Fireworks festivals in Japan

Tokyo Bay Fireworks

Japan does great fireworks in summer. They usually last an hour and are spectacular. To the Japanese people, fireworks festival is an event to enjoy with family and friends and therefore it is common to camp for a nice space to view the fireworks in leisure. Unlike western culture, where we party and countdown and be loud and rowdy. And our fireworks usually last a maximum of 20 mins?

In this post I will write about some tips when going for these wonderful fireworks events in Japan :) (Please read until the end because I will highlight something important for fireworks countdown in Japan...)

Fireworks Festivals Information
The information below was taken from the link but I replicated here for fear that the information on the website might change and I want a record of it for blogging purposes. Please refer to link above for updated fireworks information.

This is a list of the fireworks festivals that I have attended, and I have also included links/will be including for the blog entries.

1) Sumidagawa River Fireworks Festival in Asakusa #38 (MY BLOG ENTRY HERE)

my first Yukata :)

One of the major fireworks displays of Tokyo. The evening sky of Edo-town Asakusa is brightly colored with several tens of thousands of fireworks. It is the night sky masterpiece with old Japanese house silhouette. 2015's view from Asakusa Taito-ku is available here. Sumida side (across the Sumida River to the other side from Asakusa) is less crowded. This year 2015 also sells the special event collaboration with Tokyo Skytree. On the fireworks festival day, all has to be out from the tower by 14:00 (2pm), special entrance tickets is required for watching the event both from TEMBO DECK (350m) and TEMBO GALLERIA (450m). On-line reservation (lottery) is finger-crossing and touch-woody.

Date : July 25th, Saturday, 2015
Time : 19:05 - 20:30
Number of Fireworks : 20,000
Nearby Station : Asakusa Station on Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line, Tobu Skytree Line and Tsukuba Express Line

2) Edogawa Fireworks Festival (#40)

Fuji-san fireworks at Edogawa Fireworks Festival

Date August 1st, Saturday, 2015
Time 19:15 - 20:30
Number of Fireworks 14,000 (1,000 shots in first 5 seconds!)
Nearby Station Koiwa Station on JR Line
Keisei-Edogawa Station on Keisei Line
Shinozaki Station on Toei Shinjuku Line

3) Tokyo-Wan Dai-Hanabi-Sai (Tokyo Bay Fireworks Festival #27) (MY BLOG ENTRY HERE)

Date August 8th, Saturday, 2015
Time 18:50 - 20:10
Number of Fireworks 12,000
Nearby Station JR Hamamatsucho Station on JR Line
Toyosu Station on Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line
Kachidoki Station on Toei Oedo Line

4) Chofu Fireworks Festival

Date August 22nd, Saturday, 2015
Time 18:50 - 19:50
Number of Fireworks 8,000
Nearby Station Chofu Station on Keio Line (KO18)
A few tips about fireworks festivals in Japan:


TIPS
1) Go early to secure your places with plastic picnic sheets. Always go early. For the Sumida fireworks we went really late and it was a torture!! You can just leave the sheets there with stones to prevent it from flying. Japanese people will not touch those spaces that have been taken already. They even have those camp chairs ready, to sit down and enjoy the hour-long fireworks. So you can actually go at noon and mark your places, then go and shop and eat lunch etc. We were there late too for the Tokyo Bay one and it took us very long to find a decent spot to watch from. Almost every inch of the grass and grounds were covered with sheets by the time we went there!

2) Bring all the food and drinks you need. Queuing at the convenience stores is troublesome - they do crowd control sometimes whereby you will have to wait for the people inside to come out before you can go in, and the walking direction in the store is controlled, you can only walk one way. Not a bad thing, but I just wanted one popsicle..... One trick I found out when I went for the Chofu Fireworks - Google map コンビニ and find out the locations of the convenience stores along the way to the viewing grounds. I didn't know that there were stores nearer to the grounds and I carried litres of water for half an hour, walking :( You don't choose the nearest for fear of crowd, but at least one that is nearer.

Also the queue for the food stalls are quite bad, especially cooked food like yakisoba. If you want it, buy early! For the Tokyo Bay one, we had trouble getting out from the crowd to our viewing spot and watched the fireworks opening while walking to our spot.

3) Take note of the fireworks time and be at your reserved space at least 15 mins before. Don't try to linger around or prepare to suffer the crowd craze!

4) Try not to get home immediately after the fireworks because the train stations are jam-packed. The bay is good for chatting with friends and taking some pictures, and Edogawa festival grounds have some space to take a stroll too.

A warning about fireworks countdown in Japan
By the way, just for information, Japanese people do not countdown with fireworks. When one of my friends was in Tokyo on New Year's Eve 2015, she was misled by this website seemingly set up by agoda. To the Japanese people, New Year is a rather solemn event where they go to the shrine to pray for good luck and fortune for the New Year, or they spend it with their families. I know it's strange that even Tokyo, a metropolitan city with so many foreigners has no countdown fireworks, but this is how traditional is. Hey, they make it up for the dozens of fireworks festivals in the summer! That's enough ;)

I do not wish to link to this website because I don't want to give it traffic, but it's the top few search results when you google 'tokyo fireworks countdown'. In my picture it's the first link:

The link refers you to an agoda hotel booking link by suggesting that they have hotels that have excellent views of fireworks. It's really mean because it even states like fireworks at Tokyo Tower which is totally untrue. Always double check with the official sources! What if my friend went there in anticipation of beautiful fireworks? It would have been a sucky new year's eve. Of course, I found out for my friend there were no such events and she went to Yokohama for the countdown instead. Even then, the fireworks was pathetic so I would say don't bother if you are going there just to watch the fireworks. A different thing if there is an after-party with your friends :)

Enjoy!

