On Saturday, on the kind advice of colleagues, I headed over to Itabashi, on the northeast part of Tokyo, past Ikebukuro and Sugamo, to see fireflies shown to the public only two weekends a year in June and July.
The two firefly breeds are genji-botaru and heike-botaru, and the genji are known for the large light that they produce.
When I had lived down south in Kyushu I had seen fireflies near rivers, watch the specks of light flit about over the chuckling brooks. But these fireflies were much different, almost like miniature beacons in the shed in which they were raised.
People (including me) lined up about an hour before the gates were open (7:30, to coincide with the late sunset) to get tickets with times stamped on them to allow them entrance later. This in the middle of rainy season, in a downpour.
Although I must've spent five minutes at most watching the fireflies I like the fact that I had to make a special journey, get out of the city center, to see the spectacle.
It was a fifty minute ridefrom near Yurakucho station (near Ginza) into an area loaded with nothing but danchi (Japanese low-cost housing), and then a ten minute walk to the center.
The Japan Times has an excellent write-up here:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fq20080613a1.html
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