Akasaka Hie Jinja Cicadas

The soothing hiss of summertime cicadas is a pervasive part of the Japanese soundscape. There are over 30 species of cicada in Japan and they can be heard even in downtown Tokyo or Osaka in the summer. A popular pastime for young boys is Japan is to hunt cicadas which are then kept as pets. Cicadas are benign to humans and do not bite or sting, but can cause damage to several cultivated crops, shrubs, and trees. The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada, meaning "buzzer". There are some 200 species in Australia, 450 in Africa, 150 species in South Africa, and exactly one species in England. This sound uses the following sound file from Freesound (http://www.freesound.org): AkasakaHieJinjaCicadas_4mics.wav by markystar