Japan Day 18 (jū hachi)

Fireworks at Meiji-Jingū

Tonight we went to see the fireworks for the end of Oban at Jingū stadium. We saw the opening fireworks from our bedroom window that looked over towards Tokyo Bay. This time we couldn't see them from our apartment so we ventured forth to check them out in person.

They are serious about their fireworks. Both shows had between 10,000 and 12,000 fireworks. They both lasted about 1.5 hours. That's 1.5 hours of solid fireworks. That blows away any 4th of July I've been to in the States.

I took some stills, but my little camera doesn't do them justice. I took some movies too.



We left a couple minutes early because there were probably thousands of people there, and they all would be heading for the same subway that we wanted to take. It was a big deal for everyone. Lots of men and women were dressed in yukatas, even with the heat. We even saw one lady passed out from the heat. Oh yeah, it was still hot and humid. Not much relief even at night.

Afterwards we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for a real cheeseburger, and to get a Hard Rock Tokyo shirt.