This 1979 photograph shows the teary-eyed Our Lady of Akita statue at the Seitai Hoshikai (The Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist) convent in Akita prefecture. In January 1975, 12 years after a local sculptor carved the statue from the wood of a Japanese Judas tree, it began to cry. Over the next 6 years, around 2,000 witnesses reported seeing the statue weep 101 times. The quantity and frequency of the tears varied each time — sometimes the statue cried a few times per day, and sometimes it went months, and even years, without crying. The statue, which is still housed at the Akita convent, shed its final tears in September 1981.
This video — a follow-up to a previous post about strange cloud formations seen over the Sea of Okhotsk last summer — provides a rare close-up bird’s-eye view of cloud streets, which are created when convection currents cut low-lying cumulus into long, clean strips. According to the video narration, these clouds floated just over the sea surface, stood 300 meters tall and stretched for over 100 kilometers.
To the delight of divers, and to the chagrin of fishermen, the swarms of giant Echizen kurage jellyfish (Nomura’s jellyfish) that invade the coast of the Sea of Japan each autumn are back.
These photos were taken 5 meters underwater just offshore from the coastal town of Echizen in Fukui prefecture, where the jellyfish mobs began to arrive about a month later than normal.
Manabu Nakamata, a 38-year-old diver from Nagoya and an admirer of the monster jellyfish, says, “They are surprisingly hard to the touch. They are big, and extremely impressive.” Big indeed — Echizen kurage can grow up to 2 meters (6 ft. 7 in.) in diameter and weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 lb.) each.
The local fishermen, however, are not impressed. Each year, the giant jellyfish wreak havoc on the fishing industry by destroying nets and crushing, poisoning and sliming other fish in the catches. In the latest move in the war on jellyfish, Fukui prefecture is developing new and efficient weapons designed to pulverize those that threaten their shores.
An octopus with nine tentacles was spotted at the Marusan Seafood Shop in Marugame, Japan (Kagawa prefecture) on October 26, one day after it was caught in the Seto Inland Sea. Masa Koita, the 60-year-old shop manager, noticed the abnormal Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) after he had boiled it in preparation for market. “In 40 years of handling seafood, I’ve never seen an octopus like this,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Akashi Seafood Council in nearby Hyogo prefecture confirmed the unusual nature of the extra-tentacled creature: “In Akashi, we might see one every 20 years or so. They are extremely rare.”
Koita says he will show off the octopus for a few days before selling it to a lucky customer.
When Osaka resident Kana Yamaguchi’s neighbors cut the grass in a nearby field, a number of fleeing insects sought refuge in her flower bed. Among them was an odd pair of grasshopper-like bugs — one pink, one white. Osaka Museum of Natural History entomologist Itaru Kanazawa identifies them as the larvae of Euconocephalus thunbergi (”kubikirigisu” in Japanese), a close relative of the katydid. While he says it is normal for these insects to change between green and brown to match their surroundings, pink and white are considered abnormal. Speculation is that the pink is an extreme variation of the brown coloration, and the white specimen is believed to be an albino, though nobody will know for sure until it becomes an adult. Regardless, says Kanazawa, “It is quite rare to find three different colors at the same time.”
Four mutant frogs with gold skin and red eyes, found by children in a grassy field in the town of Shimanto in Kochi prefecture, have gone on display at the nearby Shimanto River Gakuyukan science center. According to a center spokesperson who says the golden specimens are highly unusual, the 2.4-centimeter (almost 1-inch) amphibians appear to be black-spotted pond frogs (Pelophylax nigromaculata, a.k.a. Rana nigromaculata) whose skin turned gold because of an albino mutation that prevents the formation of pigment cells. With a run of bad luck that has brought shrinking visitor numbers and a recent theft of 1.25 million yen (about $10,000), the center hopes the golden frogs are a sign of good fortune to come. Oddly, they look sort of like feng shui money frogs (Chan Chu), except that money frogs have three legs.
This photograph, taken June 18 from a Japan Coast Guard aircraft off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, shows a bird’s-eye view of cloud streets over the Sea of Okhotsk. According to the Sapporo Meteorological Observatory, these low-altitude stratocumulus clouds were rolled into long, distinctive ribbons after becoming trapped in air currents. While it is not uncommon for wind to form such patterns in stratocumulus clouds, photos that clearly show the clouds rolled into strips are rare, says the observatory.
Officials at Awashima Marine Park, located in the coastal city of Numazu, have obtained rare video footage of a frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) near the sea surface after it was captured in nearby waters.
