Stoat - Where?

Hanabi

Last night was Hanabi, a fireworks festival that is held all over Japan. The festival is in two parts, with the second display coming next Saturday. The two displays are sponsored by rival local newspapers and it’s a kind of competition to see which can produce the best. I’m not sure how it affects the sales though I can’t imagine it does too much…

Anyway, the second display will have to be awesome if it wants to beat what was served up last night. The fireworks went on non-stop for 2 hours and it was probably the best display I’ve ever seen. It made the Bonfire Night events in England look paltry by comparison and even put Liverpool’s Millenium display to shame.

And this despite torrential rain. For a country that prides itself on weather prediction, they really couldn’t have picked a worse day. It was the only day this month that it’s rained properly, but boy did it rain. I got an awesome view of the display from my balcony but that wasn’t enough. I’d bought ayukatta and wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to put it on and look like an idiot. This is one of the times of year where lots of people wear their yukatta, so I figured I wouldn’t stand out too much… Well not much more than usual.

So down onto Nagara Bridge I went. And I got drenched, but it was worth it because the view was great, with the river and boats providing a great backdrop. And besides, the yukatta is practically a bathrobe, so I was dry again almost immediately after I got out of the rain. Photos of the night can be found here.