So…! Yesterday around 1 am, as I am about to slither into bed, my doorbell rings. About 5,000 times consecutively. I figure it’s important so I walk outside and tada, my neighbors are enjoying the company of a new friend come to visit.

That’s a Rhinoceros beetle, or Kabuto-mushi as they’re called here. They’re completely harmless (or at least this guy was), and in fact as my neighbor put it, “It’s like a miniature dog!”.

Honestly, it was. I fell in love with that guy. Apparently Kim (my neighbor) opened his door and this guy came flying through the air, landing with a little thud on the wall right next to Kim’s door. When I came out, he was just lumbering about on Kim’s arm, seeming unaffected by all the people around him. We petted him, even on his little horns, and he didn’t try to escape or anything. We kept saying we wanted to keep him but we didn’t have grass or stuff to keep him happy, so eventually he just decided that he’d been socializing with us Swedes enough, and he took off and zoomed away.

Well, he attempted to but ended up landing with a little thud on the wall of the apartments above ours. We walked up and Kim tried to grab him from the wall but he had had enough of us and wouldn’t let go, so we figured it was time to go our separate ways…

Japanese kids have been buying these insects, raising them and even having them wrestle each other — in fact, throughout Asia, gambling takes place where two Rhino beetles try to toss each other outside of a ring (Beetle sumo), there’s even a world championship here in Japan, much to the disdainful amusement of some.

I’ve always been so confused about this whole Beetle fetish thing until now. Now I want one of my own! Insanity. But fuck, that li’l guy was so cool! Honestly. Like a micro-dog.

Rico (another neighbor) with a real camera took a bunch of pictures of the li’l guy. If you yearn to see Rhino-san with, you know, focus and stuff, let me know and I’ll snatch pictures from Rico and put them up here.