Butterfly Collecting Podcast Transcript (書き取り)
Dec
19
A couple of months ago I posted a podcast about butterfly collecting:
https://bohmeenglish.podbean.com/e/the-bohme-english-podcast-18-ottos-hobby/
This is a transcript (書き取り)of it. Please listen & read:
In Japan, a lot of kids – especially boys – are interested in catching & keeping rhinoceros beetles (カブトムシ) and stag beetles (くわがた虫). In Australia though, they`re not so popular and I never collected them when I was a kid. However I was into collecting butterfly for a while. I don`t remember exactly when or how I got into it, but my house had a big yard, with trees and bushes and flowers, so I guess I noticed the different types of butterflies which came through, and that got me interested.
What I do remember is my mum encouraging me, and helping me to research the best way to catch, kill and display them. Remember, this is before the internet, so we had to do this using library books, encyclopedias and of course trial and error. Oh, and my dad made me a big butterfly net, which I though was fantastic. Looking back now, I wonder if they were just desperate for me to stop collecting Kiss cards and fins a new, nicer hobby. Anyway, I really enjoyed keeping an eye out for butterflies that I didn`t have in my collection. Little by little I learnt which ones preferred which flowers, their flying habits, and even what time of day they were likely to be found.
I had special flat boxes with clear tops which I kept them in. Unfortunately, even though I put mothballs (防虫剤) in the boxes, like the books advised, my butterflies eventually became damaged & rotten, so I had to throw them away.
So that was the end of that hobby, although when I came to Japan as an adult, I noticed various butterflies that I had never seen growing up in Australia. And then I went to Okinawa, and wow – I saw some really impressive butterflies there. So that re-ignited my interest in butterflies. I also have a Japanese friend who collects butterflies, so whenever I go to Okinawa or somewhere & see an unusual or pretty butterfly, I paint a picture of it on a postcard and send it to him. Later, he replies to say thank you & tell me the name & some information about that butterfly.
So, yeh, although I don`t collect butterflies anymore, I definitely still get a kick out of spotting new or unusual ones. And who knows? Maybe one of my kids will want to start a butterfly collection one day. If so, I`ll definitely encourage them & give them a hand, just like my parents did with me.
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