Soggy hanabi

Nagaragawa hanabi, Gifu


Soggy hanabi!!

It would have been the perfect experience, except for the fact that we caught the tail end of a typhoon the day of the fireworks! "Hanabi" is a fireworks festival that happens all over Japan in the summer. This area alone had about 15 displays you could go see (all within about a 40 minute train ride of Nagoya). I went and saw my first one with friends from work 2 weeks ago, at Nagoya Port. It was really nice, but super crowded. Getting there and back on the one subway line was like riding in a sardine can, there was actually staff there to push more people onto the trains!! Interesting, that's for sure! Before the fireworks started, there was the Obon-odori (I think I am spelling it right!!) dancing, which was very beautiful. Well, beautiful except for the homeless guys who joined in with the dancing, and were obviously drunk, and always a few steps behind the rest of the dancers. Also, there was one dancer in a beautiful yukata, but she was wearing huge stuffed hands, so all her movements were really overexagerrated! Really funny! There were also quite a few people dressed in a very bizarre way there (apparently this style was popular several years ago).


Nagoya Port wildlife!

The Nagoya Port fireworks lasted about an hour, there were 3,600 shots, which I found amazing. I've never seen fireworks last more than about 15 minutes, so it was neat seeing them go on for so long. My friends were disappointed though, I guess they were longer last year.
Yesterday I went with a friend to Gifu, to Nagaragawa (Nagara River). The location was beautiful, the fireworks were fired off right next to the river, with the mountains in the background. Quite spectacular. These ones were much more colorful and abundant than Nagoya Port - Nagaragawa had 30,000 shots, and it took about 1.5 hours to shoot them all off. It was kind of funny that it was raining, many people left half way through the show. Wimps! It's just rain! Good for us though, it wasn't as crowded there as it would have been had the weather been nice. So, we got a seat right next to the river with a great view. Good fun, eating yakisoba, drinking beer, and trying to ignore the river of rain that's under your butt!!
I wore my yukata for the first time at Nagoya Port, and again for the Gifu festival. The first time I wore it, I thought I would be smart and ask my roommate's girlfriend (she's Japanese) to help me put it on. She didn't know how to though, so we were both trying to decipher the Japanese instructions that came with my yukata, which was really funny - "So, where does this bit go, does it go here?...". Finally got into it though. Not the most comfortable clothing to wear, as the obi (wide belt) has to be quite tight. Oh well, I looked quite cute in it!
When I went to Gifu yesterday, I had to bring my yukata with me to work, so I could get changed after work, and head straight to Gifu so we could get a good seat. However, I only had half an hour to get dressed (this time by myself!), and walk to the train station (about 10 minutes away). That was funny, I managed to get it on in 8 minutes, which completely amazed my Japanese friend, it took her half an hour!! Everything was in the right place, nothing dropped or fell out or anything when I was in Gifu, so I guess I did it okay! After the festival, my friend was pointing out all the fake obis (ones that were presewn into the bow, and didn't actually require tying). I felt very good, being a foreigner and having dressed myself and tied the obi, and then seeing so many Japanese girls wearing the fake obis!! They looked pretty, but I liked mine better - I earned that beautiful bow at the back!!
All in all, hanabi was an amazing experience. I would have enjoyed it more had it not been so hot (it's around 38 degrees here every day), but what can you do.