Bugs and other Japanese perils.

In the months of April and May in Japan, how much do I have to fear from:

Bugs (cockroaches, bees, mosquitoes, insects I haven't considered)?

Poisonous snakes or other dangerous animals?

Inclement weather?

I'm really phobic of bugs, and unclean conditions in general, for that matter. I have a hard enough time sleeping in a bed that isn't mine even if the place looks spotless. I would sooner sleep on the dirt outside than stay in a hotel or room that seemed hygienically suspect to me.

I plan to stay in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Yakushima. Heck, since I'm bothering to make such a paranoid thread, I'm gonna ask another question; are there any sections or neighboring areas of these locations that I should avoid staying at because of cleanliness issues?

Thank you for replying to my paranoid rantings :)

It's now mid-May, and I haven't seen any mosquitoes or cockroaches yet In Tokyo this year, they aren't usually around until mid June or so. I can't speak for Yakushima, but basically if you want to enjoy a natural place, you have to take what comes with it, or not go at all. I would say it's still a bit early for snakes in most of Japan, but you might come across a few little ones while hiking- they will slither away as soon as you come near them, don't worry.

Generally speaking, the more you pay for your hotel, the cleaner it will be. Places like Toyoko Inn though are generally spotless even though not that expensive. Japan is a developed country known for its obsession with cleanliness, so you are probably coming to the right place.

I'm not so bothered by snakes, in the sense that they do not disgust me at all, but if I should be in fear of my life from one I should probably found out before the encounter :) I expect bugs in Yakushima, especially outside (not worried about non-lethal bugs outdoors), and while a stray spider in the house doesn't bother me too much (unless, again, it might be lethal), something like a cockroach infestation in my sheets would possibly give me a heart attack. But anyway, I shouldn't expect anything too unusually creepy-crawly or dangerous in April and May then?

Also, what of the weather during those months?

I know nobody can write me a guarantee on anything, but at least some response might settle my nerves. :) Thank you.

Elana
What is your home country? Have you travelled much before? Of the many countries that I have travelled throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia, Japan is without a doubt the cleanest,most hygienic country that I have been to!!!!
Relax and enjoy your trip!!

Sometimes there are a bunch of knats that I encounter when riding my bike.

I live in Chicago, IL, USA (it's not enough to just say my country because conditions can be quite different depending where you are here :)

Other than Canada, I have been to Italy and Greece before. I even saw a scorpion in Italy. I'm not really worried about outdoor bugs. Also, often in the summer or when walking in the woods I walk through clouds of gnats myself, and that I can handle. I can handle pretty much any kind of creature being outside. What would get to me would be SWARMS of something indoors; under furniture, in the cabinets, and heaven forbid, in the bed. What prompted me to make such a thread is that I saw someone elsewhere say that Japan has a pronounced cockroach problem, and personally I don't know if I've seen a roach (in real life) more than perhaps once or twice ever. So that would just floor me, especially if they're huge. :-/

Hi Elana. I have travelled to about 25 countries and I daresay that Japan is clearly the cleanest (other than my own country Singapore). I have been to Japan 6 times and never have I ever encountered a single pest in any hotel/ryokan room. The Japanese are really conscious about cleanliness. Rest assured.

Don't worry about the roaches, they are harmless. In any decent hotel you are unlikely to see them. They are sometimes to be found around the area where people put their garbage out to be collected.

To me the scariest Japanese bug by a long shot is the dreaded mukade, a giant centipede- a 4 inch long one would be a small one, and 8 inches wouldn't be unusual. They have fairly wide bodies as well and are a brown colour. These nasties have a very painful bite, unlike roaches, which won't do anything to you.

I have only seen 2 mukade in 7 years in Tokyo I am happy to say. I imagine they are more common in rural areas.
Google mukade picture if you want to see one, but you might wish you hadn't...

I am also a bit nervous of the suzume-bachi- hornets. I haven't been stung by one, but being allergic to bee stings I duck if I see one.

One of the benefits of living in the concrete jungle of Tokyo is that suzume-bachi are also a rare sight.

Roaches on the other hand don't bother me- if they are not going to sting or bite me, there's nothing to worry about.

Like Elena, I'm also afraid of insects - even an outside flying dragonfly can make me scream....

I saw 2 times roaches in my hotelroom in Japan, once in Kyoto and once in Nagasaki. I hardly slept then, afraid they would come on or into my bed!

But except for these, how about leeches and wasps in Japan? In what area, in what month?

