fireflies

I'm back at school, after a varied weekend. It was relaxing, tiring, boring, lonely and great at times. I guess that sums up my mixed emotions about everything and life at the moment!

On Friday, I met up with some friends for dinner. For once, we went somewhere in my town - it was one of the few times I've met up with friends in the plural in my local shopping centre, which was good but weird as it doesn't happen very often...
Then on Sat, I went to the beach again with some friends. We had a bit of a mid morning picnic; then a swim & before going home, I was dropped off in a neighbouring town for a cookery class. Another Brit and I 'assisted' i guess is the word, a group of mostly old Japanese ladies cooking British cuisine - shepherd's pie, cauliflower cheese (yuck) and Eve's pudding. It was a bit of a trauma at times... eg when making the Eve's pudding, one lady nearly put a raw egg on top of the stewed apples, before making the sponge cake mixture; and I was a bit of a stickler to the recipes to the chagrin of my compatriot, which made a few things a bit interesting, or would have done without her intervention.After that I went home and did nothing.

On Sun, I went to church in the morning & had my final church lunch. Had a bit of a panic just before as someone told me some bombs had gone off in London. Well I'd read the news the day before, but then checked the internet again and read about the stuff in Glasgow. It doesn't instill a sense of excited anticipation to go back to Britain- obviously it'll be nice seeing family and friends and being back in the English speaking world etc- but what can you do? I'm planning on going to the Philippines for a few weeks before coming home. I've heard that Manila's not the safest place, but with Britain on high alert, it seems like no-where's safe [except Japan, but even here there are dodgy people around].

Sorry that wasn't meant to turn so sombre!! I had intended to write that I'm back at school today. I don't have to teach any lessons, because they're giving the tests back to students. In the 2nd period though, I'll go along to a 3rd year music class, where we're playing the bamboo flute. It's great. One of the beginners pieces we played... oh wait a sec, i can write out the music here- is called 'hotarukoi'. Hotaru means fireflies. They're a symbol of summer in Japan apparently. Yesterday I had a chance to see some- they're really cool.

After church lunch, general hanging around; showing a friend how to play the piano from reading the (guitar) chords rather than piano music & having a practice for next week; I went out for dinner with some of the young people.The idea was to have dinner first, and in so doing, wait until it gets dark enough to see the fireflies. So we had a nice soba dinner & then sorted out car logistics & drove to Osato cho - another neighbouring town. According to the wikipedia, fireflies live in temperate or tropical places, around wet areas. So we went to a little stream & saw tons. They are bright flourescent yellow, but then their light disappears a bit and comes back again. You can catch them & they glow in your hand - just little insects with a yellow glow. After a while of trying to catch them and taking photos; we ended up lying down (on a deserted road off the beaten track!); gazing at the stars & watching the fireflies. Sometimes you don't know what's a firefly or a star, until you see it move! According to our guide around the countryside back roads, yesterday was the last day of the firefly season. Then someone stood up to go, and we all went home. It was very fun, and just nice to go out and do something different with friends I usually just see at church/ hanging around the church office/ play music with. They all came out as a kind of good bye for me, but I hope we can do something else again before I go...(Maybe i'll type up the music later, it's a bit tricky to do!)

In the mean time, here are the lyrics to the song. - ほ　ほ　ほたる　こい。　あっちのみずはにがいぞ。　こっちのみずはあまいぞ。　ほ　ほ　ほたるこい。　[Ho ho hotaru koi. Acchi no mizu ha nigaizo. Kocchi no mizu ha amaizo. Ho ho hotarukoi.According to my translation - fire fire firefly come here! The water over there seems bitter to me. But this water here seems sweet, don't you think? Fire fire firefly come here. (not exactly literal, but fits with the melody!)] Meanwhile, one of the teachers at school has just told me that on July 16th, there will be fireflies by the river in Rifu. An event will be held where someone will play the　篠笛 (bamboo flute) - most likely this same tune, there will be food and firefly watching/ catching! sounds like fun