When I go for long bike rides, I’m often riding around in super rural areas. Recently, the weather was nice so I went for a long ride. Halfway into it I decided to find a space to sit and have lunch. I rode next to the river until I came to a dead end. It was pretty far from anything. In front of me was the river, behind me was forest.
Anyway as I was eating, I heard this loud guttural growl. I stood up and looked around but couldn’t see anything. But I could sense something was watching me.
It was pretty freaky!!
I’d be very interested to hear others experience with wildlife here in Japan!
I’m pretty sure it was a black bear or wild boar, but who knows, it could have been the Japanese chupacabra.
11 comments
Maybe a horny shika
Not creepy, but definitely somewhat surreal.
I was taking my trash out around 2 AM a year or two back. Our garbage area has this low wall surrounding it on three sides, with a narrow laneway on the side furthest from where I enter. Just as I’m rounding the corner, I hear this low panting of a creature in full sprint.
My initial reaction was “Oh shit, here comes a rabid pitbull!” or something, and started to back into the street, only for this little pot-bellied *tanuki* to come flying out and almost careening right into me. As it scuttled off to one side, I couldn’t tell which of us was more surprised.
Once it bolted off down the street, I peered down the laneway just in time to see something else long and sinewy, with distinctive facial markings slink off in the other direction. A quick internet search later, I found out the *tanuki* was being chased by a *hakubishin*, like something out of *Pom Poko*.
Since then, I’ve seen the *hakubishin* creeping around the neighbourhood a few times, and my wife spotted a couple of *tanuk*i cubs the next street over last autumn. Things like that make me really glad we moved out of Tokyo, and it’s not like we’re out in the boonies or anything.
Tsuchinoko, of course.
I think all you need to think about is that you’re still here so it can’t have been anything too nasty.
I once had a Japanese badger run out of the brush and go straight for the front wheel of my bike on a company cycle ride 😬
In that moment I wasn’t sure whether I was more scared of hitting the thing in front of my co-workers or getting mauled by it 😅
Well, it probably wasn’t Black Shuck, I hope.
[https://imgur.com/a/smuaU1p](https://imgur.com/a/smuaU1p) That guy was creeping around my house a few weeks back. Not that you can really see him with the absolute butchery my Nothing Phone did to the image.
I was drinking down by Tama River at night with the boyz and went for a leak by the bushes and could sense something was watching me. I told the mates andwhen one went he saw a flash like that of a camera. Turned out we had some old man hiding in the dark bush area photoing us.
Trifecta this week – two tanukis wrestling at a stoplight, raccoon downstairs again, dependable hakubishin walking along the tracks Friday. No badgers or weasels yet, but I can dream.
Nex time bring several Ultra Balls with you
Sounds like the fabled middle-aged salaryman. These creatures tends to be highly irritable and wary of outsiders encroaching upon their territory. Best approach is to usually to avoid at all costs, but in cases of emergency some Asahi Dry or similar variants may calm them down and allow for closer contact.
It was Sadako…