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JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

MOST areas of Japan -- yes... Unless you live in the cold clutches of Aomori or Hokkaido -- but even then I think you may have some 6 or 8-legged guests.

They are not ALL dog-sized, I've seen smaller roaches too... And you don't get these guys all the time... But let me tell ya... HOLY COW was the centipede I had at my house last summer HUGE!!!! And fast! I guess I'd move pretty quick too if I had a hundred legs....

Good luck! But for the most part it's not a major problem...

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

had my first roach yesterday. My wife made a roach hotel and the gokibori visited in just five minutes.
If it wasn`t for the warm weather I don`t think we would have roaches until May.
And I live up on the 8th floor of my building.

moot point · Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 441

The general consensus where I live is that the little centipedes carry more toxins than the big ones. The other thing I heard is that if you find one in your house, there's bound to be another as they travel in pairs. That's the scary part when you crawl into your futon that night.

Concerning the roaches, the big ones are scary to look at and make a big mess when you slap them with your beach sandal but at least the bigs ones are supposedly living outdoors. When you start finding little ones you know they've nested and many more are residing in your home.

snooky · Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

but is this whole roach thing any worse than living in, say, manhattan? this thread is making it sound like there's some kind of japanese roach epidemic going on. is it really that much worse than any other cities?

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

But there IS a roach epidemic in Japan. It's called: Koizumi's cabinet!

/rimshot

//waits to be flamed

///waits to be deported

Red1 · Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

Thanks for the warning everybody. I guess it is best to be prepared. I understand the idea of the little ones being more "potent". We say that about mosquitoes here. I live in a fairly rural area of Virginia, so we have lots of animals and bugs, but nothing like in those pictures. That is just plain scary. The first time I find a biting bug (or a pair of them) in my futon you will probably be able to hear me screaming all over the country Embarassed

stillnosheep · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe

it's not the monsters that you should worry about, it's the burglars in the wardrobes!

ah, there's nothing like a pint of Johns, except another one of course..

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Please people don't go to Australia.

I had a fun experience once sleeping out bush on the night of a full moon with a mozzie net over me. Something woke me and I woke to the sight of one of those lovely things inches from my face sillouetted by the moon. Jumped a bit but thankfully it was on the OUTSIDE of the net.

clsmith · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:09 am Post subject:

I'm coming over to Japan in just under 4 weeks and I have to say that encountering huntsmen and the like hadn't crossed my mind. I'm from Australia and have managed to learn not to freak out at the sight of the buggers after an incident as a child involving a gumboot, a hunstman bigger than my hand and a bare foot (shudder). Took a while though. My question is, if I can handle the nasties of outer-suburban Melbourne and rural Victoria will I survive Japan? I've never come across a cockroach before, we just don't seem to have them so I'm not looking forward to it but everything's an experience (supposedly).

Edit - a *beep* being a roach, I can't believe that would be considered inappropriate langauge!

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

My brother lives in Manhattan but doesn`t have problems with roaches.
Where I used to live in Sagamihara, those roaches were big. Not as big as in Texas, but not small either.

Calliopaeia · Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

I'll be leaving for Japan on May 28th, and I am totally cool with spiders, centipedes, roaches, etc.. so long as they don't catch me off guard.. but I live in Ontario Canada, and here we have Bloodythirsty Mosquitoes (go to the Muskokas) and they are the only thing that bug me ( no pun intended).

So here is my pressing question: What are the Mosquitoes or any other bugs that feed on humans (black flies, horseflies, deerflies, gnats, etc).

Also, in the event that they are scarier or bigger or even the same as Ontario, what is the name of a product I can get at the convenience store?

Thank you for your help Wink

Lynn · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 696 Location: in between

This picture makes me feel better about spiders. I agree with most of you that it's roaches that are the real problem. I envy those of you who can slap a roach with your shoe. My fear was so bad that I'd just freeze. My heart would start racing and I'd also build a cold sweat. My method was to spray it til it stopped moving (which usually required the whole damn can) and then sweep it ouy the door with my broom. Problem was that I sprayed so much poison in the air that I couldn't even stay in my room. I had a few sleepless nights in Japan because of them.

After living 4 years in Japan, I lived in Hell's Kitchen Manhattan for 3 years. The roaches are much worse in Japan. But I did have a rat in my apartment in NYC. hmmm....Anyway, there are tools use can use to help deal with your phobia. I've implemented the tools and it actually does work.

Have fun in Japan. Enjoy the experience. Even the bugs!

osakajojo · Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 229

Spiders are awesome. They eat insects. Imagine a world with out spiders. There would be even more bugs than now. Plus spider webs are so fascinating! Spiders are such wonderful creatures.

and without spiders, we would never have Spiderman in our popculture.

I have never met an arachnophobic. My grandmother, however was so terrified of snakes, I remember when I was little she had torn out a page of a drawing of a snake in a children's book, it made her so uncomfortable.

I'd prefer a spider in the house over a cockroach anytime.

osakajojo · Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 229

What the *beeeeeeeeep* is wrong with the word c o c k r o a c h!
What about c o c k a t o o s and c o c ker spaniels and c oc kerels ? they are just animals and A pilot's c oc k pit who is a c oc ksure c oc kney that likes to eat co c kleshells. That is co c ky!
I prefer not to read someone refering to their you -know -what, using that word but man, have a co cktail, don't co c k that gun and go watch a c o c kfight or something. Just kidding. There are so many words in the dictionary that begin with coc k. And even c oc k itself has four or more meanings! I know it's just a glitch in the system, but can it be fixed!?

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

osakajojo:

I don't know nuthin' from nuthin' but here's my two bits about it... If you notice at the bottom of each webpage on Dave's, it says: "Powered by phpBB � 2001, 2002 phpBB Group."

Well, Dave's among a zillion other forum websites run the same "out-of-the-box" pre-made forum BBS package.... Probably completely uncustomized, or very little. I don't know if editing the foul language dictionary is an option with phpBB, but even if it is, I doubt many people would go through the trouble to hunt down all the words that are OK and de-blacklist them... The mods seem to have enough on their hands as it is policing flamebaiters, trolls, etc, etc... So I doubt we will see any kind of change to this anytime soon.

It's especially significant on foreign language sites where place names and common words contain patterns like: shi tsurei....