Natural Alarm Clock

Well finally I could get a picture of my alarm clock!

Here he is about 8am this morning, though he woke me up before 6, as he always does.

Yes, it is the male pheasant I wrote about a few months ago. I see him almost every morning but it is quite difficult to get a picture of him. This morning he was foraging for food on the side of the rice field across from my house. I guess he was about 8m away. Sorry the picture isn't so nice - I had to take it through the fly screen. (I managed to open the glass window without him flying away, but the screen is much noisier.)

I've only seen the female once this season, when I startled her in my back garden and she flew away. She is a speckled brown color so is difficult to see at any time. Plus she is very quiet! Not like her mate who spent all morning from 6 - 10am walking about calling at intervals.

Just to explain the pictures:
1. This is him on the bank of the rice field (which is dry soil at the moment). He pecks the ground like a chicken looking for food, but looks around every few seconds. (Maybe he could 'feel' I was spying on him!)

2. I don't know why, but every now and then he puffs out his body, fluffs out his feathers and then calls 'keeen keeen'. Looking for his lady friend???

forage (食糧などを)捜す《 for... 》; 糧食徴発に出る, 捜し回る, あさる《 about, through... 》; 略奪する
fly screen 網戸
startle …をびっくりさせて
speckled 斑点（はんてん） *
mate （動物の）つがいの片方
at intervals 時々, 折々
bank (of river, etc)土手, 堤, 盛り土
peck 〈えさを〉ついばむ《 up 》 ;《略式》〈食べ物を〉たいぎそうに少しずつ食べる

* This translation is more like 'spotted', but 'speckled' is smaller spots and the colors blend together more.

Oarai (Big Wash!)

Oarai is a port about an hour north-east away by highway. I think the name is funny because the Chinese characters literally read 'big wash' :)

To be honest, Oarai is not so beautiful but there are many things to do. Something was added to that a few weeks ago when a new outlet shopping mall was opened. It is crowded now, but I can't help think that after a while people will get tired of it. Actually the design is quite nice and will be good in the warmer months. It is open plan, so it will be freezing in winter! It is right next to the Marine Tower which is the first triangular shaped glass tower I've seen.









I like Oarai Aquarium. There are many things to see but my favorite are the sea otters. It is a pity they only have two (or I only saw two) and they are in relatively small tanks.










Another thing I like is the tank of wonderful jellyfish! They are so beautiful. I tried to take a picture of the mini-jelly fish next to the big ones but they are so small and clear that they don't show up in a picture.

Oh, and another really good thing is the tank of sardines in the entry hall! Like thousands of silver comets ...

I want to get a job working there :) When I was a university student, I seriously considered changing courses and study so I could work in a zoo.

Nostalgia

In Japan people use the word 'natsukashi' quite often. It is rather hard to translate it into English, but 'nostalgic' is the best I can do. However, like many one word phrases in Japanese that are used very often to describe feelings, 'natsukashi' (I feel nostalgic) is not something we would say in English!

But anyway, aside from language differences, my topic today is something that does make me feel a little nostalgic ...

I wrote that I went to Kairakuen Park in Mito and that it was my second time there. The first time I went was about 10 years ago, so only a year after I first came to Japan. At that time I was surprised to see black swans gliding about on the lake in the park.

Yesterday I found some again. I presume they are not the same ones but are the offspring of the birds I saw a decade ago. I have no idea why black swans are living in Mito because they are native birds of Australia! (If you don't believe me, do a search on the Internet. Start with a page from the Australian Museum - http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/black_swan.htm).

You can find them in many places in Australia, and as the above web page says, especially in the south. There are many on the Torrens River in Adelaide, South Australia. The Torrens flows through the center of the city, just near the Botanic Gardens and Adelaide University. Sometimes I took my books and studied in the parklands by the river and gave the swans bread from my sandwiches. But I think the Australian swans are larger than the ones in Mito, or maybe my memory just made them larger!

White swans are nice, but I really like black swans which look really elegant and never look dirty. If you have any idea how the black swans came to be in Mito, please write a comment and tell me.