If you think this might make you uncomfortable, please refrain from reading further. Near my place, there are many cherry blossom trees, and they look beautiful in spring. However, in May and June, an astonishing number of caterpillars suddenly appear. It would be wise to spray insecticide regularly before that happens, but I live in a place called Funabashi City, and though I'm not proud to say it, the local government is incredibly negligent. It's only around the time when the caterpillars have fully emerged that they finally decide to carry out a mass insecticide operation. As a result, the whole town becomes littered with caterpillar corpses. I think it's something unimaginable to those who have never seen it, but it's a truly grotesque sight.

Last summer, I was taking a walk around 6 a.m. and came across a pesticide-spraying truck. It was the first time I had encountered such a thing since moving here, so I didn't quite understand what was happening. As I leisurely strolled beneath the cherry blossom trees, something white started falling down like a shower of cherry blossoms from above. Curious about what it was, I took a closer look, and to my surprise, it was caterpillars. Countless caterpillars were wriggling and crawling on the road, resembling a twisted, squirming carpet, and more caterpillars were descending from above, one after another.

I want to raise my voice and say that it's extremely inconvenient to have such chaotic operations carried out without any prior notice. Waking up in the morning and finding the streets filled with caterpillars is like being in a panic movie. Why don't they at least use a public announcement vehicle or something to say, "We will be spraying insecticide tomorrow morning, so please be aware of the caterpillars"? Additionally, when the city sprayed insecticide on the grassy area across from my house, hundreds of caterpillars, big and small, rushed across the road and charged into my yard. It was genuinely creepy. If you dislike caterpillars, I strongly advise against living in Funabashi City. However, I must admit that peanut butter is still delicious here.