Fireworks and festivals

Summer in Japan means fireworks. Not just the annual grab-a-spot-early-on-the-grass kind put on by the local authorities (although there are also some of those coming up next week),  but the kind you buy at the supermarket and let off down the beach at night right under the sign that says No Fireworks at Night. Yes, you can buy your own fireworks in Japan and it’s a wonderful thing. (For the benefit of overseas readers, fireworks were made illegal in our corner of Australia many years ago by the evil nanny state. I have vague memories of bright fireworks in cardboard tubes from when I was very young so it must have been in the early 1970s that they disappeared from the shelves. Apparently you can still buy them interstate and get them sent to Victoria, but somehow it doesn’t seem worth the bother.)

Does this bring back memories for any fireworks-starved Victorians out there?

The huge big fireworks packs at the supermarket also contain sparklers which I reckon are a bit boring (seeing as they’re still legal in Victoria) but the kiddies love them:

We’ve already tried a couple of different packs from the supermarket and the trick is to get one with lots of fountain type fireworks (like in the video) than the aforementioned sparklers. Felix and I are conducting extensive research in this area at the moment. And when you go down to the beach to let off your fireworks there are generally a few other groups down there doing the same, so you get to see a few different types. The other day some people had ones that rocketed up in the air and set off huge showers of sparks. Hopefully our next pack will have some of these in it. More research required.

Summer is also for festivals. Already just in our local area we’ve had the carrying-around-the-portable-shrine one a few weeks back that nearly broke my back, plus the one nearby where Eleni’s drumming troupe got a quick workout. This weekend coming up is the big one, Mihara’s annual Yassa Matsuri festival where they block off the roads in front of the station and set up a huge stage and there’s dancing and singing and all sorts of carrying on. And as part of the festival there will be a massive fireworks display along the river on Saturday night.

The Japanese do put on an excellent fireworks display and I’m really looking forward to it. In the grand old Japanese tradition of public gatherings, there will be about 10000000000 people there and it will be impossible to get a good spot to view the action. Except that we have thought up a very sneaky plan. We’re going to park the car at the local Fuji shopping centre car park at about four or five in the afternoon and go down to the river to spread out our blanket. We will then spend a couple of hours wandering around in air-conditioned comfort and grab a leisurely bite to eat before heading out into the sweltering heat and making our way royally through the sweating crowds to our very own Reserved Spot, from where we will admire the fireworks display in extreme comfort.

Well that’s the plan anyway. Something is sure to go wrong, like our blanket will get blown away during the afternoon or stolen by heavily tattooed yakuza types.