From hating Fukuoka's summer last year with every sweating pore in my body, I have now almost grown to love this season, despite the ever-soaring temperatures and ridiculous humidity! The reason for this newfound appreciation is the variety of festivals the Japanese put on in July & August, all worthwhile in some way or other. After visiting a traditional matsuri last week it was now time to check out a more explosive (lame pun intended!) kind, a fireworks festival. During the hana-bi (hana: flower & bi: fire) season skies all across the country are lit up with beautiful displays, some consisting of 6000 fireworks, the most spectacular ones of 18 000 (!) and going on for several hours. Like many other Japanese art forms hanabi has a long history of elegance, and shows here are widely recognised for their excellent aesthetic value. I was understandably curious then when I entered Ohori Koen, Fukuoka's central park, on Tuesday night. Apparently every other inhabitant of this city decided to do the same so the park was bursting at the seams by the time 8pm rolled around. Yukino & I managed to find a decent spot though and then oohed & aahed for 1,5 hours! On Saturday we're all going to the city of Kurume for their hanabi festival, which should be bigger and better as 18 000 fireworks will be shown there. Quite a big deal if, like me, you've only ever seen this kind of thing on New Year's Eve or the Belgian Independence Day!
People lined the edges of Ohori Koen's lake as far as the eye could see.
Many visitors were wearing traditional outfits so it gave me something to admire (and photograph!) while I was waiting for Yukino :-).
Gorgeous girls 
It started off quite modestly...
... but the fireworks quickly became extremely colourful, gigantic & very impressive
As was to be expected, the grand finale stunned everyone!
The atmosphere afterwards was wonderful, with loads of people feasting on festival treats available in food stalls all along the lakeside.
Typical foodstall (you gotta love the lanterns!)
2 comments:
't Zag er fantastisch uit! Amuseer je zaterdag!
Ik kan niet wachten tot ik in Japan ben!
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