Saturday, July 11, 2009

Fishing lights

Right now I am in Hakodate. I gave a lecture at the Future University Hakodate.

The night fell. I was at a Sushi restaurant with my friends. As I strolled onto the street, I saw glaring lights in the distance. At first I was confused. Then I realized that they were on the sea.

"They are Isaribi", my friend said.

A poetic Japanese word for the fishing lights. With these glitters, the fishermen attract squids. We had just enjoyed one in the Sushi restaurant.

For some time, I could not turn my eyes away from the fishing lights. They were like apparitions which did not quite belong to this earth.

3 comments:

Utako said...

"Isaribi" (fishing lights)waving and firing on the sea scared me in my childhood. My grandma told us not to lead by the light when we lost the way in the forest. She said it was burning earthly desires of the day.

Actually, it was the light for fishing squids or flying fish.

A cheerful glaring ship on which hundreds of gods come to bathe in "Spirited Away". It is funny that gods also weary and need hot spring cures.

joshua kohl said...

These lights sound wonderful. There is something about little sparkling or glowing lights in the darkness that I can't keep my eyes off of. I wonder why... My German friend (who is no longer living) said that when our eyes see colors, it burns sugars in the brain and gives us a high. In English we say "eye candy". Which is funny, because we are saying that we are eating the light's sugars with our eyes /brain.

Ken Mogi said...

Dear, Joshua.

Thank you for your comment.
I did not know the expression "eye candy". Nice.
I saw your blog, too. Seems to be that you are up to many many things!