frogs and cicadas

Nature around here is amazing – even though we live right on the edge between the big city and the wilderness, during summer it feels more like our house is in the middle of nature. When we some time ago, after days spent inside recovering from a summer cold, finally went outside again, my son stopped and covered his ears with his hands, wondering what that strong screaming noise came from. He was referring to the cicadas who had populated the trees around us during the days we had been indoors, and saying that their crying is filling the air feels like the understatement of this summer.

Competing with the chirping of cicadas are the croaking of the rice field frogs. Since late spring when the rice fields close to our house were filled up with water, my son and I have on our way to the kindergarten bus followed the lifecycle of the frogs, seeing their eggs, seeing the tadpoles spend their life swimming around in the water surrounding the growing rice plants. Lately, when we water our little garden in the afternoon, we often see a few of the rice field frogs who are visiting us come out of hiding to enjoy the water.

Another frog, one that I have come to love, is the little green Japanese Tree Frog. I like to call them the Japanese Mailbox Frog though, since I have learned that they must really love mailboxes (it is probably the color of our mailbox they like, but that does not feel as much fun so I pretend that they have an affinity for mailboxes). Since moving to Fukuoka I have more than a handful of times seen one of these beautiful frogs enjoying life sitting on our mailbox. They like to visit our little bonsai pine tree too, and every time we go out or come home my son and I check to see if we can find any frogs. Today we met no frogs, but he showed me a little cute lizard soaking up some afternoon sun on our steps, no doubts while listening to the songs of the cicadas. There is always something exciting to explore, living close to nature.

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