Humidity, Fireflies, Binzuru

I'm well into my third summer in Japan now and the humidity has hit rather uncomfortable levels - and it's still rising. The mountains surrounding the city have changed from pure white to lush green in a matter of months. It doesn't feel like that long ago when I was sliding down the snow on skiis, when it was so cold I got sick to the stomach. Nowadays I ride my bike to work every day through the stifling heat in a shirt and tie; no one's yet to successfully convince my boss that short-sleeve shirts and no ties are the way to go in summer. Hmm.

There are good things about summer, however, and this year I was quite looking forward to seeing some fireflies for the first time. (An American girl I know keeps insisting that they're called "lightning bugs"... silly Americans!) So yesterday I headed into the mountains to meet up with a whole crowd of people I've only met once. It was just a general gathering, with heaps of homemade cosmopolitan foods, and everyone was looking forward to walking down to the river when it got dark to see the fireflies.

Unfortunately, in the evening, ominous grey clouds rolled in and it started to rain, extinguishing any hope of seeing them. I was pretty disappointed, and it didn't help that people kept coming up to me and saying how unfortunate it was that I wouldn't get to see a firefly for the first time.

Some time later, after it was well and truly dark, the rain ceased. We chanced a trip down to the river, stumbling down the road in the dark, to see what we could see... and saw nothing. All was still and quiet, so some people headed back. I lingered about with some other guys for a few moments more, when... there! A single speck of light moving with purpose above the river. And there! Another one, hovering by the bank! It seemed that after the bulk of the noisy crowd had gone, a few fireflies were happy to float around for a bit, despite the wet conditions.

That was a nice first, though to be honest, I haven't been so active in my travels and doings recently. I do, however, have a bunch of things lined up this summer, one of which is Nagano's annual Binzuru Festival - a traditional dance through the streets by hundreds and hundreds of people - which I always watch. This time, however, I'll be participating, with the people from work and (potentially) some students. It's gonna be another new and interesting experience for me, but... jumping and dancing around in the city's stifling humidity for three hours straight... it's gonna be pretty taxing!

Work's still going really well; damn, my kids are growing up fast. I have photos of some of them from our company's bus hiking event two years ago, and wow, they've changed a lot. I've learnt a lot myself, in the ways of teaching. It's almost hard to believe that in 6 months' time I'll have to make the decision again of whether to stay here for another year or leave. But there's still plenty of time before then, and I don't have any clue of what I wanna do yet anyway, so in the meantime, I'll just enjoy whatever comes my way.