Wednesday, June 27, 2007

guess what this is


I wonder if you know what this is? I saw it while visiting Mt Koya.

I'll let you know what it is in a couple of days.

ANSWER: There weren't many guesses, but I want to thank those who gave it their best shot...most of you knew it was some kind of hive. It is a suzumebachisu (hornet's nest). At first when I saw it in the show window of a Japanese sweets shop at Mt Koya, I thought it was a vase.

I'd never seen one this big in person (it was about a foot tall!), only on TV, but apparently they can be found around Japan. Every year, some who stumble upon the nests are killed from the shock of being stung. Now, you know if you see one...don't touch it!

10 comments:

Monique said...

Ammmmmmmm.... a fosil rock?

Jann said...

let me look at that again.........some sort of wasp or bee hive? Beats me~ do tell!!

Samantha said...

at first I was thinking some kind of mushroom or fungus then I thought some kind of hive

Jann said...

well, that wouldn't work for a vase~ a suzumebachisu.....I thought so! He he!

ilingc said...

wow. That looks amazing. I wouldn't have figured that it was a bee hive. I thought it was some giant chocolate ball wrapped in some cool silver wrapping. That was before I clicked on the actual photo.

K and S said...

You could put dried flowers into it like a vase, Jann. :)

Gosh, Ilingc, I wish it were a huge chocolate ball wrapped in silver wrapping!

Take care you two.
Kat

Parisbreakfasts said...

Oh it looked like beautiful Japaness pottery to me...

K and S said...

I know Carol, because it is so big it looks like a really nice vase or pot.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.
Kat

aaninoue8 said...

Oh the first moment i saw the picture, 'Ah! That giant bee hive!' i knew it because i saw one in the video that runnyrunny uploaded when he went for hiking. Hehe. Its very big right!

K and S said...

very big aaninoue8

take care.
kat