Andrew & Stan

Every spring, every kid in Japan starts collecting living things - bugs, crayfish, beetles - if it moves, they have it in a cage. The country is lined with small drainage canals that serve to collect rain water as well as water from homes and rice fields. It looks to me like an irrigation system; it's relatively clean water. Caroline dropped her hat in the canal yesterday and there wasn't a speck on it. So we are always looking for critters. Most of them have spent too much time in the sun and are fried dead, but on the way home from school this morning Andrew hit the jackpot. We found Stan! We saw him and ran home to get a box. He knew we were coming because he was running for his life when we got back. Scared little guy. He doesn't walk very well on the plastic so he's a little irritated right now, but Andrew is thrilled. Boys are so much fun!