Tokyo Bay Summer Fireworks 2015

8 Aug 2015

Today was an international meet-up because we have people from all over the world coming together to watch fireworks :) I think it's one of the best places to watch fireworks in Tokyo because of the bay view. But it is also crazily crowded. LIKE CRAZY.

We met about 4-5pm? And there was some waiting here and there because of large number of people.

Playing with Kimi's amazing camera! (Later I found out the price is also quite amazing! haha)

Doan from France, Shin and Daichi from Japan, Tamara from Germany, Kimi from Taiwan/Hsinchu, Boyon from South Korea/Wonju and me from Singapore :D

When we reached Shimbashi, oh wow, the sudden mass of people getting on Yurikamome train to Odaiba... we had to keep close to avoid getting lost.

While waiting~ Boyon and me

We made our way to Odaiba Marine Park, thanks to some research done by Shin san. This was my 3rd fireworks festival in Tokyo but I was still very looking forward to it! And it was a good meet-up for us girls to chat =)

We couldn't find a place when we reached there at about 5pm because apparently the Japanese people "reserve" space with plastic sheets. So almost every inch of the grounds was taken. We were a group of 8 and it took us at least 45 mins of choosing and giving up spaces to finally find a space that was enough for us. And that was considering we have no idea where exactly the fireworks would be appearing at.. 

During the wait time, Shin san, Boyon and me went to the convenience store to get some food. The only convenience store was near to the entrance of the park and it was filled with people! We had to queue to get in so as to avoid overcrowding. I just wanted a Popsicle :( The inside of the store was also taped up such that the direction of movement is only one way, "grab and go" instead of going to and fro. Well good system さすが日本人! 

We got our watermelon Popsicles! Yay!

While walking back to our camped space, the fireworks started! That was when our nightmare started !! Because people started to stop to watch the fireworks and many people couldn't pass through. The passageways started to jam up.. I guess nothing rules over fireworks at this time, not even Japanese manners :\ It got so bad at one point a Japanese started to say, "We are here all to enjoy this fireworks, not to suffer, please cooperate and move on...." We had to squeeze through so badly through the crowd I though my toenail was going to fall off after being stepped on.

Back at our reserved space, we were ecstatic to find out that our view was not obstructed in any way!! Yay! Full glory of awesome fireworks =)

After the fireworks, we continued to chat at our spot before walking to another station to take the train home. Not much of a crowd but we were very tired. But a good outing with these wonderful pals ;)

 

with Daichi

隅田川花火大会 Sumidagawa Firework festival

.20150725 sometimes life brings you to places you don’t expect. My senior from university, Alan, invited me to go for a fireworks festival on Sat evening. So grateful for a bit of Singaporean in foreign Japan. Alan has been working in Toshiba for 3-4 years. I wasn’t planning to wear a yukata because it’s 1)expensive, for a night only 2)no one was wearing with me 3)too hot?! .. but Alan said his friend was buying it too at the mall we were supposed to meet so I thought I would do it too.. 

I reached there first so I went to choose mine. So many pretty ones but I managed to find a good one that was not so cheap. The staff who did the fitting for me brought over a obi (the belt) that cost 7900 yen ($80~) and I asked her for a cheaper one. She told me the cheapest is 5900yen so I thought well, not much of a difference until she brought it over and I realised it’s 5900 yen before 50% discount. YAY. So in the end, with the koshi himo (ties), it cost a little less than 10000yen… expensive X( 

When I made my final decision and asked them if they can wear it for me, they said no!!! wtf. i tell you it takes them less than 10 mins to help me wear it. But they keep refusing. I was so mad… a yukata shop that doesn’t help you to wear your yukata. seriously? i began to panic and left the shop without buying first. They suggested for me to search online for a store that provides service of wearing the yukata for me…. seriously wtf. like that is even a suggestion. i was in fking Kawasaki, my first time there. i walked around the mall and peeked into several salons, but they were hair salons, not dressing salons. I texted Alan and he said he will help me with the obi, but i will have to wear the yukata and koshi himo myself. Hence I bought the yukata and went into the handicapped toilet to try. i even youtubed “how to wear a yukata” :( i was really struggling until Alan reached and he told me it’s not so complicated! i heard his instructions and ta-da! i succeeded :D came out and he left me with the obi and within mins i was ready to go!!! still very mad at the shop - It’s Nadeshiko on the 4th floor of Lazona Kawasaki. Anyway my advice is never to be too last min, be sure you have your yukata and your friends are available to help.

Nevertheless, we had fun and Hiroki, Alan’s junior joined us. He couldn’t find a yukata he liked so he went without one… we rushed back to Asakusa for the fireworks but we couldn’t find a good spot eventually cos we were too late. Yuki says he is staying over for a night next week with his friends for the festival next Sat so hopefully we can see better ones!!

We left Asakusa for Shinbashi to meet Ivan but… it didn’t went very well because I am not the kind to go karaoke with 15 people whom I have never met before, and Hiroki wasn’t comfortable to pay 4000 for 3 hours, which we will only stay for an hour (catching last train is really a pain in the ass). So Alan was very nice, he accompanied us for dinner before he went to join Ivan =)

Although it wasn’t very smooth-sailing, my first hanabi taikai and yukata-wearing experience… it was fun and I am thankful and grateful to Alan and all the people who were nice, including the mall staff who explained the salons to me… everyone but the bloody Nadeshiko. I will remember forever ^_^ 

edit: btw 隅田川花火大会 is known to be not able to see the fireworks properly. Hahaha. Skip this next time…