Dinner and Fireflies

Last night, Laura and I went to Emiko's house for dinner and firefly viewing. Two others from Laura's eikaiwa group joined in the fun.

I rarely see the sun setting from this side of town. Around the rice fields were so many frogs! It was difficult not to step on them.

Kikugawa is famous for somen noodles.

Emiko bought some gorgeous desserts from a cake shop called Santa Claus. Because she was expecting two others to attend the evening's festivities, the men in the group were forced to eat extra desserts. I was so stuffed from the somen and sushi that I opted for the smallest dessert. In general, I find Japanese cakes to be extremely disappointing: beautiful in appearance, completely lacking in taste. Surprisingly, these were aesthetically pleasing and quite delicious.

We planned to go to Toyota, but the evening's weather was too cool, which is poor for firefly viewing. We decided to try the Kikugawa Firefly Festival instead.

Fish on a stick.

We caught a couple fireflies to inspect them and to show Laura what one looks like. Compared to the type of fireflies we have in Indiana, these Japanese ones are a little smaller.

Laura is inspecting the cherries on the trees. We tried a few, but our Japanese friends thought they were disgusting.

Apparently the cherries can be used as a face paint. Kowaii!!