【Watching Sea Fireflies】2026.8.7
We went out to the shore with our foreign staff and their families to watch the sea fireflies.
Sea fireflies are tiny crustaceans, about 3 mm long.
Relatives of shrimp and crabs, they burrow into the sand by day and become active at night.
When disturbed they release a luminous substance, showing an otherworldly blue light.
Tiny sea fireflies glittering on the dark beach.
And when you happen to look up, a sky full of stars above.
Glittering on the sand.
Glittering in the sky.
Local residents had prepared and were running this event.
Seeing that, our Indonesian staff naturally began to help out.
No one had asked them; they simply got moving.
Before we knew it, they were even wearing the glowing bracelets that mark the event staff.
Watching them work their way in among the local people like this and settle into the community made us quietly proud.
The photo shows, from behind, the family of a staff member who had only arrived in Japan with him in June, looking up at the night sky.
Beside them, their son’s eyes were shining every bit as brightly as the stars.
He has been in Japan only about two months.
This is his first summer here.
The summer festival, the sea, the night sky, and the blue glow of the sea fireflies.
We wonder how the scenery of our home, so familiar to us, looks through his eyes.
The glitter on the sand.
The glitter in the sky.
The bracelets glowing on our staff’s wrists.
And the glitter in a child’s eyes.
It became an unforgettable summer night, full of light.