This past weekend my friend Nick and I hopped in a car and drove 4.5 hours south to the coastal city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. Sendai is one of the cities that was tragically damaged in the March 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami. More on that later.
We arrived at our youth hostel around 7pm. This was the nicest (and most expensive! 4300 yen per night) hostel I have ever stayed in. It was more like a ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. Some lovely hydrangea bushes, a nicely groomed garden, and this lovely fella greeted us upon entering the premises:
We arrived at our youth hostel around 7pm. This was the nicest (and most expensive! 4300 yen per night) hostel I have ever stayed in. It was more like a ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. Some lovely hydrangea bushes, a nicely groomed garden, and this lovely fella greeted us upon entering the premises:
Our room had futons with those big fluffy comforters that I have come to associate with Japanese ryokans. We also had a handy little TV that provided me with much-desired highlights of the Japan vs. Australia Women's World Cup game (Nadeshiko Japan won 1-0, woohoo!).
The hostel/ryokan also had a big ofuro (bath), which was quite relaxing, and a nice common area equipped with wifi, comfy sofas, and a reading nook. Overall, the vibes of this place were off the charts. Our weekend was off to a good start! Or maybe not...
It had been downpour raining for the entire 5 hour drive to Sendai. Sendai isn't exactly close to Aomori, so I had a theory that maybe ALL of Japan was sitting under a giant rain cloud. Here, by the way, is a map to orient you with where Aomori Prefecture (where I live) is in relation to Sendai:
The hostel/ryokan also had a big ofuro (bath), which was quite relaxing, and a nice common area equipped with wifi, comfy sofas, and a reading nook. Overall, the vibes of this place were off the charts. Our weekend was off to a good start! Or maybe not...
It had been downpour raining for the entire 5 hour drive to Sendai. Sendai isn't exactly close to Aomori, so I had a theory that maybe ALL of Japan was sitting under a giant rain cloud. Here, by the way, is a map to orient you with where Aomori Prefecture (where I live) is in relation to Sendai:
I live on the Shimokita Peninsula (top right of the map) and Sendai is about 3/4 of the way down the map on the East Coast.
Back to the story.
My cousin Satoshi and his two college friends picked Nick and I up from our hostel/ryokan to take us firefly hunting. Satoshi's friends were LOVELY! One was a girl, I think her name was Mariko...This is really bad! I forgot her name! I tried to remember her name by thinking, "It sounds like my cousin's daughter's name, Mariko," but now I can't remember what her ACTUAL name is. Anyway, she was very sweet, spoke pretty good English, and is studying to be a pharmacist. His other friend, whose name I forgot altogether, was much quieter, but also very friendly and is studying physics. My cousin, by the way, is a biologist, so basically Nick and I were squeezed into a small car of science-savvy geniuses.
We ate dinner, checked our watches, looked anxiously at the rain falling outside, and quietly prayed that the rain wouldn't ruin our firefly hunting adventure.
Miraculously, the rain stopped after dinner. At one moment we were eating dinner in Sendai, the next moment we took a few turns off a highway, onto a side road, down a narrower road, and suddenly we were in the countryside. We parked the car in a gravel area and set off on foot down the darkest wooded pathway I have ever (not) seen.
The moonlight was very bright, which wasn't good in a couple ways. First, we thought we saw hundreds of fireflies on a tree, but it was just the moonlight reflecting off the wet leaves. Second, the illumination made it harder to spot fireflies. Finally we entered an opening of rice fields and were welcomed by a (very) loud chorus of croaking frogs.
Satoshi first learned about this secret location of fireflies from his professor 10 years ago and has been visiting Sendai every June since. So it was no surprise that he knew exactly where to check: underneath trees next to the calm part of the stream, in a channel that is presumably used to irrigate the rice fields, in a particular set of bushes at the corner of a rice paddy. We dodged puddles, skirted rice paddies, walked gingerly between the stream and a steep drop-off into a rice field that was audibly populated with a million hungry frogs.
To no avail.
We saw a handful of fireflies, but not the thousands of floating green beauties that Satoshi had spoken of. I, personally, was having a blast. I quite enjoyed the scavenger hunt for fireflies. The air was very clear, the moon was bright, the frogs were singing, and it was all very different than anything I ever did for fun back in Virginia. Satoshi, his friends, and Nick, though, were quite disappointed.
As we began heading back, I spotted a few floating green lights off in a distant corner of the opening. Satoshi had never explored there before, but we decided to try it out. Satoshi and I ran and jumped across a creek and were feeling very proud of ourselves when we looked up and saw Nick crossing a bridge a little further down...
Satoshi pointed out the different types of fireflies. The area we were in had just two types: One was big and stayed illuminated for a couple seconds at a time. It's light was a soft green and it was mesmerizing to watch. The other was small and flickered on and off like someone switching the lights on and off to get someone's attention.