Leeches? Not in Tokyo. In the jungles of Thailand perhaps.

I have been stung by bees/wasps many, many times in my life, particularly in my childhood, so I did not bother to ask about them, since yes I am phobic of them especially, but I know I have to deal with them wherever I go - that's just sort of something I've learned to live with.

I had read about that centipede someplace else, but it looked like it was mostly the rural areas where an encounter would be likely.

Is May or April a big mosquito season? Just so I know how prepared I have to be with the bug spray or whatnot.

Here's an important question. If I am walking through the forests of Yakushima (or I guess anywhere), should I be aware of ticks? Here we are advised to wear long pants in thick wilderness so we do not get ticks on us, because some may carry disease, particularly lyme disease. Must the same precautions be taken in Japan? These are the kinds of questions I have not seen answered in tourism books, so please pardon my ignorance!

On Wikitravel they say this about Kinkasan Island: There are two endemic pests on the island: deer and leeches, both of which want to eat things you'd rather keep to yourself. When hiking, keep your trousers stuffed in your boots, and if you do spot leeches remember to use salt or fire to dislodge them, not brute force. So I thought they may be elsewhere too.

leeches only live in water, usually in marshes (and rice paddies in Japan). I swam as a kid in all sorts of muddy water and was never hit by a leech. In Europe drugstores use to keep leeches in a jar full of water and rent them--on doctors order- to a person who had had blood pooling out around a wound. The leeches would suck out the bad blood and within a day or 2 the patient was fine. Nowadays the drugstores destroy the leeches after treatment due to concerns about blood born diseases.

Elana, it is now the 19th of May and I have yet to see a mosquito in Tokyo. We had days last week when the high was only 13 degrees C, so it isn't really warm enough for them at this time of year. I can't speak for Yakushima- quite possibly there are some. Packing some repellent just in case seems like a good plan.

Trudy, where is Kinkasan island? Somewhere near Okinawa? I have lived in Japan 10 years and know the geography fairly well but haven't heard of it, so I am assuming it is small and out of the way- it's certainly not on the usual tourist trail. Whether you have to worry about leeches depends on where you are planning to go- what kind of itinerary are you looking at? Are you planning to visit the island you mentioned?

I didn't see a single insect when I visited Japan. Also it is by far the cleanest place I've been to in the world so I wouldn't worry. I'd hate to see an irrational phobia prevent you from future enjoyment of travel though, perhaps there is a bug-phobic program you can undertake to cure you?

Kinkasan (金華山; also Kinkazan) is a small mountainous island at the tip of the Oshika Peninsula, not far from Sendai in Tohoku, Japan.

My itinerary is far from common, I will go up north travelling most in Tohoku, then Hokkaida and with just a few stops going back south to Shikoku. I won't go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Himeyi, Hisroshima etc. I've done all that before. But when I posted my idea here a few weeks ago, people said I wanted too much, too much cities, too much travelling days. So, while looking at alternatives to stay longer at certain places (e.g. Sendai), I found this information.

I've been to Japan twice- both in the Summer months- and I have never seen a roach. I did see giant bees and spiders the size of my nose or larger, but at least they were outside. I think I would freak out to see a roach in my ryokan, but I think most of the large cities in Japan are cleaner than the ones in America (just compare Tokyo/Kyoto subways to NYC subways!).

I did, however, really regret not bringing bug repellent the last time I was in Kyoto in July. My legs were covered with mosquito bites. I had at least 15 bites and they left scars that took months to fade. So, I recommend bringing bug spray. :)

Err, as long as I'm staying in a place (i.e. a hotel) that is basically hygienic, I don't think bug phobia therapy is necessary for me. I can deal with a stray beetle in the house, a couple of ants, a spider, or whatever. It's just utter infestation that freaks me out. I don't think anyone would wanna stay in a place so unhygienic that swarms of bugs are routinely seen inside. Outdoor bugs don't really deter me at all. To provide you with the example that freaked me out about bugs in Japan to begin with:
"A long time ago I lived in a gaijin house where I would see up to 10 a day in the kitchen- they were behind the fridge, in my knife and fork tray, abandoning ship as I lifted my plates down off the shelf." This was from another thread on this forum about cockroaches.

Also from that same thread: "I've lived in Japan well over ten years and in all types of accommodation and I have come across hundreds....[]...Just to end with a friend woke up with a cockroach drinking from his eye...they like moisture! Please beware and be prepared."