Japan 2019 - Flora and fauna

The most iconic and common Japanese species we have seen are the Japanese maple, the Eastern Great Egret and the Koi and turtles, which seem to be present in every pond in every Japanese garden.

Japan apparently has 130 species of land mammals, which seems a lot for such a small land mass and such a high density of population. I was surprised to read that Hokkaido has Brown Bears and Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu have Asian Black Bears (we didn’t see any). When travelling on a bicycle many animals can’t hear us approaching, but run away as soon as they see us. Like the Japanese macaques, of which we saw many, but only managed to photograph once.

Some deer are very shy, while others are used to humans and ignore us.

Butterflies are very difficult to photograph. There were thousands!

We saw and heard many different birds, the smaller ones mostly in the forests, raptors circling above us and herons in the rice paddies and rivers. This little one probably fell out of its nest.

On rainy days we encountered many frogs, salamanders, snails and worms. Even the snakes seemed to be more active in the wet.

We called these drop worms. They are caterpillars hanging from trees on a silky thread and letting go when you pass underneath. Annoying but beautiful.

Loquat trees were everywhere and the fruit is delicious, with a texture and flavour similar to a kiwi.

The Japanese seem to be avid gardeners. Every spare patch is planted with rice, vegetables or flowers and the forests have mushroom farms.

And then there were many wild flowers.