What a tough tick! It must have come into the house on my clothing (after hiking in the forest), and survived a ride in the washing machine. After this, it fell onto the floor and Shinobu trod on it and then tried to squish it with some tissue paper. She threw the “dead bug” into the bin… However, later that evening I saw it crawling across the floor! It was then that I realized it was a tick. They do carry diseases in Japan (e.g. lyme disease and scrub typhus), so we’re going to be careful to check ourselves after hikes from now on.

Arachnida: Acari (mites & ticks)
= madani
(I hate to admit defeat, but I’ve not been able to identify this species yet…)

Location: Munakata Common (Google map).