19 votes

We moved into a vacant house in the Japanese countryside (and only pay $300/year for rent)

13 comments

  1. [8]
    EgoEimi
    Link
    This is really lovely. I've been an urbanite for most of my life. Seeing those numerous spiders, centipedes, and animal visitors reminded me how disconnected most people—myself included—are...

    This is really lovely.

    I've been an urbanite for most of my life. Seeing those numerous spiders, centipedes, and animal visitors reminded me how disconnected most people—myself included—are detached from natural systems.

    6 votes
    1. cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I've been an urbanite most of my life too. But all the wild animals I get to see on a daily basis now is one of things I love most about where I'm currently living, since our house backs onto a...
      • Exemplary

      I've been an urbanite most of my life too. But all the wild animals I get to see on a daily basis now is one of things I love most about where I'm currently living, since our house backs onto a 300 acre ravine that's connected by a series of other ravines and protected areas to a giant 1000 acre conservation area. And in the 10 years we have been living here:

      Wild turkeys have shown up in our back yard on multiple occasions, and even fight on our street during mating season.

      One night I spotted a wolverine or badger or something reasonably big and furry climbing a tree in the ravine not far from our back fence. It eventually fell asleep up the tree, but was gone in the morning so I never got a good look at it.

      A family of rabbits clearly lives somewhere nearby because they're constantly in our back yard munching on the clover. They're out there almost every night, even in the winter, so I usually bang on the door to scare them away before I let my dog out for his bedtime poop, since otherwise he chases them. He has absolutely zero chance of ever catching them since they're fast AF, but I do it mostly as a courtesy to them. :P

      Hawks, eagles, and giant turkey vultures with nearly 2 meter wingspans are constantly circling over our neighborhood and the ravine, and two days ago I actually saw the vultures flying around with two new additions to their family!

      Every few nights we hear Coyotes (or Coywolves, we don't know which since we've never actually seen them) howling in the ravine, and others will usually respond further away. Then a few minutes later they howl and respond again, only they've gotten closer to each other. Again, closer. Repeating until you typically then hear them killing something in the ravine.

      A few years ago a skunk dug underneath the extension on our house and made its den there, but since it was mating season animal control said they weren't allowed to remove it yet. So we just had to live with it living under a part of our house, wandering around our backyard every night (so I had to take my dog out front to poop), until a few months later when they finally came to trap and relocate it. Then we had to dig a 3ft deep trench around the entire extension in order to install an "animal dig defense" barrier to prevent it from happening again. And I'm honestly surprised none of us has been sprayed by a skunk yet, since they're constantly wandering around our yard and the neighborhood.

      And the sheer amount of squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, small birds, and other more typical urban animals around here is crazy. I'm constantly having to fill in the holes dug in our yard by the chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, and moles (which I've also seen scrounging around in our gardens a few times), so my dog doesn't break his leg while running around.

      And the spiders. Good god, the spiders. I didn't realize we had spiders that big in Ontario until we moved out here, and now we see the giant bloody things outside every night during the spring/summer, and way too frequently inside our house during the fall and winter. Same with the house centipedes (not my pic but about the same size as the ones we have here) <shudders>. So gross.

      It's a bit of a PITA to deal with all the wildlife and the damage they can sometimes cause (like the squirrel that kept pulling off our siding to hide her nuts there, the chipmunks that kept tearing all the stuffing out of our patio furniture to make their nest with, the carpenter bees that constantly try to make their hives in our deck, etc), but I do still love it here, even with those occasional annoyances.

      10 votes
    2. [6]
      nothis
      Link Parent
      I'm not that out of touch with nature but holy hell, what even was that thing at 6:37? I didn't know centipedes could have that long legs, that's just weird, lol! I heard the ones with the red...

      I'm not that out of touch with nature but holy hell, what even was that thing at 6:37? I didn't know centipedes could have that long legs, that's just weird, lol! I heard the ones with the red head are actually poisonous, not sure if deadly but in the worse-than-a-wasp category. I must say that bit was a deal-breaker for me. In fact, the lack of proper heating already was. Will keep watching that channel, though, the house (with surroundings) is absolutely beautiful!

      3 votes
      1. [5]
        stu2b50
        Link Parent
        It looks like a larger (and more armored?) version of house centipedes.

        It looks like a larger (and more armored?) version of house centipedes.

        1 vote
        1. [4]
          cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          That's just a regular house centipede, AFAIK. As I mentioned in my comment above, we get them where I live here in Ontario too. And while the smaller, younger ones bodies are usually softer and...

          That's just a regular house centipede, AFAIK. As I mentioned in my comment above, we get them where I live here in Ontario too. And while the smaller, younger ones bodies are usually softer and more caterpillar like, the bigger, more mature ones develop thicker chitinous plates on them like that.

          p.s. The centipede before that was apparently a Chinese Red-headed Centipede, which appear to be pretty common on Shikoku.

          cc: @nothis

          3 votes
          1. [2]
            stu2b50
            Link Parent
            Huh, I guess I’ve only ever seen baby house centipedes then. Maybe they don’t develop as much or get eaten by predators more in urban/suburban areas.

            Huh, I guess I’ve only ever seen baby house centipedes then. Maybe they don’t develop as much or get eaten by predators more in urban/suburban areas.

            1 vote
            1. cfabbro
              (edited )
              Link Parent
              Yeah. I think in urban/suburban areas they mostly live in sewers and get into houses and apartments through bathroom drain pipes, same as silverfish, and so they might not get as big down in the...

              Yeah. I think in urban/suburban areas they mostly live in sewers and get into houses and apartments through bathroom drain pipes, same as silverfish, and so they might not get as big down in the sewers as they can in the wilderness. Or if big ones are down there in the sewers, they might be too big to get into houses/apartments through the pipes anymore, which is why you haven't encountered any.

              The ones in the ravine near my house can get bloody huge though, like in the pic I linked to in my other comment. And all the really big ones that I've seen here have had that plating on them.

              p.s. According to Wikipedia they can live for up to 7 years, and they get bigger and sprout more pairs of legs (sequence 4-5-7-9-11-13-15-15-15-15 pairs) with each molting. Neat, I didn't know that about them.

              2 votes
  2. [5]
    cfabbro
    Link
    New video posted on the channel: What we learned in our first year of gardening in the Japanese countryside: failures & okonomiyaki
    4 votes
    1. [4]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Inside Our Abandoned Japanese House in Japan & Renovations So Far That joinery! O_O
      2 votes
      1. [3]
        cfabbro
        Link Parent
        How we are adapting to countryside life in Japan (& befriending the creepy crawlies)
        2 votes
        1. [2]
          cfabbro
          Link Parent
          We Welcomed Our First Dog into Our Countryside Life in Japan At some point I will post one of these new videos as a new topic, but I think the original one is so special that I can't resist...

          We Welcomed Our First Dog into Our Countryside Life in Japan

          At some point I will post one of these new videos as a new topic, but I think the original one is so special that I can't resist bumping it with these updates instead. :P

          2 votes