Namerikawa

Getting up before dawn for anything takes real convincing, and Lia is usually the harder sell, so it says something that she was the one setting alarms for our morning in Namerikawa. She’d read that for a few weeks every spring, firefly squid swarm the shallow waters here in numbers rare enough that pre-dawn boat tours from the harbor sell out well in advance, and she wasn’t going to let a little sleep deprivation stand between us and bioluminescent squid. We booked a tour out of the harbor beside the Hotaruika Museum months ahead, and still nearly missed out, which tells you how seriously locals take this small, strange window of the year.

Before Sunrise on Toyama Bay

We boarded in near-total darkness, the boat’s crew moving with the practiced efficiency of people who’d done this every clear morning of the season already. Out on Toyama Bay, the water was black and still, mountains just barely visible as a darker line against the pre-dawn sky, and there was a long stretch of quiet anticipation before anything happened at all. Lia sat wrapped in a blanket someone had handed her, watching the horizon for the first hint of light, both of us half-convinced we’d traveled a long way for nothing more than a cold boat ride.

The Nets Come Up Glowing

Then the crew hauled in the first net, and the whole boat lit up. Hundreds of firefly squid tumbled onto the deck glowing a pale, otherworldly blue-white, squirming in a mass of light that seemed to pulse rather than simply shine. It lasted only a few minutes before the glow settled, but during that window Lia and I just stood there, not filming, not talking, genuinely stunned by something neither of us had ever seen a natural equivalent to. The crew scooped the squid into containers with practiced speed, clearly used to this being the most memorable part of most passengers’ trip, and by the time the sun actually rose over the bay, the glow had faded and it was just an ordinary boat full of small squid heading back to shore.

The Museum and the Morning After

Back on land, the Hotaruika Museum near the harbor rounds out the experience well, with tanks holding live specimens and exhibits explaining the squid’s strange seasonal migration into the shallows to spawn. We wandered through half-dazed from the early start, more receptive than we might otherwise have been to details about a small squid’s life cycle. Namerikawa itself is a modest, unhurried fishing town outside of squid season, and even during it, the pace never tips over into overwhelming, just a steady stream of similarly bleary-eyed early risers coming off the morning boats.

Getting There

Namerikawa is reached via Namerikawa Station, served by both the Ainokaze Toyama Railway and the Toyama Chiho Railway, with frequent trains from Toyama Station taking well under half an hour. The harbor and Hotaruika Museum are an easy walk from the station. Firefly squid boat tours run only during the short spring season and depart before dawn, so book well ahead and confirm weather conditions the night before, since rough seas can cancel a morning’s outing entirely.