Comments on: Hiking in Hannou-shi, Saitama

By: treblekickeresq

treblekickeresq — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:20:01 +0000

The spider is probably a joroguma and is common in the autumn. It was hard to tell from the picture but if it was yellow with a bright red spot on the abdomen it was a joroguma. The big ones are the females but you can usually see a couple really small spiders in the webs as well; those are the males waiting for their big chance to risk life and limb to mate.

The other common autumn spider is the koganegumo. These spiders are also primarily yellow but their webs have a white zig zag line in the middle.

Neither is poisonous, unless you are the size of a grasshopper or butterfly.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:18:43 +0000

>Going up Tenranzan mountain we came across these oddly shaped Buddhas. The fifth Tokugawa shogun apparently called a monk from a temple near this mountain to heal him with chanting, and it worked. The statues are somehow related to this.

Dude in the middle of the group with the red cap looks like Binzuru, an arahat/rakan, the others apart from Jizo on the left are also probably arahats. Small headed-dude might have been a victim of early Meiji imperial desecration followed by an amateur attempt at restoration.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:25:44 +0000

I don’t actually know whether that spider is poisonous. I just saw the bright colors and assumed it must be filled with venom.

By: Sublight

Sublight — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:25:46 +0000

And disregard my ‘the Japan’. Changed what I was going to say and then didn’t proofread.

By: Sublight

Sublight — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:24:50 +0000

I wasn’t aware that the Japan (outside Okinawa) even had any poisonous spiders, other than that panic back in the ‘90s that Australian Redbacks were taking up residence here.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:20:44 +0000

Yes this camera is something like 3 years old. It’s served me well but it might be time to move on. Also I think next time I’ll resize the photos myself instead of copying from Picasa.

My favorite picture is probably the tiny-headed Buddha.

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:10:28 +0000

Aren’t highly poisonous spiders usually smaller? Anyway, some cool pictures. You should get a better camera someday though.

By: Jade Oc

Jade Oc — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:59:30 +0000

“This is a monument to local deaths from industrial accidents. Not sure why they died or when.”

Monument Erected in Memory of Those Who Perished Erecting the Monument….