Animals in Mimasaka

Animals always deserve a separate post! 😉 Last time I visited Japan, I saw lots of cats, but I guess this time wasn’t cat season. Here’s a collection of the animals I saw in Mimasaka: the usual crows, but this time wading through the rice fields; a dog, but with a diaper; a crab, not sure if it was dead or alive; a salamander, I saw many but once spotted they hide quickly; a bunch of dragonflies and Japanese broad-winged damselflies/demoiselles/jewelwings.

I searched the internet for a long time to find out what those ‘red-winged flying animals resembling dragonflies’ were, and I eventually found out with the help of a friend. In English, they appear to only have a Latin name, namely Mnais Costalis. In Japanese, however, they’re called ニホンカワトンボ (nihon kawa tonbo), which literally means ‘Japan river dragonfly/damselfly’. Finding its incredibly plain (or obvious) name was kind of a bummer, but I’m still glad to finally know what they are. (I’m the kind of person that hates not knowing something… 😊)