夏休みと花火

Summer Festival and Fireworks

August 1st was the Summer Festival here in Oyama! At 6am we woke to loud booming from the direction of the river; a reminder that it was a festival day. We heard these booming shots about three more times throughout the day, a constant reminder of the fun to come! Several headed toward the river throughout the day, all wanting to claim a good spot for viewing the fireworks which would start 7:15.

Many people, mostly the girls, were in gorgeous summer clothes. I love the yukata they wear! (I just wish they didn't have disgusting amounts of make-up on ... co-worker: "I've seen less make-up on a Lord of the Rings set." Ha, the other nice thing about most of the girls wearing yukata is that they weren't indecent as usual.) So yes, yukata are awesome! The children were especially adorable in their summer clothes.

The road toward a main bridge near the city hall was entirely closed so that people could just walk down the street. To think Oayam is a "small town" in Japan ... there were so many people!

It may be hard to tell, but there are booths all along the strees on either side (they're all facing the sidewalk though) selling fried noodles, meat, chocolate banas, drinks, masks, etc. Booths stood near the river as well, but most were on the strees.

Officers on the bridge were very concerned about people stopping (they probably though we foreigners were going to try to sit there to watch fireworks....) but I got a quick picture of the side of the river where most people grabbed spots. You can see the booths lined up behind the crowds.

We sat on the opposite side from this, which was less crowded (though possibly a little harder to view the fireworks from). They were amazin! It's strange to think they were at half the fire power and cut thirty minutes shorter than usual.

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