Something fast and grey has taken up residence in the undergrowth at the edge of our backyard. I saw it disappear into the foliage a few days ago, and a niece saw it the other day. (Practically did a touchdown victory dance when she heard that I’d seen it too, proving the haters [her siblings] wrong.)

Probably a mouse, but I'm still hoping for some kind of devious, low-nesting bird. One good thing about living in Japan and not Australia is that it's almost certainly not a terrifyingly deadly snake or funnelweb spider or something. Though I will probably NEVER get used to how blithe people are here about wading into long grass in the height of summer.