"Boys lookit that!" I could tell by the way it was moving that that there wasn't your run of the mill friendly out for an 8:40 p.m. harmless slither kind of snake. No sir, that there was a mamushi! Thus my warning the boys to keep their distance as we stopped quick in the middle of the narrow road alongside the big concrete canal, riverbank then river to the west and houses to the east. Engine running, brake and lights on, me fiddling with the iPhone to get the camera going as I jumped out with the boys in tow, the younger one wielding a wakizashi bokutou (short wood sword) since we were going to iaido, so I had to take video with one hand and and eye while keeping the other eye on the younger boy to be sure he wasn't getting too close.
That's why the clip here isn't so great, but still good enough to make out the slithering lil "leave me the heck alone!" mamushi dude for any who've ever wondered what one looks like going down a Japanese roadway on a Wednesday night. We had to hop back in the van quick like since another car came down the road (which we were blocking), only by the time we'd gotten going they'd decided to go another way so we backed up to get one last look then high tailed it over to iaido to finish the zucchini bread delivery task we'd been sent on. Hindsight 20/20 maybe I should've just run the lil venomous dude over and turned him into a sail-snake since he was headed towards our neighbors' houses and so many kids walk along that road to school. But oh well he wanted nothing to do with us or any other people and will be long gone by morning when kids are out and about. No doubt he'd come out on the warm road to go searching for frogs to eat, which are plentiful around here this time of year. And no matter the important thing is the boys got yet another lesson in what the kind of snake that you want to keep your distance from looks like, not to mention a great story to tell at school tomorrow. And at the rate we're going we should find another'n about this time next week. Since I just got a wild "hey I'll do that blog thing that I started about 397 years ago" hair up my butt today I'll go ahead and add a picture of last week's snake. This one was a little better in the sense that we could chase him back and forth across the river and pull his tail to get him back on shore to see him better and such. This is an "aodaisho" Japanese Rat Snake. He didn't seem to care too much for us inspecting him for a good 15 minutes or so but was a good enough sport to not try to bite us too many times, not to mention he posed nicely for a couple of pictures, which is pretty nice for an ol grandpa serpent like him, the dude was 6' long if he was an inch!
Any other tales to tell about a Wednesday on the Izu peninsula you ask? Well thanks for asking actually there is one more. The other big excitement for today was one of our godzillies (Godzilla lilly) finally started blooming today. It's definitely taller than it was last year this one that a tippy-toed me and the chubby girly child are standing in front of measures in at 8'1" (just shy of 2.5 meters) and the one on the left (not pictured here) is currently at 8'3" (just over 2.5 meters). These, along with two more just over 6' tall ones in the front yard, must've been planted by the people who lived here before us. Why they grow so tall is a complete and utter mystery to me. I'm hoping the reason is not some leaking container of nuclear waste or worse buried down below. Yikes! But whatever the reason who knows we're just tickled pink to have the tallest lillies in the hood. So there ya have it, two fine just the way they are moments of life in the here and now.
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