Lil Kimonos and Cockroach Dollhouses

Ever since I found out I was gonna be living on an island, I was dreading finding cockroaches and other enormous insect life hanging out at my apartment like it was the Y. Lo and behold, on my second night I find one of the assholes spraying on my Prada perfume and trying on my jewelry. Asshole!
The JET program hosted a whole seminar on rural living and one of the items they stressed as most important was DO NOT SQUASH A COCKROACH, as they might spray out eggs when you squashed them, thus continuing a legacy of Prada-stealing bastards.
After I stopped squealing, I grabbed a sieve and trapped the fucker. I hunted around for the bug spray one of the teachers gave me as a welcoming gift and sprayed the shit out of it. After, like, five minutes, it finally did me the favor of dying.








Gross. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I did not sleep well that night. I lay awake, trying not to think about them crawling on me and up my various orifices.
A week later, I found another one and I asked around the office to see what was the best way to get rid of them.
Hirabayashi-san



presented me with the gift of Gokiburi Hoi Hoi, or roach motel, as known in the States. It smells like Ajax and old man breath. It attracts cockroaches with the irresistable aroma and traps them with a sticky goo inside the house. Great.
When I opened the box, I found the most adorable roach motels, or roach cottages in this case.





WTF? The roaches are gonna die in the cutest little cottages (complete with kittycat and back patio) and I sleep on a twin murphy bed. And isn't the cutesy-ness of it just a tad macabre? I wonder what actual coffins look like here. Pink and covered in Hello Kitty. I wouldn't be surprised.
I laid out two traps. I haven't had the courage to look, but I haven't seen any cockroaches around either. Cross your fingers.

In lighter events, I went to a bon-odori festival. Kinda like a Summerfest, but with no beer gardens or Lynyrd Skynyrd.

There were maybe two hundred and some odd people there, but it was lots of fun. There were three stalls serving yakisoba, drinks, and shaved ice.




Little kids ran around in pink kimonos and navy blue yakutas. There's a real sense of community here because it's such a small village. Everyone says hello to you. All of us participated in learning the traditional dances put on by the local community group. And it was rad to see taiko drumming. They use their whole body is fully as they keep the rhythm of traditional songs. Too bad I looked like a jackass when I tried to do the steps.
As we headed home, we stopped for green tea ice cream. Walking back to our apartment building through the back streets, we could see the stars perfectly. There were dustings of the Milky Way and I caught a shooting star on its way down to the ocean. It was a perfect summer night.

Tommorrow I head to Niijima, the other island I will be teaching at in five months. I'm meeting up with a Canadian to see how the Mounties have infiltrated village socitey. Pictures soon.