Hebi (snake!)
I’ve caught two snakes since coming here – 2 weeks ago a rat snake at Matsushima (w/John, but in my excitement I forgot to take photos,) and today – this one!
What happened was, I was walking over the canyon to the Kawa-uchi campus. And down below I saw some guys probably 30 yrs old or so old, poking at something with sticks. I thought they were to old to be playing with sticks, so I looked closer and saw that they were whacking at a snake and taking photos of it. So, I climbed down there, and picked up the snake. This freaked them out (hahaha) but I knew it wasn’t a mamushi, the local poisonous one. It freaked them out even more when it started biting me, (again, hahahaha) but I told them it wasn’t dangerous, and asked them how to get back up to the road, because believe it or not the climb down wasn’t easy, and I couldn’t climb up w/a snake in my hands. I wanted to take pictures of it, before letting it go. I walked up to Aobayama, then found an un-visited canyon and let it slither off.
It was a gorgeous snake! I think it was just a garter, but it was waaay bigger than any garter I’ve ever caught before. Here’s some more pic’s:
** Update – this is a Japanese four-lined rat snake, “shimahebi” in japanese, or Elaphe quadrivirgata* *
On another fun note, after it got used to my left arm, it settled down just fine. But it struck at the first few bicyclers that whizzed by me on my walk up to Aobayama. Fortunately, they didn’t notice. And it calmed down after that.
Christ says (about children) “What you do to the least of these you do to me.” Do you think that might apply to our treatment of animals too?
Hey, does that bring back memories of catching garter snakes by Sunnyside Pond? (I think I got bitten once or twice.)
By the way, the painting you sent mom is really lovely and even better in person than on your blog.
P.S. Mom said you were stressing about fabric. Please don’t! If you can’t find the ones I marked, something similar will be fine.
P.P.S. Matt – yes. Josh and I read the story of Balaam’s donkey the other night and it’s a really interesting window into the world of animals, talking or otherwise.