Yamakagashi!

It's a well-known fact that approximately 95% of Australia's snake population is poisonous. Most of them deadly. It's also a well-known fact that snakes, in general, are shy creatures that would rather flee than fight. Put these two things together and what you get is the simple conclusion that it's pretty rare to actually come across a snake in the wild, but when you do, and you're Australian, you're very, very cautious. Unless you're Steve Irwin, but that guy was Not Normal. Anyway, throw into this mix the false belief that Japan does not have snakes, and you have a recipe for one extremely amazed and slightly freaked out gaijin.

We went to Kanukiyama (the local mountain) again yesterday for something to do. As we walked along the path, I heard a bit of rustling in the ditch on the side. Wondering what interesting creature I might be able to spot, I paused for a moment. This is what I saw.



A snake. With a frog in its mouth. A snake! Right here on the side of the path where hundreds of people have undoubtedly walked today? In Japan?? A snake??! So I made quite a few loud "ooh-ahh-woah-wow" kind of noises. We stopped for a while to take some photos and video, and thought the people coming along the path behind us would be equally impressed. One man stopped to have a brief look and informed us that it was a yamakagashi (I later looked it up and found out that its common English name is Tiger Keelback and it is actually poisonous), but didn't feel the need to stick around and admire it the way we were. I could hardly believe that anyone would be so casual about such a spectacle -- after all it was in the process of eating a frog -- but there were more people coming up the path and I thought we could interest them instead. One woman took a millisecond glance and said "eww, yamakagashi" and kept walking. Others didn't even stop to look.

I don't think I shall ever understand the culture of this nation. (When we got to the top of the mountain we saw a man up there in a tracksuit, with a towel draped around his neck, vigorously performing squats and toe-touching exercises, who later sat down and smoked two cigarettes in a row. I'm sure it's related somehow.)

Another lovely, boringly normal birth

From Mama Is... I love the unique and highly amusing way this story is told. Go on, click this link.

We have a wee!

Cassia did her first wee in the potty on Thursday! How exciting... Unfortunately I don't have photographic evidence of this important milestone to share with the world (I would have taken a photo except Craig's reaction to the idea put me off; yep, it's his fault), but let me tell you all about it.

She was sitting on her potty next to Craig in the computer room while I was outside hanging washing on the line. Usually she doesn't sit on it for extended periods but this day was an exception for some reason. After a while I heard Craig through the glass door saying "Yay!" and I knew instantly that it meant we had a wee. So I dropped the washing and came inside to see Cassia standing proudly next to the potty with a small quantity of water in the bottom of it. "Cassia did a wee!" Craig said. "Did you do a wee?" I replied (to Cassia, not Craig). "You DID do a wee! YAY!!!!! You did a wee in the potty!" And then I waved my hands in the air and danced a little jig on the spot. Cassia grinned mightily. And proceeded to crouch down next to her little work of art and stick her hands in it... I guess you can't learn everything at once.

Later Craig told me that at the moment wee left body and entered potty, Cassia had quite a shocked expression on her face. Usually she can hold on long enough to ask for a nappy (all previous attempts to get her to use the potty have failed), so perhaps this one snuck up on her. I guess our little celebration over her milestone achievement fairly quickly changed her mood, though, so I'm glad we were able to seize the moment. When we reminded her later that night that she'd done a wee in the potty she was very proud of herself again, so I'm really glad it wasn't a traumatic experience.

And how many wees has she done in the potty since then? None, of course. Baby steps, baby steps...