No, Really, I Am an American

I read about this festival, the Amanogawa Hotaru Matsuri (Firefly Fetival), in the June issue of the Kansai Scene at the beginning of the month and it sounded like a wicked cool thing to see. I also thought it would be mildly appropriate because it would fall on Firefly Sunday. I was pretty bummed that for various reasons, the usual suspects would be unable to assemble. I was actually at a loss. I have become rather accustomed to meeting and hanging out every Sunday that when we don’t meet, I get a bit confused. Like I really have no idea what I should do. I also felt like it really wouldn’t be right going to this festival alone. It seemed like the kind of thing to be shared with friends.

I’d been hanging out with Kat quite a bit recently — we do a Tuesday morning breakfast thing and because of my past two Thursday swaps, we’ve been wont to go to Starbuck’s after work. It was there that I got it in my head that maybe Kat would want to go. I was quite pleased that she accepted, as Kat is good people.

I have never been to Shiga Prefecture, and the transportation website I usually use said it would take about two hours to get there. With this in mind, I figured leaving as soon as possible would be the best. And since I got out of work at 3ish, it all seemed quite feasible.

After a quick shower and confirming train times and directions to the best of my ability, I sent a text to Kat and was out the door. We managed to catch appropriate trains and it seemed like we would be making good time. Kat is a pretty comfortable person to be around, so the train right was rather pleasant.

When we arrived in Maibara, we found the shuttle bus pretty easily. It all seemed like things would work out quite well. The only minor hitch was that the bust would return at 10:00, and the last train was at 10:17. At first, we thought nothing of it and decided we would still go. We had about an hour to kill before the bus would depart for the site, so we decided to buy some snacks at the supermarket across the street. We were also in search of an ATM as Kat was uncertain of her funds. (We never did find one.)

As the hour approached the bus departure time, we headed back to the station. We also took this opportunity to confirm times and tried to synchronize the schedules. I managed to ask the bu ladies about how long the bus ride would be, and we were beginning to feel less confident about taking the bus from Maibara. The ladies were kind enough to give us a refund on the bus ticket and direct us to the next station where we could catch another bus that left on the hours. Kat was pretty chill about everything, but I admit I was starting to get a bit more anxious. The last thing I wanted to happen was to get stranded somewhere.

The bus ladies wrote down the name of the next station for us on a piece of paper. Unfortunately for us, the train map only had major stops written in English. The lady who spoke more English mentioned that our destination, Omi-Nagaoka, was only two stops away. We took a chance and purchased Y230 tickets. If all else failed, there was always a fare adjustment.

We asked one of the train conductors which train we would need. He gestured to the one that was presently on the track. Well that seemed to work out rather well. I still wasn’t so confident that ti was the right train, though. I noticed that it was a Special Rapid, which meant that it would be making limited stops.

“If all else fails, we can always just go back. At least we had a fun train ride.”

I kinda nodded absently. I didn’t mind having such a misadventure, but I didn’t want Kat to have wasted her money. The ride to the next station seemed to be taking quite a while, which didn’t help in the “I think we took the wrong train” thought.

It turned out that the stations were just spaced apart wicked far. I guess I’m used to the stations in the city. Again, luck seemed to be with us as we found the shuttle pretty easily, and coincidentally, we ran into Mike and Anna. (They were trying to go on a date.)

We boarded the bus and sat in front of them, telling them about our minor misadventure. They had taken the shinkansen, which was why they pretty much arrived at the same time we did. We departed from the station not long after we got there. The folks who were running the shuttle service were all wearing these bright neon-yellow jackets. One of them stood in front of us to give us a kind of background about fireflies and the festival. She made some joke about the paper fans we bought, which served as a ticket for the bus. It was amusing ‘cuz she was like, “You all paid 500 yen for this, though I don’t know why, so be sure to treasure it.” Or so Mike translated. It was awesome. It was kinda sarcastic. I was impressed.

When we arrived at our destination, it was nothing like I expected. Festivals to me mean lots of vendors and people. This was more like firefly viewing than anything else. Not that I’m complaining, ‘cuz it was actually wicked cool. We were taken to a kind of field along the river in the middle of nowhere and as we approached, we could see the glow of many fireflies lighting the area. According to the map, there were many locations to see fireflies. So, if there were like about a hundred in this one spot, and there were like seven or eight other locations with about the same amount, that’s a heckuva lotta fireflies. I was definitely starting to relax. I even snapped a few pics, only one of them turned out cool, but still.

Kat was really impressed since she’d never seen fireflies before. We walked along the path to watch them, and I even managed to catch one. I told Kat about how they used to be all around in our neighborhood when I was a kid and how I used to catch them all the time. It was a most nostalgic viewing.

It really didn’t take that long to walk the path, so after about an hour, we headed back to the bus stop. We ended up back at the station about a half hour earlier than we expected, and we even managed to catch a Special Rapid.

Despite not sharing it with all of the Firefly Sunday group, it was still a grand Firefly Sunday.