Catching Frogs and Keirin Races

Today I woke up at 2pm. I have no idea how I slept so late, but when I got up I didn't even feel groggy. I ate a bagel and then went to catch frogs with Julia. I haven't ever, that I can remember, caught frogs. I've captured tadpoles before, and I think I've chased after a frog or two in my life, but I've never scooped frogs up with nets and plopped them into a bucket. Happily, I can say that the frogless void of my childhood has been filled.

I didn't keep track of how many I caught, but I can tell you that Julia caught more. That being said, I feel that I had a very respectable frog catch overall. I will add as a disclaimer that all of the frogs we caught were eventually freed unharmed.

Our frog collection:

I can say that frogs are very active in captivity. In the wild they are often completely motionless, camouflaging with their surroundings unless they absolutely have to jump away from you. Put them in a bucket though, and they will not be calm captives.

I love frogs. Catching frogs is a real kick, but with a net I feel that I have quite an unfair advantage. Next time I'd like to try with just my hands. It might actually be more pleasant for the frogs, too. I can't explain why, but when I could get a frog out of the bucket and into my hand for long enough, it would stay there. Initially it tries to jump away, but if you keep it in one hand with the other over it so that it can't jump away, eventually it calms down. After this happens you can take your other hand away and the frog will just sit there. Maybe they like the heat.

A calm frog:

Finding frogs involves the ultimate gestalt switch. At first I looked around and I couldn't find any frogs at all. Then, after stepping down to the edge of the pond, I saw an odd piece of half-decayed leaf poking about a fourth of an inch out of the water. It caught my attention for whatever reason, and so I stared at it. As soon as I did I saw that the decayed leaf wasn't a decayed leaf at all, but the top of a frog's head.

They are so well-camouflaged. Several times while I was catching them I would fail to get one in my net only to see another, unmoving, a foot from where I was standing. You start to take a second look at every little pile of muck and every leaf. In this particular pond, anything poking out of the water within a foot and a half of the bank could be a frog (sometimes, of course, they were on the bank too). The intelligent ones stay very close to the long grass that has half-decayed in the water. They are about the same color, so often you see a bit of the grass poking out of the water and overlook the set of eyes right next to it. If you do see the frog, it can dive into the thick, soggy grass in order to escape your net.

Our catch, again:

Anyway, moving on to Keirin racing. I have been searching off and on for two days for high quality (preferably high definition) Keirin racing videos. I have no idea why these seem so hard to find. Please, if anyone knows where I can find high quality videos, tell me. I don't want videos of Americans with carbon-fiber-everything racing in velodromes, I want more traditional Keirin racing. It would also be cool to find a source for watching the races as they happen. If not streamed live, then maybe released shortly after the race. I can't find any source for this, and I'm sure it's just because I can't read Japanese. Someone please help me out with this.

I'm also disappointed by the lack of Keirin racing and velodrome related posters available on the internet. I have checked auction sites and large poster websites only to find crappy looking posters in French. I know that these must be available -- how do Keirin fans in Japan decorate their walls otherwise? I need something to spruce up whatever apartment I eventually end up moving into.

I will conclude my entry with a video Julia shot of me joking around. She is on the other side of a door that I am trying to close (I have socks on and the floors are hardwood). Locking someone out is has never been so hard.