The Tupi people, one of the main ethnic groups of Brazilian indigenous people, believe in a male supernatural being called “Curupira” that guards the forest in Tupi mythology. I crowned this BLOG with his name because I aspire the BLOG, which deals with insects as part of the nature, to play a role just like Curupira who protects the forest from the destructive habits of man.
19 Aug, 2008
In 48 hours I am leaving for Manaus from Narita airport but now still listening to buzzing of Abura-cicadas (which could be translated as "oily cicada", and perhaps the commonest species in Japan). When I came to Japan on July 20, I only heard ...
Niinii-cicada (another very common but smaller cicada spieces).
At the end of July, I wondered why there were no Abura-cicadas chirping, which are usually the noisiest around this time of the year. Then, on August 3, not only the Abura but an all-star cast of the Minmin, Hoshi and Higurashi appeared elsewhere in Tokyo all of a sudden.
When I was a small farmboy many years ago, the Niinii cicada's high-pitched singing used to signal the coming of summmer, and in a few weeks the Abura would appear, telling me that we were into the height of summer. Toward the end of the season, the Hoshi and Niinii really tickled my heart with their melodic chirps.
I come to Japan every year usually in spring or fall, but this year I had a chance to spend my summer here for the first time in 10 years, because the trouble with INPA over the tower held back my homecoming for 3 months.
Believe it or not, the summer in Japan is so muggy and stifling, far worse than in Manaus. By the way, the Japanese weather reports often use the term "nettai-ya" (literally meaning a 'stifling tropical night'). In those tropical areas that I know, the temperature usually goes down at night, and it never remains so hot during nighttime hours as in Japan (or Tokyo?). So, it looks like the 'nettai-ya' exists only in people's mind, as with the so-called "global warming".
