At the edge of the Sea of Japan, where waves kiss a turquoise shoreline and a sweeping bridge links the mainland to a quiet island, something strange happens when the nights are just cold enough. From the ocean's surface, columns of light rise into the sky—silent, vertical beams that look like gateways to another dimension.

Every spring, as the night wraps Toyama Bay in a blanket of stars, another constellation appears just below the surface of the sea. Glowing blue, pulsing softly, the firefly squid—known in Japan as Hotaru Ika—emerges from the depths in a dazzling marine light show that defies logic and feels like magic.