With approximately 11.000 pieces and 500.000 spectators, the itabashi firework festival is one of the biggest in Japan. Saturday august 5th I went there with Werner, Eri-chan and a small group of friends of Itoh-san, who had to miss the event this year because of his stay in Belgium. Going there was almost as interresting as the show itself, mainly because the enormous amount of people and the fact that some (especially the women) showed up in traditional clothing (Yukata = cotton kimono to wear in summer).
It is possible to go without tickets, but we bought some for 2500Yen (Eur17) sso we had good seats. That is, a good view, quite some space and something to sit on.
Some streets between the stations and the place of the event were colsed to all traffic and special police vans were put there to guide the crowd and tell them ro keep on walking
Firetrucks, ambulances, police and traffic police cars all have their own very cute mascot painted on the vehicles. I hope to have my camera ready when I encounter some others as well some time, because I'd really like to show you the others. After seeing them it is kind of hard to take these people serious though...
Yukata wearing couple
Part of our group waiting for the rest
There were many more women wearing yukata then man, but I liked to get another shot of a couple, because it just looks cooler
Entrance of the event place. Notice also that at the other side of the river there are many places. You can already see some lanterns and blue plastic sheets layed out. The place was really huge.
People on the grassy slopes got boxes to sit on
Upto the bridge it is all full with people. On this side of the river this is only 2/3rd of the area
The second seating area on the other side of the river is getting crowded already. In the front you see one of the ends of the "Niagara Falls", the biggest firework pice known to mankind (or something like that).
Our own piece of blue palstic! Quite big for 8 people, so that was really nice. We also got some small foam mats to sit a little more comfortable.
It is possible to go without tickets, but we bought some for 2500Yen (Eur17) sso we had good seats. That is, a good view, quite some space and something to sit on.
Some streets between the stations and the place of the event were colsed to all traffic and special police vans were put there to guide the crowd and tell them ro keep on walking
Firetrucks, ambulances, police and traffic police cars all have their own very cute mascot painted on the vehicles. I hope to have my camera ready when I encounter some others as well some time, because I'd really like to show you the others. After seeing them it is kind of hard to take these people serious though...
Yukata wearing couple
Part of our group waiting for the rest
There were many more women wearing yukata then man, but I liked to get another shot of a couple, because it just looks cooler
Entrance of the event place. Notice also that at the other side of the river there are many places. You can already see some lanterns and blue plastic sheets layed out. The place was really huge.
People on the grassy slopes got boxes to sit on
Upto the bridge it is all full with people. On this side of the river this is only 2/3rd of the area
The second seating area on the other side of the river is getting crowded already. In the front you see one of the ends of the "Niagara Falls", the biggest firework pice known to mankind (or something like that).
Our own piece of blue palstic! Quite big for 8 people, so that was really nice. We also got some small foam mats to sit a little more comfortable.