Sumidagawa Fireworks Show - 第30回隅田川花火大会

This, Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival (隅田川花火大会) is the most well known fireworks show in Japan. It is said to have started from 1733, with flash and smokes only. Each year, about one million people go to see this show. Because of its popularity, one has to stand in the queue to allocation a place in the popular viewing areas. Somebody started queuing two days before the show. One of the most popular spots is the baseball court near the sports center, along the Sumidagawa. I went there slightly after 11:00AM. The baseball court had already been fully covered with plastic sheets.

	After walking for 20 minutes among the territorials marked by gum tapes and sheets, I finally found a small space smeemingly unoccupied. I did not realized the hardness of staking out a spot until I sat down for about 5 minutes. The sun was right above my head. Being in the middle of the baseball court, no shade can be expected. the temperature can be easily over 35 celcius. I started to feel stupid to sit there, not just because of the heat, but because
there were almost nobody except the sheets (the left photo above). Only after 3:00PM did people start to show up(the right photo above). It turned out that most of people took just enough space for the number of people to show up. But there are also groups that took more than enough space. The later comers had to inch their spot on the pass ways, ignoring the warnings from the organizers.

	Ukata(浴衣) is what most of young people wear for the festival. Other occasions might be obon(お盆), also called lantern festival, new year(正月）, coming of age ceremony (成人の日) etc. I was an odd existence there, because people were either in couples, or in groups. There were only a few photographer type of people here and there.