Kogane-gumo

The name of this little buddy in Japanese in kogane-gumo. In English he's often called Writing Spider, Zipper Spider or very originally, Yellow and Black Garden Spider.

I was about 15 when I first saw one of these guys in my garden in California and I almost died of fear. It was the biggest spider I'd ever seen, and then it chased me around the yard. (People never believe this, but ask my mom, she was there.)

Then I came to Japan. Probably within hours of arriving in my new home, I saw about three- bigger than the one before. In the summer and early autumn they are EVERYWHERE in this area. Around this time of year is when they start getting nice and fat.

(I got three mosquito bites in the less than 5 minutes it took to take this photo... it's been really bad this summer, I must have become more delicious. On two separate occasions, I racked up 60+ bites in one weekend. After the second time around I bought some bug repellent...)