From the Kumamoto International Desk of Animals that Insist on Defying Classification (merged with the Republican Party Study Desk due to redundancy). A recent post regarding Ariake Sea brought a query regarding whether it was safe to venture into, and my advice is: Sure! - as long as you are accompanied by a friend with a rope to haul you out and some antibiotics just in case. There is one animal, however, which has made what should be an uninhabitable zone its home: the mudskipper (オキスデルシス亜科, in case anyone asks), which are a group of vertebrate amphibious fish which couldn’t decide whether to continue with aquatic life or terrestrial living, so equivocated. They are extremely rare in the world, as most fish are pretty decisive about being fish, and their presence in the Ariake Sea area is mostly attributed to stubbornness. “Skip” in English can mean either to avoid an obligation or to glide over a surface, both of which this creature is adept at. They are kind of cute if you judge cuteness by resembling a lifeform from an alien planet. The males aggressively defend their territory, while the females spend most of their time burrowed into the mud as they understandably seem to find that preferable to mingling with the males. A large park exists in the northwestern quadrant of Kumamoto Shinko which provides easy access to the mudflats, and if you’re lucky or not, you may glimpse one.