You know it's summer in Japan when...

You know it's summer in Japan when you go to your local department store and they're selling bugs.

Apparently, collecting large bugs, especially crickets and beetles, used to be a popular summer pastime for children. I suppose it's the same in Australia; I used to do the same thing, only with various ant farms, collecting caterpillars, etc. But with increasing urbanisation, it's become increasingly difficult to find those insects in the wild. So you can buy them instead.

Anyway, my store's toy section had some tanks, selling the impressive-looking rhinoceros beetles (kabuto mushi) for a few hundred yen each. A few days later I went to the same store and the kabuto mushi had been replaced by stag beetles (kuwagata).

I heard you can fight these beetles, but I've never seen it done. ^_^