21st from of Marunouchi building and a woman was hurt by the broken glass pieces. This sign sits 2-minute walk away from where this happen. See news item here. Sorry can't find an English version.

危険　スッポン・亀　注意 (beware of Chinese soft-shell turtle)
This is found around a pond in the largest temple in Kamakura（鎌倉） near Tokyo. Mum and dad saw plenty of kois there but no turtle.
The sign is perhaps more appropriate for the soft-shell turtles since they are considered as a cuisine in some exotic Japanese restaurants (and of course Chinese as well!!)
水魚, the common name for this species, is also a derogatory term in Cantonese for a gullible person. On a mahjong table if you keep losing to the more skillful players, you are known as 水魚.

Imperial Palace

Have you ever wonder why the Japanese gardens are so immaculate? Especially the garden around the Imperial Palace. A picture tells a thousand words, just imagine going through the garden performing such back-breaking routine clearing weeds 1-by-1!! And with Japan's aging problem, one should wonder how long before they need to import foreign workers just to maintain such magnificent gardens.

How often do you see a pair of swans swimming right below the bridge to Imperial Palace? Perhaps, a few times a day.

Black Kite (麻鷹)

Whenever Hong Kong gets a clear sky, we see many of these flying machines circle over our heads and we never really know what they are called. They are Black Kite, the most common raptor found in Hong Kong and they have adapted well to our city life and thrive by picking up rubbish and dead animals around us. We caught sight of one sunbathing on top of the scaffolding the other morning. Wish we can fly like them, but at least we don't need to pick on rubbish to feed ourselves.

We see birds flying around all the time, but it's not easy to get a clear view of them. And when we do see them, we are too busy chasing after them to take a photo. Like the ones who took our peaches before, they are red-whiskered bulbul(紅耳鵯). It will probably be awhile before we get a photo of those rascals. But you will be the first to know when we do.

Bad birdies

Of course this is a different type of birdies that everyone is trying to get in golf. These are the birdies which pecked away our beloved peaches from the 2 small peach trees in our balcony. Mum and dad got them after they saw a similar tree in the flower show last month. And then 2 weeks ago when we went up to the balcony, we smelt the smell of ripen peaches. Surprise, surprise, those fruits are not for us. All we can do was looking up and hoping that we will get given one!!

The birdies which visited the balcony don't need permission, they just flew down and took liberty in feasting themselves to the peaches still hanging on the trees. Mum and dad noticed that one were eaten when they went up last night and now there are 3 more destroyed goods. The birdies did one good thing for us though, they forced an early harvest of all the ripen fruit. We will get to share the spoil.

Mind you if mum and dad are not careful, we might get bad birdies visiting during the day and scary fruit bats swooping in at night. Check out Mount Butler Drive after 9pm, you will find quite a few fruit bats flying around there!!

Another visitor

We are always delighted to see butterflies and we even tried to chase after them. You don't need us to tell you what happen afterward....... There seems to be more butterflies in the garden nowadays and yu won't be surprise when you see this picture. Again, not mum's cup of tea and they destroy her precious plants. The caterpillars always get taken outside to the public park when they are found.

Resident Spider

There are plenty of creepy crawlies living in our area and some decide to settle down in our garden without so much of an invitation. This spider for instance have been sewn its web on our largest tree for the last 2-3 weeks.

Mum is always worry that one day it will crawl out of its web and jump on her while she's on the couch watching TV. Just like all the horror movies she watched!!

NB Water is spray on hoping to get the documentary-like effect, but probably need a longer lens to capture the effect properly.

Animal Interruptions

In Hong Kong, most places have the no dogs allowed sign posted everywhere. So unlike our cousins in say Paris who can go into a department store or a street-side cafe without fear, we can't go anywhere openly. Some other dogs travel around hiding in carrier bags, but we are not a big fan of those bags.

The picture above is from the Reuters news site with the caption below:
http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/rpSlideshows?articleId=USRTXE880#a=10

An umpire orders a dog that disrupted play off the pitch in the opening game of the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in Cape Town, South Africa, April 18, 2009.

REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Whose dog was it? How can it get on the pitch to start with? He doesn't look like a mascot. Perhaps dogs are allowed to watch cricket in South Africa.

Just an aside, IPL is the richest cricket tournament in the world and it's being held in South Africa instead of India because of security reasons.

For my fans

You probably wondering why there are no recent photo updates from us. All you see are dad's photos of one thing or another except us. Of course, we have our own way to remind them who are the precious ones. So I, Scottie, decided to go and pee in mum and dad's bathroom, while mum fell asleep and dad was on the computer!!...... So now they know.

And you get a photo of me. But Buddy is too busy watching his goldfish, so no photo for him, only what he's looking at.

Creepy Crawlies and Slimy Creatures

The warmer season is coming back to us again. At night we can see little shadows dotted around the street we walk. Sometimes they are just wilted leaves but often they will jump when we decide to pounce on them. They are the local colonies of frogs which make a huge symphony of noise late into midnight. It's not the famous "ribbit" (US frog's sound) or "croak" (UK frog's sound) but more like "kwaak kwaak" (German frog's sound). Chasing these slimy creatures is our favourite pastimes, probably not mum and dad's cup of tea though. They crawl up on walls, jump around the backyard and last night even jumped into the house!! They come in different colours and sizes. But then we can't tell and don't care what species they are.

Of course, there are plenty others that get mum excited. Some even we can't see properly and especially the beautiful colours.

The Kea

While they didn't see any Kiwis, they saw this bird, Kea jumping around when they arrived at Manapouri on their way to the Doubtful Sound. It walked in a funny gait similar to how other parrots walk. Given how cute it look, it's hard to imagine the excerpt from wikipedia below:

"Now uncommon, the Kea was once killed for bounty as it preyed on livestock, especially sheep, only receiving full protection in 1986."

New Zealanders have made a lot of effort in conserving their environments. They eradicated foreign animals brought from Europe to create many bird sanctuaries around the area near Doubtful Sound. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody is so environmentally conscious!

Yucks!! All these fish taking a nibble!!!

During the stopover in Singapore, mum and dad tried out another new fad, fish spa. They were going to kill some time and get a foot massage in the familiar spot near Tanglin Mall, but got suckered into paying more for the pleasure of having their feet tickled by hundreds of these Doctor Fish. First such spa opened in 2006 in Hakone, Japan and has found its way in many Asian countries including Macau (but not Hong Kong, perhaps the association with HK Foot is just too much to bear for some). Don't know how beneficial these fish spas are to the body, but if the place looks hygienic it's probably worth trying.

Instead of keeping Kois in our pond, we can setup our own fish spa at home. Such services are already available in the internet.