A Story From Living in Tokyo – Near a “Pet” Store

I found the toad in a ditch next to the street I was taking home from the station. I took her back with me and put her in an old aquarium I had. It was a her. I know that because she was full of eggs, which she got on everything. She made so much noise continually bumping against the glass that I eventually let her loose inside my apartment.

I'm not sure what kind it was, but I was thinking a Cane Toad, since handling it seemed to give me funny sensations. I'd heard some of these toads had a psychedelic toxin and I thought maybe this one was putting some of that on me. When I picked her up or let her walk on me – everything in my Tokyo apartment was close to the ground and I often fell asleep on the floor – I was getting mild heart palpitations and a weird type of skewed perception.

I went the the pet store and bought her “pinkies” – baby mice – for a while. But it got on my nerves to witness an amphibian, two steps down the evolutionary ladder, gobbling up little mammals so unconcernedly. Finally, I opened the door one afternoon and just let the toad hop back out into the neighborhood.

You know that old saw about getting warts from toads? A couple of days after the toad left, I got a few little green pimples on my chest and arms.