Last Two Weeks: Fireworks and Farewells

You know summer has arrived in Japan when all the towns in the area start advertising festivals. I thing I've learnt is that when there's a festival, there will be beer, cute kids in yukata and lots and lots of hanabi (fireworks)!!

Over the last few weeks I've seen the two biggest hanabi displays in Niigata-ken;one in Kashiwazaki and the other in Nagaoka.

There was a lot of rain on the evening of the Kasiwasaki hanabi, but that didn't stop thousands of people arriving or the display from taking place. Kashiwazaki is on the sea and the hanabi are fired from two platforms near the off-shore sea defenses. The result is an amazing and varied two-hour display. Sometimes the bursts were obscured by smoke from previous fireworks, but that didn't stop the boom from stirring your stomach. The size and amount of fireworks released was mind-boggling. My favourites at Kasiwazaki were the fireworks that scooted along the sea before exploding on the surface and, in the finale, the fireworks on parachutes that slowly fell after all the bursts had died away. It was an amazing display and I was glad we all braved the rain to come out and see it.

For the Nagaoka hanabi, the weather was much better. The Nagaoka festival is reputated to have the best firework display in Japan. It was certainly impressive in terms of length and variety. Maybe I had been spoilt by teh Kashiwazai fireworks, or maybe sitting down further away from the display was not as overwhelming as standing on the seashore in the rain, but I was less impressed by the Nagaoka Hanabi as a whole. Saying that, there were some spectacular highlights including two 'Sanjakudama' which bloom for 600 metres, a simultaneous 300-bloom, and more parachute fireworks.

There are more festivals in Niigata-ken this summer, but I don't think the hanabi displays will come close to matching these too. I hope I can see them again next year.

I'll be definatley missing something over the next year, and that'll be three mates I made this year. Rowan, Kabeer and Natsumi will all be going back home this summer. The izakiya after teh Nagaoka fireworks was the last time I'll see the three of them. I'm hoping that they'll come back for snowboarding or that I'll drop in on them sometime on my future travels. Good luck fellers, and keep in touch.