I've always been attracted to weird things. For example, simply looking at myself in the mirror...
Seriously, with my love for punk, death metal, blues, jazz and classical music, photography and design I find myself often in the company of strangers. I have been to bars and clubs where women have said, to my surprise, "....oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were gay...". Perhaps I'm weirder than I thought, or maybe its just the haircut. Fortunately, I always get that situation sorted out and make proper progress.
So, that is one example of weirdness around me, another is my love for bugs, creepy-crawlies things, astronomy, and my recent fascination with Bipalium Nobile, a fantasticly disgusting creature that I found in Japan almost one year ago while hiking in the low hills of Tokyo during the rainy season.
The Japanese name for this monster is Oomisujikougaibiru, meaning "large three-lined anchor-shaped leech", (or "[ornamental Japanese] hairpin shaped). It is occasionally mentioned in comic books or on television house-wife anecdotal gossip shows by illustrating it with a drunken salary man trying to walk home and thinking he has found the pull-cord for a light, only to get shocked into panic when he realizes it is really a sticky, squishy, three-foot-long land planarian hanging from a tree looking for an earthworm as a midnight snack.
It is just getting to the end of a late rainy season in Tokyo now, so the ground is damp and the air is hot, sticky and humid - the perfect weather for the Bipaliidae and their family that enjoy this weather. Last year, about the same time, while in the rain-forresty hills near my house I discovered about 50 of them crawling on the ground around the area where I was watching stag beetles, grasshoppers, ladybugs, and taking pictures of the same. At first I thought they were just roots of the trees until I saw them MOVE. I was shocked and disgusted, but soon became fascinated by these creatures. I took several pictures, which you can see in the attached link.
Since then I have been doing a bit of research on these creatures and plan on capturing a few, cutting them up into pieces and watching them regenerate. My latest experiments on them were how they reacted to Vodka, which resulted in a very angry worm; and how DJ the.ex.hipster reacted to them when I tried to put one in his hand, which almost got me fired.
Regards,
Naviblog bloggster DJ Stickyhead aka John Kessler
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