Fireworks, called hanabi in Japanese, are a summer staple here in Japan.
I don’t think there’s ever been a summer without going to a hanabi festival or just fireworks in the park with friends. But fireworks are definitely linked to summer here and I can’t seem to do without it.
This year, I took my beautiful new picnic blanket (you can probably tell from the pictures that I want to show it off! haha!) with me to the hanabi festival in Ichikawa. It’s a city in Chiba prefecture, located along the Edogawa river. We had a little picnic of festival food before the fireworks started. And then we just rolled over and enjoyed the show in the night sky while we oohed and ahhed 😀
Here are some pictures:
My sister with her we-found-a-great-spot smile 😀
I got free uchiwa’s (a hand fan) the night before and decided to redecorate them!
This is how we save seats! The whole riverside on both shores was a sea of picnic sheets.
There were lots of different festival food stalls along the river.
Anzu-ame, a festival favorite, is apricot dipped in sweet syrup.
People start gathering as the time for fireworks comes near.
People also watch the fireworks from boats called Yakatabune.
We had a glorious sunset…you can even see the Skytree in the distance!
My absolute festival favorite is Gyaga-batah, which literally means potato-butter.
The fireworks start off with a bang!
Tons of people were there watching the fireworks!
Something special about each explosion of lights. Aren’t fireworks fabulous?
It was a pretty great night…might have to make this an annual event!
“Bright lights and the big city.
It belongs to us tonight.”
– Cee Lo Green
Kaori Square Feet 
You were at the Ichikawa fireworks? I was at the Edogawa fireworks. ^^ I can see my spot in your photos. Well, it is covered a little but I can see the area. Thanks for the view of the fireworks from the other side of the river. Mine was from the side of the fireworks itself, but very close to the front.
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wow , a perfect night ! 🙂
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I almost think everyone was there that night! 😀
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It was! Fireworks make everything better! ;D
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I like the bottom photo especially. I want one of those! Fireworks in a bottle!
A couple decades ago or so ago I was on the other side where Dru was. It was so nice on the hillside. I could just lay back and see everything while in one of my favorite positions: prone on the grass. That was where I was so close to the bursts that it rained heavy cardboard casings that had blow apart up there in the diamond-sizzling sky.
I thought of this post a few minutes ago when I listened to the CD version of this song. (On my last day in Japan at the end of my first trip there in 1985 I killed some time early in the morning after I arrived, bleary-eyed, by night bus from Kyoto and sat on that stone circle in Ueno Park. A guy walked by carrying a bag full of shakuhachi [folk players do that to play in various keys] and started accompanying some senior laborer-looking ladies. They knew a lot of folk songs. I thought that it was a perfect ending for that trip). Hmm. Hikari and Kanami of Ki & Ki were not born yet in 1985. But then, neither was I, in a way of speaking.
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