sea fireflies
one summer my girlfriend and i made plans to escape the sweltering, treeless urbanity of osaka and visit a country inn off the coast of mie prefecture. a week before the day arrived we broke up, but decided to go anyways, unwilling to abandon our long anticipated holiday from the city’s oppressive concrete.
we teased each other and laughed more easily than before, but a bittersweet suspicion we might never afterward meet again also haunted the edges of those sparkling moments.
the inn was situated on a rural island, accessible only by boat. we traveled as far as the coast by train, finally sliding past the seemingly interminable suburbs of osaka into a mountainous wilderness punctuated with picturesque tile roofed villages and rice fields. idealizing each place as they passed; i imagined unhurried afternoons, earthy smells, birdsong, abundant shade…. so far from the sweat and gritty pavement we’d left behind, rural fantasies with no blaring televisions.
after crossing an ocean channel in a ferry loaded with produce and other holiday makers we were met ashore by a woman holding a purple flag, our signal. the woman was aloof and quite curt with us, perhaps disturbed at the unexpected appearance of a towering foreigner and a korean when she’d no doubt expected a nice japanese couple. she was friendly the next day. delightful muzak played in the red carpeted lobby, a soft, tinkling, nostalgic music of bells, some cheap keyboard approximation thereof, perfectly evoking an atmosphere of gauzy contentment. a sense of perfect well-being settled on us considering relaxation and the enjoyment of refined sensuality the only tasks of the immediate future.
if you’ve never had a japanese country inn experience the basic premise is this: a spacious traditional room (straw mat flooring, sliding doors, ect.) and a nice view. staff prepare a luxurious evening meal and a respectable breakfast which are served in the room. also there are open air hot baths and various other amenities depending. our view was good, overlooking a verdantly forested hill and the ocean. the air was cool and clean, sounds of breaking surf and buzzing locusts. after a brief rest we went for an ocean swim. there were school children camping under the supervision of teachers on the beach. three naked boys surmounted a wooden platform floating near the shore and loudly sang ridiculous songs, arms over shoulders chorus line style, hips gyrating, penises swinging synchronized in circular arcs, laughing irreverently and falling sideways into the ocean. the sun set and we exploded fireworks on the beach, saving a few choice items as parting gifts for the children.
afterward we put on provided robes and settled into the room for the evening meal, without a doubt the most opulent i’ve ever eaten. there were roughly 25 items, each served in a separate dish, mostly fresh seafood and local specialties, various sashimi and grilled shellfish, seaweed and seasoned rice, smoked fish eggs and deliciously pickled vegetables, subtle tofu and mildly sweet pudding, all truly decadent and perfectly matched to the cool sake we re-ordered several times. while serving the meal staff asked if we’d like to see the “sea fireflies” later in the evening. curious, we accepted the invitation and were instructed to meet in the lobby at a prescribed hour.
when the hour arrived only a few other guests had gathered, all young people dressed in light summer robes like ours. the inn was mostly empty that evening. we piled into a van and a young brother / sister pair took us on a brief tour of the island, pointing out a scenic harbor and enjoining us to momentarily enjoy a cool evening breeze which passed refreshingly over a certain bridge. we were taken to another harbor and led onto a shrimp cultivation ship, a low, shallow hulled ship with a grid of regularly spaced hatches across it’s deck. i expected we’d set out to sea, but instead a hatch was thrown open and we observed the water inside filled with iridescently sparkling plankton, shimmering like stars in the deep black of outer space. we all crouched around open hatches and gazed amazed as children into the glittering depths, like staring into the densest regions of a milky way where the stars died and were reborn in rapid succession, a dazzling, psychedelic shimmer. the brother dipped a pole in and stirred it around, trailing a sparkling wake of light to a chorus of amazed sighs and soft exclamations. the sister apologized because evidently the effect was fairly weak that night, but it was yet otherworldly enough. she told how certain times the entire harbor sparkled like this and continued with various anecdotes of coastal country life, relating how miscreants had stolen most of the shrimp from this particular boat earlier that summer. we could have stayed there a very long time staring entranced into the infinite hull, but eventually closed up and returned to the inn, intoxicated with resplendent beauty of what we’d seen.
the next morning after a hearty breakfast of grilled fish, rice, eggs, miso soup, and pickled vegetables we returned to the mainland and rode the train back to osaka, passing in reverse the previous journey’s villages and towns, holding hands discreetly, content in the success of our shared getaway. we said nothing of the future at the grimy train station where we parted.