Praying Mantis

Bit of a Small Adventure this time. I'd gotten down to Minami Kagoshima one morning, by streetcar, and was waiting for the barrier rails to go up so I could cross to the other side of the tracks. While I was waiting, this young kid half-runs down the ramp leading to the main train station platform, and calls out someone's name, looking frantic. Both the driver of the streetcar at the platform and I are watching the kid to make sure he doesn't run under the guard arm and in front of the car before it leaves. When the streetcar pulls out and the arms raise, the kid half-runs back up the ramp, then turns and sees me crossing the tracks. He runs back down right in front of me with his arms outstretched, telling me that I can't go past him. I'm confused, so I take a half-step forward, and he jumps back and repeats "you have to stop." We repeat this little game a couple times, until we get near the top of the ramp, and he steps aside, looking a little disappointed. He points back down the ramp at the platform we'd just left, and I try to see what he's talking about. I don't, so he points again, and I realize that there's a little baby praying mantis sitting on part of the iron railing a foot or two from me. The kid's really excited by his find, and tells me that it had crawled close to 10 feet along the railing before stopping. I let him talk a bit more, and then thank him and leave because now I'm getting close to being late.







About 2 hours later, I returned to the platform, half expecting to see the kid still there, but he was gone. I looked around for the mantis, and I couldn't find that, either. As I was about to give up, I spotted it back near the bottom of the ramp, this time hanging upside-down from the bottom of the handhold. I'm told that this is hatching season, and there are lots of baby praying mantises now. It's only the third time I've ever seen one myself.