![Not nearly as cute as the jumping spider elsewhere in this gallery, this big boy [about 8cm leg span] was lying in wait and didn’t seem bothered by my camera.](../02may09/images/0918-_r3z5537.jpg "Not nearly as cute as the jumping spider elsewhere in this gallery, this big boy [about 8cm leg span] was lying in wait and didn’t seem bothered by my camera.")
![There is SO MUCH going on here - on a single stalk of vetch - what the Japanese call クラスノエンドウ [kurasunoendo], Vicia angustifolia. If you scaled this environment up to human-sized dimensions, you could say that we have a flock of animals being tended by a shepherd, within close proximity of a terrifying carnivore ready to devour the grazers. The "flock" is a group of aphids who are feeding on plant juices. The aphids need to consume large amounts of the low-nitrogen plant sap to meet their dietary needs, and they secrete so-called "honeydew" by-products from tiny tubes at their rear ends. The ant [partially visible at bottom center] harvests the honeydew by stroking the aphids with its antennae, causing them to emit the dew in large drops. The predator, in black and red at the top left of the photo is the larva of the lady bug. Lady bug larva are sold commercially to control aphids because of their voracious appetites.](../02may09/images/0918-_r3z5601.jpg "There is SO MUCH going on here - on a single stalk of vetch - what the Japanese call クラスノエンドウ [kurasunoendo], Vicia angustifolia. If you scaled this environment up to human-sized dimensions, you could say that we have a flock of animals being tended by a shepherd, within close proximity of a terrifying carnivore ready to devour the grazers. The \"flock\" is a group of aphids who are feeding on plant juices. The aphids need to consume large amounts of the low-nitrogen plant sap to meet their dietary needs, and they secrete so-called \"honeydew\" by-products from tiny tubes at their rear ends. The ant [partially visible at bottom center] harvests the honeydew by stroking the aphids with its antennae, causing them to emit the dew in large drops. The predator, in black and red at the top left of the photo is the larva of the lady bug. Lady bug larva are sold commercially to control aphids because of their voracious appetites.")
![[No caption available for this image.]](../02may09/images/0918-_r3z5620.jpg "[No caption available for this image.]")
![A bamboo culm rockets up out of the ground. If this one doesn’t end up on the dinner table [roasted young bamboo shoots, 竹の子, are a favorite on the springtime menu], it could grow more than a foot per day and reach a height of more than 20 meters in one growing season.](../02may09/images/0918-_r3z5632.jpg "A bamboo culm rockets up out of the ground. If this one doesn’t end up on the dinner table [roasted young bamboo shoots, 竹の子, are a favorite on the springtime menu], it could grow more than a foot per day and reach a height of more than 20 meters in one growing season.")
2 May 2009: 河津 Kawazu
One of my favorite places on the eastern side of the Izu Penninsula. Rugged, forested mountains, small villages and garden plots, running water everywhere, hot springs, and the old road to Shimoda.
I usually take catch the first train in the morning, getting to Kawazu Station around 6:30 AM, then catch a cab up the hill to the Loop Bridge. And from there it’ all downhill through the woods, along streams, following small, quiet roads.
Loop Bridge
The Loop Bridge, built in 1981, is an unusual bridge that takes Rt. 414, the road from Kuwazu to Shuzenji, up about 45 meters in a very compact spiral of about 720 degrees.
Map of Japan, centered on the Kawazu Loop Bridge
Use the controls to zoom, or pan by dragging the map with your mouse. The map is centered the Kawazu Loop Bridge. Unfortunately, Google Maps doesn't have imagery of this area of Japan at very good resolution, so although you can get a sense of the landscape, you can't really see the bridge in satellite/terrain view. Switch to Map view to get a sense of its shape and size.