Firefly

Last night a friend and I went to a festival in the nearby city of Ashikaga.  The festival is small, and held every year for twenty days in June.  It is at the Nagusa Firefly Village, which as far as I can make out (my friend speaks good, but not fluent English so a little bit gets lost in translation) is a farm where fireflies are bred.  The farm is up in the mountains in a little valley and every night from about 8 to 9 dozens of fireflies come out over the little river running under the mountains.  People come and stand on a bridge and watch the "show".  Something about it reminded me a little of going to see Greenville's Roper Mountain light show at Christmas.  Except fireflies instead of Christmas lights.....

Since it's a small local festival there isn't much on the Internet about it, but I did find this site listing some Ashikaga attractions and if you read down the list it's there.  And a little info. here.  The girl I went with is from Ashikaga and actually grew up very near where the festival is held so that is how she knew about it.

Of course it was dark, and you aren't supposed to disturb the fireflies with camera flashes but I did get a few (bad) shots of the festival entrance.

red, white and blue lanterns show the way up the mountain

food vendors and an eating area at the entrance to the valley