the sounds I don't hear (Tokyo)

Tokyo cicadas - took me a while to get used to this one, as we just don't have cicadas where I'm from. Or if we do, they don't sound the same. there are thousands of them in the park near our house - well, all over Tokyo right now, actually. Right now, they are just "sreeeeee sreeee sreee sree"ig, hoping to get lucky so that their offspring can spend the next 15 years or so underground, and then dig their way out and start all over again. Soon, however, they will have passed their best-before dates and start flying and dying around like huge, drunken cockroaches with wings. Blech.

Tokyo crows - these things are disturbingly huge. Some are almost as big as Fox - who isn't all that tiny. I've heard stories of them attacking embassy pet cats and causing them harm out on their balconies.

Tokyo traffic - there's so much of it, but I rarely notice it at all. I'm not sure that it's possible to live in a bigger, more crowded city, but the traffic here is so well behaved. I do jump when I hear a car horn, though - it's so unusual.

Sam in the middle of the night - actually, I do hear him. But it is starting to seem pointless to dash naked out of bed (well, with Marie in the house, I have to get dressed now) and see what's up, as he absolutely NEVER remembers in the morning.

I didn't realize that I didn't hear these sounds until I left them, and got to somewhere really quiet (the cottage this summer), but then it was so quiet there, I could barely sleep. Hmmm...