Some of them drifted off into the trees at the edge of the patch of grass we were exploring, others nestled in the grass, apparently too lazy to spread its wings and fly.
Over all we only saw a dozen or two fireflies, but the adventure itself was exciting. It ended with Satoshi taking an alternate GPS route through an extremely tight, winding back road. This turns were so hairpin-tight that, even though I was sitting in the back middle seat, I couldn't see the road continuing. On multiple instances I thought the road was going to end and we would have to reverse drive aaaallllll the way back i.e. we would die out in the middle of nowhere.
Luckily, Satoshi was of Indiana Jones caliber, navigating the road deftly and avoiding hitting what looked like a wolf-deer that darted in front of the car. We call him Indiana Jones now.
I think the most exciting thing for me was how awesome it was just to be able to see my Japanese cousin. I had contacted him a few weeks before, we decided to meet up in Sendai, and voila! A few weeks later, there we were, having an epic firefly hunting adventure in Sendai, Japan. Moments like that make me so happy (and thankful!) that I joined the JET Programme.
Back to the story.
My cousin Satoshi and his two college friends picked Nick and I up from our hostel/ryokan to take us firefly hunting. Satoshi's friends were LOVELY! One was a girl, I think her name was Mariko...This is really bad! I forgot her name! I tried to remember her name by thinking, "It sounds like my cousin's daughter's name, Mariko," but now I can't remember what her ACTUAL name is. Anyway, she was very sweet, spoke pretty good English, and is studying to be a pharmacist. His other friend, whose name I forgot altogether, was much quieter, but also very friendly and is studying physics. My cousin, by the way, is a biologist, so basically Nick and I were squeezed into a small car of science-savvy geniuses.
We ate dinner, checked our watches, looked anxiously at the rain falling outside, and quietly prayed that the rain wouldn't ruin our firefly hunting adventure.
Miraculously, the rain stopped after dinner. At one moment we were eating dinner in Sendai, the next moment we took a few turns off a highway, onto a side road, down a narrower road, and suddenly we were in the countryside. We parked the car in a gravel area and set off on foot down the darkest wooded pathway I have ever (not) seen.
The moonlight was very bright, which wasn't good in a couple ways. First, we thought we saw hundreds of fireflies on a tree, but it was just the moonlight reflecting off the wet leaves. Second, the illumination made it harder to spot fireflies. Finally we entered an opening of rice fields and were welcomed by a (very) loud chorus of croaking frogs.
Satoshi first learned about this secret location of fireflies from his professor 10 years ago and has been visiting Sendai every June since. So it was no surprise that he knew exactly where to check: underneath trees next to the calm part of the stream, in a channel that is presumably used to irrigate the rice fields, in a particular set of bushes at the corner of a rice paddy. We dodged puddles, skirted rice paddies, walked gingerly between the stream and a steep drop-off into a rice field that was audibly populated with a million hungry frogs.
To no avail.
We saw a handful of fireflies, but not the thousands of floating green beauties that Satoshi had spoken of. I, personally, was having a blast. I quite enjoyed the scavenger hunt for fireflies. The air was very clear, the moon was bright, the frogs were singing, and it was all very different than anything I ever did for fun back in Virginia. Satoshi, his friends, and Nick, though, were quite disappointed.
As we began heading back, I spotted a few floating green lights off in a distant corner of the opening. Satoshi had never explored there before, but we decided to try it out. Satoshi and I ran and jumped across a creek and were feeling very proud of ourselves when we looked up and saw Nick crossing a bridge a little further down...
Satoshi pointed out the different types of fireflies. The area we were in had just two types: One was big and stayed illuminated for a couple seconds at a time. It's light was a soft green and it was mesmerizing to watch. The other was small and flickered on and off like someone switching the lights on and off to get someone's attention.
Some of them drifted off into the trees at the edge of the patch of grass we were exploring, others nestled in the grass, apparently too lazy to spread its wings and fly.
Over all we only saw a dozen or two fireflies, but the adventure itself was exciting. It ended with Satoshi taking an alternate GPS route through an extremely tight, winding back road. This turns were so hairpin-tight that, even though I was sitting in the back middle seat, I couldn't see the road continuing. On multiple instances I thought the road was going to end and we would have to reverse drive aaaallllll the way back i.e. we would die out in the middle of nowhere.
Luckily, Satoshi was of Indiana Jones caliber, navigating the road deftly and avoiding hitting what looked like a wolf-deer that darted in front of the car. We call him Indiana Jones now.
I think the most exciting thing for me was how awesome it was just to be able to see my Japanese cousin. I had contacted him a few weeks before, we decided to meet up in Sendai, and voila! A few weeks later, there we were, having an epic firefly hunting adventure in Sendai, Japan. Moments like that make me so happy (and thankful!) that I joined the JET Programme.