Explosive City Pride

Annual Fireworks-by-the-River tonight. That's probably not what the event is really called, but I can't read the banner. While reading through my employee handbook to find out how many days I can request off for New Years' travel I discovered that today was Labor Thanksgiving Day. I guess that's why they did it. This was my second fireworks (hanabi) festival in Japan, my first being just weeks after my arrival here at Lake Suwa, about two and a half hours by train from here (videos from that one featured below, I didn't make any visual records of tonights lightstravaganza). I have to say I was partial to my own city's. First off, it was very close. I live about a mile, I'd say, from the river, and the banks were the scene. Almost all the seating was free, on a long berm hillside just off the bank of the river. So I was much closer than the Suwa fireworks, in fact, I could see some of the launch platforms. I also have an exponentially greater understanding of what is going on around me at this point in my stay here, which I'm sure helped with the experience. Also, it wasn't RAINING like it was in Suwa. If it had been, it would have been miserable, because unlike three months ago it's almost-winter cold. Unfortunately, I didn't find any vendors offering ¥300 beer tonight, but I didn't look very hard. The river of people in the mass exodus after the show has me convinced that damn near all of the 200,000 Naganoites were there and although it was dark and I'm reasonably certain there would be no cultural stigma against being spotted drinking by students, I decided I'm not quite past my own ingrained response to the situation and opted to keep the money in my pocket for a better time. The score, therefore, lies as follows:

Suwa - 2 (1 for cheap beer, 1 for skillful smiley face and heart shaped fireworks)
Nagano - 5 (1 for no rain, 1 for abundance of free seating, 1 for closeness to home, and 2 for well-timed firework/music collaborations (one of which was the James bond theme))

With a slightly better understanding of, and ability to listen to, the language I managed to figure out the salvo system I noticed last time. Looking back, I suppose I didn't get around to posting on that occasion. The deal is this: Rather than a short strung together display with a big finale at the end, fireworks here are numerous rounds (i think we made it to 51 tonight) of awesome displays, each worthy of being a finale in any western fireworks show I've seen, puncuated by short periods of announcements, relative quiet and darkness while the next round is set up. And this time, probably partly because I have lived in Nagano for long enough to recognize businesses and partly because there was a loudspeaker across the sidewalk from where I was sitting, it dawned on me that the announcements were lists of sponsors. So I guess individual companies or small groups thereof can pay for salvos and get their names said on a loudspeaker. Fireworks are the go-to celebration here. There are so many fireworks festivals across the country year round. I'm glad I have gotten to see a couple of them.

Oh yeah, the videos from Suwa (toward the very end; i didn't record some of the more original explosions unfortunately):