Sep 25, 2019
The dangers with countryside living
Living in the sticks here has its benefits. Wide open spaces? Check. Fresh air? Check. No traffic? Check. Bears, on the other hand? A legitimate concern here.
We are in quite a rural location, and in the last couple of weeks there have been two instances of bear sightings (one including a bear attack) in our local area. The actual attack happened just over 200 meters from the Ishiuchi train station, in an area dotted with houses and even with a school not far away.
I've heard people blaming this issue on urban migration and the population decline - since there are fewer people to tend to the land, things get overgrown, and in an environment where bears already live it seems to bring them closer to where people reside.
Nonetheless, it's making me think more about exercising caution in certain areas of our town which could be more prone to this kind of thing.
2 Comments
edthethe
on Sep 26
Fear of bears and boars is pretty unnerving. Even still, I still feel pretty safe here in Japan. I couldn't walk down the road in Texas without fear of dogs attacking me. I've been chased enough times that even small dogs barking here makes the hair on my neck stand up.
genkidesu
on Sep 26
@edthethe man, are strays a big problem in Texas? Being chased by a dog would scare me too...I like dogs but if you don't know their temperament and they seem aggressive that would be awful. Everyone always talks about Australia as being full of dangerous animals but the stuff that is poisonous isn't really going to chase you down, thankfully!