Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Summer Fireworks


A little while ago I went to a fireworks show in Tokyo. Mind you I missed all the big ones for various reasons (mostly work) so I went to a rather small one to get my fix. It only lasted about 30 minutes which was a slight let-down, since most Japanese fireworks shows span over an hour or often two. These were in southern Saitama, near west Tokyo and were done every weekend in August. No wonder they were small.


Most Japanese fireworks festivals are during the summer, so fireworks are synonymous with summer. You'll see lots of people in yukata (cotton summer kimono) and happi coats (cotton jackets) wandering around long before scoping out seats, buying kaki goori (flavored shaved ice), takoyaki, yakisoba or ringo ame (candy apples) and fanning themselves with uchiwa (flat Japanese fans) while grumbling about the hear.


The fireworks themselves are quite lovely and unique at times. Sometimes you'll spot a well-known character like Hello Kitty or Doraemon among the typical round fireworks. It's a good reminder that they're much better at fireworks than we are in the US.





Anyway, this spryte approves of Japanese fireworks, no matter how long or short the show.

2 comments:

DarkRaika said...

nice fireworks, I wonder did you record using a Digital Video Camera or something else like a camera on a phone?

superspryte said...

All done with my Olympus Stylus 710 (photo camera I used to use for my PhotoBlog photos until I got my Nikon).

The quality of non-HD YouTube clips isn't all that great so the videos you take with digital cameras are plenty good enough.