The Legend of the Turtle Bug

OK, so most people will probably think that this post is just really random but I thought this situation was ironic and kind of funny so I'll tell you what happened. 

Back in the day when I was still living in Massachusetts (and still in elementary school or so) I noticed that as the temperature got colder outside during the fall some strange bugs would start appearing inside the house.  The bugs were brown and speckled, had hard shells, and moved very slowly (so slowly that even the cats weren't interested in them).  Due to their shells and slow-moving nature my siblings and I called them turtle bugs and they never caused us any trouble.  It wasn't until some time later that I found out the bugs in question were stink bugs.  Anyway, after spending a few weeks in Japan I noticed some large bugs kept appearing in the apartment.  Anne told me that she didn't know what they were called but that she had been told they were dangerous so we threw them out of the house when we saw them.  I was a bit worried that the bugs might be poisonous, or be able to sting but at least the bugs moved at a leisurely pace (instead if swarming like ants) and they made me smile because they reminded me of the turtle bugs back home.

One day during English class I noticed a couple of the boys looking out the window so I asked them what they saw.  It turns out they were looking at something inside the classroom, one of the large bugs.  The English teacher stopped class so that he could grab the bug very carefully and take it outside (teachers are very nice about that kind of thing in Japan, I remember when I was a kid the teacher wouldn't even stop class if there was a bee flying around, she would just tell us to ignore it!).  When I asked the English teacher what kind of bug it was he said it was a stink bug, kamemushi.  I got a bit excited because I knew that mushi meant "bug" and I knew that "turtle" was kame (and I was hoping that these particular bugs would be called turtle bugs).  I wasn't sure though if the kame in question was the same kame in kamemushi since in Japanese (as in English) words with different meanings can sound the same (like "I" and "eye").  When I asked the teacher if the kame in kamemushi meant "turtle" he said that it was probably one of the meanings.  Later that day I looked it up in the dictionary and found three different ways to write kamemushi, in two of the cases the kame meant "turtle" and in the third more rare form the characters translate to camellia (the flower) and elephant, which I thought was also very amusing.

So in Japan stink bugs are literally "turtle bugs" and even though Anne and I have had trouble with them building a nest outside our bathroom window since then and there's always the chance they'll feel threatened and stink up the apartment I still can't help but like them since they are a bit ridiculous and they remind me of home.

 

A kamemushi on my floor.