Fire Flowers in the Sky

I cannot shut up about this, but it is way hot in Japan in the summertime. Despite the heat, summertime is still really fun. There are a ton of festivals around town and come August, fireworks rule the sky. And I'm not talking about a measly 20-minute show. We're talking balls to the wall hour and half long fireworks! That's super impressive. 

This weekend, I invited the few friends I do have over to our apartment to watch the Tokyo Bay hanabi. In Japanese, fireworks translates into Fire Flowers. We have a rooftop bar and terrace that I didn't really know about until a week ago and they invited all the residents to come up and watch the show. It was pretty fun. My Japanese friend said that Japanese people go crazy over Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and Hanabi (fireworks shows). Maybe if we were down by the bay near the festival, it would have been pretty crazy, but I'm happy to report that my neighbors are a well behaved group. 

I'd put this fireworks show at #2 on my list of all time greatest fireworks shows seen by me. It is just above the Movie Themed fireworks night at Oakland Colesium (fireworks set to Star Wars and Grease songs?!) but below the 2009 4th of July fireworks show on the Hudson River. Those were pretty epic.