Right when I got back from Paris, it was time for the big fireworks festival here in Sapporo, the Toyohiragawa hanabitaikai. In Japan, you always watch fireworks dressed in a yukata, so I rushed home from work and threw on my yukata. Luckily, I live where close to the fireworks festival location, so I can walk there. If you try to go by subway, you will spend an hour just trying to get up the stairs, since the subway is extremely packed with people all going to see the fireworks.
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| A large group of foreigners also wearing yukatas passed by near me. |
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| One of my friends showed up in a yukata. |
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| My Greek colleague's sister also showed up in a yukata. |
I got a nice seat and sat around surfing the Internet on my phone. I got there two and a half hours before the fireworks actually started, and that was about the time when the good spaces where all taken. One of my friends and one of her colleagues showed up an hour and half later and joined me on my blue plastic sheet. An hour or so later, my Greek colleague showed up with his sister (who is here on vacation now). She was also dressed in a yukata, which was surprising and nice. She even had an obi (belt) that you have to tie yourself. I asked how she had managed to tie it so well, but she said a woman in a store (presumable the one that sold the yukata) had tied it for her.
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| Selfie at the fireworks |
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| Heart shaped fireworks |
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| New this year: double hearts |
The fireworks were nice, as always.
After the fireworks, we went and had some food in a place run by one of my friends. He recently had to close his restaurant because the whole building was closing, but he reopened in a different building under a different name while I was in Paris.
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| Raw horse |
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| Pizza with honey |
We ordered some raw horse (because that is what Japanese people like to eat) and two small pizzas. One came with honey that you poured on it yourself.
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| Spicy pizza |
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| Free "newly opened" chocolate |
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