Hanabi

As I posted before, I had a late night on Friday. As one of my co-workers was leaving, she mentioned that there would be a number of fireworks events that coming weekend. Fireworks had been totally off my radar, and with everything else on my plate, knowing that they were about to get under way still didn't motivate me much.

Russell had band practice Sunday night, so I was doubly prepared to just chill at home and maybe get some cleaning done before I travel home. Russell was opposed to that idea, though. He felt it was unacceptable that I spend the evening alone when there were fun things happening in the city. He suggested I call some friends.

I have friends from work, but I was all jumped up over work that day and kind of wanted to get away as much as possible - even though I love my co-workers. Outside of them, the pickins are pretty slim in the friends category. As in, two. And neither of them ever do anything spur of the moment. One must book ahead. I thought it over, though and decided to email Keiko. I figured she was already probably planning to go to the fireworks and maybe I could tag along.

As luck would have it, that was just how it worked out. I felt bad horning in on her night out with friends, but her friends had both studied with her in Canada, so they were sympathetic to a lonely foreigner. I met them at the train station, had dinner, and we headed to the water front.

Last year, we thought we would be clever and picked a spot out by my school on Port Island. It wasn't in the middle of the action, but it seemed like it would have a good view and might be far enough away that others wouldn't venture there. No such luck. It was very crowded and getting home was difficult.

This time, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go where EVERYONE goes - to Harborland! Harborland is the waterfront park area with all the tourist attractions and landmarks that make up Kobe's skyline. I was expecting a serious scene, but we headed off to a less well marked corner where the crowd was still thin. Of course, we went a couple hours early to stake out a spot, but when we got there we had our pick of sidewalk to sit on and there was a beautiful view of the harbor. The crowd filled in around us, but it never got tight. No one was stepping on us or walking through our group. The crowd was pretty loose and there was room to spread your legs. It was nice.

We had a nice conversation (the whole evening was in Japanese with occasional words translated to English to help me understand or say something. I didn't understand a lot, but I did understand some. It was good practice and everyone was friendly.

I also learned something new! It turns out that the cue that the fireworks are about to begin in Kobe is when they turn off the multi-colored lights on the Ferris Wheel. Once the lights went out, anticipation started to build and pretty soon the show began. It lasted 20-30 minutes with a few pauses in the middle. At one point, after a less than climactic burst everything stopped. We waited, assuming it was another pause. The pause got longer and longer. After about 5 minutes, a number of people decided that we had, in fact, reached the end. They packed up and started to head out. Most of the crowd was die-hard, though. They were sure there would be more. Another minute or two passed. We looked around at each other, agreed that that must have really been the end, and started to shuffle into a standing position as well.

Of course, just then the show started back up again. We hastily sat back down and continued to enjoy the fireworks. The thing that always amazes me about fireworks in Japan is everyone seems to know the grand finale. When it came, everyone cheered and as one hit their feet and headed to the train. Within 30 second of the finale the lights on the Ferris Wheel came up again, so in case there was any doubt, we were all assured that we had, in fact, see the end.

We started heading toward the train with the crowd, but it was pretty clear that we would be waiting for hours to go anywhere. Instead, we made a quick decision to duck into a relatively empty Starbucks. We staked a claim to some comfy chairs (in Japan it is totally normal to just ditch your purse where you plan to sit and wander off to order - it will totally still be there when you get back). We got into line, ordered and were back in our over-stuffed arm chairs before the crowd started to realize that Starbucks was an option. A few minutes later, it was packed, but we were all set. We sat and chatted for another hour or two and then decided to try the trains. The crowd had thinned down to "busy, but not rush-hour busy" levels and we made our way home.

Its nice to have friends!