Posted by Jess
19 August 2010

Catching up on some blogging from this week.  Thursday was a routine day for me at work, but Ella had a play date with our neighbors after Vacation Bible School.   As he and our new friends were talking, they decided that we should all watch the fireworks together that night.  These aren't just any fireworks we're talking about! 

The Jingu Gaien fireworks festival took place in the baseball stadium about 1 mile from our house.  Over 1 million people attend every year, so I was advised to get home early and its a good thing I did. Even at 5pm, our train station was chaos.  Groups trying to meet up, police with megaphones directing the crowd, traffic stopped on the street corners and roads blocked. 

We were just going to watch from our balcony, but our friends were able to get tickets into the stadium and we had great seats.  We got there around 6pm (fireworks were at 7:30).  The kids had treats, the parents had beer and we were listening to the live music groups on stage.  There were two groups - the first was more of a solo singer and we think she was from the group "My Little Lover".  People sang along but nothing too exciting.  As the stadium filled up around 6:30, another group took the stage.  There was one lead singer and 4 back up dancers.  The guy we were with described the lead singer as a Japanese Pat Benatar.  He was pretty much right on.  This group was called TRF and the crowd went CRAZY.  People were clapping, singing, dancing, and very excited each time they started a new song.  We of course were clueless, but danced along a bit anyway. 

At 7:30 the fireworks started.  These are no average fireworks.  The Japanese love fireworks.  They shot off 12,000 fireworks over the course of an hour.  Abby wasn't too sure at first but started to clap and point about half way through.  1 hour of fireworks was a little long for Ella and she started to get bored with about 15 minutes to go.  Jason and I think they are the best fireworks we've ever seen and could not believe that they went on for an hour.  We left the stadium right as the grand finale was going on so we could beat the rush a little.  It was helpful to get out of the stadium, but the streets were full of people sitting and watching the fireworks so it was still a little hard to get through. 

We got home around nine, said goodnight to our friends and hit the hay.  Everyone was a little crabby in the morning from the late-r evening, but we were glad we got to experience it like true Tokyo-ites!

Here are some pictures from the evening's events.  I had tried a different setting on the camera for night shots, but apparently it was not the right one to use - sorry for the blurriness!

the baseball stadium - also home of the Yakult Swallows baseball team

People coming in and starting to sit down on the street outside the stadium to watch the fireworks

Ella and our friends' girls waiting for the fireworks to begin.  snacks and drinks of course!

their little boy and Abby dancing to the music groups

the fireworks start!

Abby checking out the fireworks

I apparently caught Ella off-guard!

one of the in-stadium displays sponsored by Nico Nico Douga (a Japanese version of You Tube)

more fireworks...there were 12,000 be glad I only have 3 pictures of them!

Group shot!

A good night with new friends and a little bit of pop culture to boot.  

Kanpai!
Jess