On the afternoon of January 21, a fisherman spotted the large fish in the shallow water near the park. He immediately contacted Awashima Marine Park officials, who caught the shark and transported it to the park’s dolphin pen, where they turned it loose. The weak shark was able to survive for several hours — long enough for park officials to videotape it swimming around. Video footage of the frilled shark near the sea surface is very rare, and the park says it will keep the video for research purposes.
The frilled shark is typically found at a depth of around 600 meters (2,000 feet). Its slender body grows to about 160 cm long, and unlike most sharks, which typically have 5 sets of gills, the frilled shark has 6 sets. It is known as a “living fossil” for its resemblance to extinct, Paleozoic sharks.
Researchers investigating why the shark was found in shallow waters think it may have surfaced along with deep-sea water pushed up to shallow depths by easterly winds. Another possibility is that it left the deep waters because of cool water temperatures near the surface. Or perhaps it came in search of food.
A pair of baby albino Japanese Giant Salamanders (Andrias japonicus) discovered this past spring in a mountainous area of Hiroshima prefecture are being kept at Hiroshima’s Asa Zoo for the purpose of ecological research. The two specimens were found along with three other albino salamanders at the same location.
The Japanese Giant Salamander, which can grow up to 140 cm (4 ft. 8 in.) long and live for up to 80 years, is an endangered species that has been officially designated one of Japan’s living national treasures. Young Japanese Giant Salamanders typically have black skin that develops into a mottled brown and black with age, and the occurrence of albinos is extremely rare. The discovery of a group of albino Japanese Giant Salamanders is unprecedented.
The salamanders were discovered in a mountain stream near the town of Kitahiroshima when farmers were diverting water to their fields. A sandy area became exposed as the water level fell, revealing a group of thirty salamander larvae, five of which were albinos.
Chie Ashikaga, a zookeeper with 35 years of experience in raising Japanese Giant Salamanders, says, “I’ve never heard of anyone finding five albinos together. This is due either to environmental changes or to genes passed on by one of their albino parents. With many mysteries surrounding the Japanese Giant Salamander, these specimens might give us a better understanding of the ecology.”
Asa Zoo will place the albinos on public display beginning October 21.
The Iwase Bunko Library has in its possession a document entitled Hyouryuukishuu (”Tales of Castaways”), which was printed during the late Edo period (1603-1868).
The document recounts the stories of Japanese sailors who find themselves in foreign lands after becoming lost at sea, as well as castaway foreigners washed ashore on the beaches of Japan. To the Japanese people, who at the time had been living in a prolonged period of national isolation, these exotic tales must have seemed very fantastic.
Among these stories is the account of a wrecked ship with a very mysterious appearance.
According to the document, this vessel washed ashore at Harashagahama in Hitachi-no-kuni (present-day Ibaraki prefecture). The body of the ship, described as 3.3 meters tall and 5.4 meters wide, had been built from red sandalwood and iron and was fitted with windows of glass or crystal. The mysterious characters of an unknown alphabet were found inscribed inside the vessel.
Aboard the drifting vessel was a finely dressed young woman with a pale face and red eyebrows and hair. She was estimated to be between 18 and 20 years old. Because she spoke an unfamiliar tongue, those that encountered her were unable to determine from whence she came. In her arms she clutched a plain wooden box that appeared to be of great value to her, as she would allow nobody to approach it.
The document shows a portion of the text found inside the ship (see left).
Other Edo-period documents describe variations of this mysterious encounter. Toen Shousetsu (1825), a book by Kyokutei Bakin (who is most famous for his 106-volume samurai epic Nansou Satomi Hakkenden) tells the story of the same encounter, referring to the strange vessel as the utsuro-fune (”hollow ship”). Another variation of this tale appears in Ume no Chiri (1844), penned by a relatively unknown author named Nagahashi Matajirou. A thorough analysis of these two variations of the story can be found in a translated article by Kazuo Tanaka titled “Did a Close Encounter of the Third Kind Occur on a Japanese Beach in 1803?”
Contemporary fans of the paranormal know this ship as the Edo-period UFO.
Officials at 
Aboard the drifting vessel was a finely dressed young woman with a pale face and red eyebrows and hair. She was estimated to be between 18 and 20 years old. Because she spoke an unfamiliar tongue, those that encountered her were unable to determine from whence she came. In her arms she clutched a plain wooden box that appeared to be of great value to her, as she would allow nobody to approach it. 
