Firefly Viewing Magic

      Yesterday was Saturday, my first weekend day I could spend with my host sister since she has been home!! ((It was also the first day that Saki was probably fully recovered from her Jet-lag!))

  So my friend Josh's host-family and my host-family are really close friends, so other than us being neighbors, our families spend a lot of time together ((which is nice~)). Yesterday, I went over to Josh's house in the morning while my host-mother ran errands, and Josh's little host-brother took us all to the park to play soccer with some of his friends! (: They were all only nine years old and less afraid of me, so I had an easier time talking with them than I did with the students at my school.... Plus, we all bonded over playing soccer, something we all loved. I had to be careful playing with them because they were only nine and therefore two feet shorter than me, but it was such a nice gesture to invite me to play! (:

     After Soccer, I went with Josh's family to meet up with my family at a karaoke bar in town~! I was so excited to finally do karaoke in Japan, I was able to sing a lot of my favorite songs ((Japanese and English))! However, karaoke in Japan is more serious than in America-- We were at karaoke for 4 hours. hey, we were in Japan, Go big or Go home, am I right?? x)

Saki and Josh at karaoke~!

     Going into the evening, our families took us to the zoo as the sun was going down for an activity I have very much been wanting to try!! (: We were going firefly viewing at the zoo!! :) firefly viewing is a popular summer activity in Japan! 

my extended host family, including Josh and Mark(:

      We were waiting in a long line for a while until it look us into a forest where the fireflies were. This activity definitely lived up to the hype about it. There were no lights on the path in the forest, and the suddenly there were millions of fireflies lighting up the forest as if they were tiny stars. The only thing we could hear were the sounds of millions of frogs and crickets echoing in the forest and the sound of flowing water in the nearby creek; All we could see were millions of fireflies surrounding us, lighting the way. Last night was purely magic; I have never before witnessed something so magnificent in nature. And on top of everything, I was able to experience it with my host family and friends....In Japan. (: The word to describe last night was perfect. If you find yourself in Japan during summer in the near future, this is something you do not want to miss!

Basically what the forest looked like, but it was more dark....
photo credits to whoever put this on tumblr lol

~Jane Claire (o^^o)