Happy Hotaru

On Thursday night, two of students from my Thursday class, Hamuri and Satoko, took me and the kids to see hotaru, fireflies. There are several places near the base where they breed, around cute little streams, it was really beautiful. It's probably been 15 years or more since I've seen fireflies and it was the first time ever for Ethan. He was a little afraid at first, but pretty soon he and Satoko were running along the stream trying to catch one. They told us there was a Firefly festival in Fussa last weekend, we hadn't heard anything about it, but I've already marked on the calendar for next summer!

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After the fireflies we went to Saty mall in Hino City for ice cream at Baskins Robbins. Malls in Japan stay open until 10p or 11p every night. Harumi's daughter Ayumi (in black in the middle) came along to translate because Harumi and Satoko get nervous about their English. Ayumi just returned from attending college in Seattle and San Fransico for 2 years, her English is flawless, she doesn't even have an accent.

They have some really different flavors at Baskin Robbins here (I hear a lot of Japanese people just calling it "31") like Pink Grapefruit Sorbet & Cream, Blueberry Panna Cotta (Panna Cotta is a creamy, Italian dessert) and Dainagon Azuki. Azuki is a very popular sweet, red bean that's used for lots of desserts, I think it's yucky (surprise, surprise). I had double chocolate cheesecake, yummy! But no Chocolate n' Peanutbutter, my all time fave. I wonder if they have regional flavors like we do in the States?

It was a fun night, and a nice change of pace, staying out until 10:30 on a Thursday night.