Happee Monkee

“Vrrirrrrrr…. vriiirrr…vriiirrr…vriiirrr…vriiirrrrrrrrr.”

Imagine that sound a hundred folds louder and orchestral-like.  It’s semi or cicada season in Japan. Usually featured in the background of some anime, the cicada song usually tells you that it’s hot; it’s summer; and possibly it’s time for a beer.

I was taking a walkabout around the hotel and I was drawn to this intense chorus. I have never ever heard it this loud or en masse before. It took my ears some time to get used to. Little children (kodomo) were playing in the park. I noticed two very busy little boys about the age of four hunting for something in the trees. I stayed back looking at them. The more rascally looking one was holding a butterfly net in one hand and protectively guarding an old plastic cup in the other. They were cicada-hunting.

The male semi sings the songs and their average lifespan is around seven days. Below ground though, they are known to live for years, passing through five nymphal stages, waiting for that moment to come up and breed, sing and die.

I asked my friend Shinobu-san about the curious cicada-hunting activity and she said it was for ‘good luck’. At one point, the boy dropped his cup and I helped him collect his cicadas. I noticed that they were old cicada shells rather than the actual insect. It was like roasted peanut skins, brown and fragile. A missed cicada shell was crushed to bits and grounded into the earth.

After that I strolled off to the Nissan stadium. I walked pass boys at soccer practice. Little dogs with little owners. Bicycles and lots of vending machines.

I certainly hope some of the good luck has rubbed on me from this afternoon. Then again, I’m in Japan. I think it already has.

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