蛍の光 (The Light of the Firefly!)

Tonight my co-worker took me on a hotaru (firefly) hunt. The adventure unfolded yesterday afternoon when he saw me leave 茶道部 with a flower called 蛍袋 (hotarubukuro). Children enjoy tucking fireflies within the deep, pouch-like petals, which then light up from the creatures' glow. I'd heard the explanation numerous times, but I hadn't considered that I'd never seen a firefly. When Takase-sensei learned that, he offered to show me some!

In search of hotaru, we stopped by the home of one of the school office ladies. She lives beside a river, and fireflies, who apparently love clean water, repeatedly flock there. At first sight of the hotaru, I had to remind myself that the flying lights were bugs. Having seen nothing of the kind in Hawaii, they reminded me more of fairies than of anything I knew.

I didn't take any pictures, so I drew you one. That's what fireflies look like in the dusk.

A small group of us convened among the high grass, and between six humans and two dogs, we snagged a few glowing bugs for me to hold. Though I'd forgotten my flowers at home, my co-worker's wife showed up with a lavender hotarubukuro, into which she dropped two fireflies. I watched the soft green light pulse one, two, three behind the petals.

The firefly image I had in my mind was far from reality. Sometimes reality is not as fun as my imagination.

Catching Fireflies: Japanese summer memory ゲットした!