Can one person make a difference? To the fireflies in Takano - yes!

I recently had the privilege to travel to Japan. During the trip I met a few japanese and some became my new friends.

This was a particularly fruitful trip for me as I tried homestay for the first time in my life and it was really rewarding to experience life hands on in a different country.

There was this morning where I was awaken by the loud noises downstairs. I was really reluctant to go down to check as I was exhausted having arrived on an early morning flight the day before and had a full day of walking.

The noise it turn out was from my host's 11 year old son. He was angry over not being able to sleep the night before and hence woke up late... too late to finish to his homework in the morning. So he was stomping all over the kitchen and throwing things about.

What was interesting to me was not that he was angry but because we are so used to concrete floor and walls, I didnt realised how un-sound-proof houses are in Japan until that morning. Sounds that we generally filtered out like of footsteps, fridge doors, toilet doors, any doors were amplified. Maybe japanese houses are built in this way to minimize the scope of destruction in the event of earthquake. Light but strong... hmmm....

But I digress, the main subject of today's blog is about this remarkable japanese whom I met in Takano. It was really a chance encounter. Many asked me of my trip to Japan whether I met any cute handsome guys and my answer was "Yes" but they forgot to add young to the list as all of them are above 50 years old.

This remarkable man apparently came to Malaysia 10 years ago and saw our fireflies. He fell head over heels in love (I added this on my own but who wouldn't if you see these fireflies plus 10 years ago must have been more beautiful).

So he was determined to bring these fireflies back to his hometown and began to cultivate them as fireflies need river, clean water and food (trees).

Through his hardwork, there are now annual fireflies sightings in Takano where locals around Osaka will come every June to see them.... Wow!!

But this was not the only thing that struck me. The thing that struck me most was when he mentioned that the fireflies in Malaysia are more beautiful... I was dumbfounded....

Ours was more beautiful?! What have we done for nature to deserve this wonderful spectacle which we can enjoy all year round in Malaysia. Not only that I was too embarrassed to tell him that many of the fireflies in Malaysia are gone due to rapid development and river pollution.

So what can one man in Japan do that we so many in Malaysia cannot? Perhaps that is why malaysian have concrete floorings... to cover our loud footsteps noises. Perhaps we should pay attention and listen. In listening to act before it's too late.