Nagaoka Fireworks

It had been a late night on Sunday - a karaoke session ending at 4am - so I thought I was pretty justified in sleeping in till after 1:00pm on Monday. Thank goodness I'd invited Kym on what was to be my next Japan adventure, because her message at 1:30pm asking what train we should catch woke me up. I may have otherwise slept through the best part of the day and missed my adventure.

After a quick shower and packing my bag, we leapt on our little bicycles and pedalled furiously to the station. Kym bought the tickets; I bought the maccas; and we made it on the 2:26pm train with mere seconds to spare.

Why all the fuss? Because we were headed for the enormous fireworks festival of Nagaoka, one of the best three in Japan. If last year's Suwa fireworks festival was anything to go by, it was going to be packed with people and we needed to get in early.

The 300-km train ride was interesting, as we were seated in front of a boy who - not coincidentally - decided he was going to practise his English. And by "practice" I mean repeat the same key phrase over and over.

"I like... America.
I like... New York.
I like... mochi.
I like... papayas!
I like... toilet."

It was so tempting to turn around and correct him. "No, we say, 'I like the toilet.'"

We were right about Nagaoka being crowded as hell. We searched the riverside for a place to sit down, but the whole area was covered by tarpaulins. We decided to chance squeezing between two groups' tarps, on a narrow stretch of grass that we didn't properly fit on anyway. At the time we didn't realise we were encroaching on reserved space, but it paid off, because a lady just to our left invited us onto her group's tarp. She didn't introduce herself, and no one else did either. For some reason there was no need for that formality. We were just people from different countries sitting on the same tarp, waiting for some fireworks. We chatted a bit, of course, and shared snacks, and the lady had a gorgeous puppy - a cocker spaniel - who kept coming up to me and sitting on my feet. Even as more of the lady's friends arrived, not one of them questioned why a couple of Australians were sitting on their tarp. The whole atmosphere was just too relaxed for that.

As it turned out, we had pretty much the best seats in the house, all because Kym and I had tried to squeeze in an impossible gap between groups who had been waiting there since 10:00am. (Cripes, I was still asleep for three hours after that!) It wasn't until we left that we discovered where we should have been sitting - way back from the river and on the crowded streets with everyone else. I'm not kidding when I say there were thousands of people sitting or standing on the hot bitumen in the middle of the city.

Kym took some amazing photos of the fireworks, so I've uploaded them here. Earlier this year Kym won a massive photography competition and won $10,000 worth of travel money as a result. Check out her photos - you won't regret it.