I wasn’t even going to bother writing about this. But my mom has been bugging (haha get it) me for weeks-WEEKS-to mention it, and I (regrettably) have more to write about the subject as of last night at 2am.

When I moved into my apartment, I didn’t know that after the gas man had left and I had signed my lease and was left all alone in my pillow-less apartment for the night, that I would have another visitor welcoming me to Osaka. A cockroach. I had never even seen a cockroach in person until May 28, 2008. Now, normally I’m not bothered by most insects. I’ll either squish them or catch them and let them go outside. However, I can tell you now that I hate cockroaches and don’t want to see another one in my life if I could avoid it. They are fast and unpredictable, too big to just squash outright (think of the mess they’d leave!), and well, they just look hideous.

The first cockroach I saw got off pretty lightly, I’d say. I caught him and tossed him out the window. I think I heard someone yell from down below, but perhaps it was unrelated (I hope).

Three weeks later, I had a second sighting. I thought I got lucky at first, I spotted the thing out of the corner of my eye and spooked him so that he ran towards the balcony door. I opened the door and he ran out, never to be seen again. Well, until about 4 hours later, when suddenly another cockroach (the same one???) suddenly waddles out from UNDER MY BED. Where are these things even coming from?? I can’t find any holes or cracks or anywhere that they could be getting in. This time, he wasn’t going to be cooperative. He ran under the television while I was IMing all my friends with “OMG COCKROACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” messages. It was night time too so its not like I could leave that thing running around and hope to get any sleep!

I had to pull out all of the shelving units, and move everything away from the walls to find this thing and to corner him. I stuck a cup along the wall and somehow got him to run right into it. I thought I was being quite clever to pull off a piece of sticky paper from my lint roller to close off the top of the cup with so he couldn’t escape. Ran into the bathroom and dumped him into the toilet and flushed him. Patted myself on the back thinking I had done a great job. Five minutes later I go to actually use the bathroom and what do I see but the cockroach WALKING AROUND INSIDE THE TOILET BOWL. I think that I shrieked at this point, probably not quietly. I flushed him another 6 times or so for good measure, but he kept coming back! Finally faced with the realization that I’d have to scoop him out and actually kill him, I donned my rubber gloves and grabbed a plastic cup. Somehow I got him into the cup and drained out the water, threw the entire thing into a plastic bag and double knotted it. I put on my sneakers and stomped on him. About eight times. Then I tossed the entire bag into the garbage bin in the hallway outside of my apartment.

Cockroaches: 0, Nikki: 1

That week I went out and bought a dozen poison traps and another dozen sticky traps. The poison traps are in every corner of my apartment now, and under the bed, television, refrigerator(s), in the closet, and two on the balcony. I only put out a few sticky traps cause I figured the poison ones would be more effective. I was able to sleep with a clear mind.

Well, until last night.

Its getting close to 2am. I’m just sitting on my bed peacefully, getting sleepy and preparing to go to bed. Monday is a consular holiday so I don’t have to get up at 6:30am. I’m thinking about going to Nara to see a special exhibit at the national museum there. And I’m watching a really interesting show when, OH GOD A GIANT COCKROACH JUST WALKED OUT FROM UNDERNEATH MY BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now why did he have to do that. I had been living in ignorant bliss for a month, thinking I’d never see another cockroach in Japan because I had successfully killed them all off with my poison traps. I was able to coach him towards my balcony door and let him out of it like I had with #2, but who knows if he will come back. I put a sticky trap out on the balcony and two more inside, one under my bed and one next to the balcony door. And then I went online and read horrible stories about cockroaches in Japan. About people waking up to find cockroaches drinking water from their eyes (??????!???!), cockroaches running down their legs, falling out of their air conditioners, and so on and so forth. I don’t know why I did this. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore, and I felt all itchy. By 3am I knew I had to try and get to sleep, so I cranked up the AC (cockroaches don’t like the cold apparently) and tried to sleep. I probably woke up two or three times thinking there was a bug on me, but a morning room check revealed no bugs under the bed or stuck in the sticky traps.

Apparently Japan’s hot and humid summers are like a cockroach paradise, and they are pretty common. I keep my apartment spotless and there certainly isn’t any food on the floor so I don’t know why they have to come and visit me. I wish they’d stop. If not, then why don’t they visit these lovely roach houses I put out for them? It even has pink shutters and a happy looking roach welcoming them! Normally I think starving the poor things to death while they are stuck in the glue is pretty cruel but, well, I don’t think anyone will miss them.