I'd spent the last few weeks being told, constantly, that there was some amazing fireworks action happening every Saturday. But my working hours kind of preclude me from the joy. But not this weekend. Hurrah! Or so I thought…
Paul was blaming me for his dodgy stomach that he had got on Friday. He blamed it my chottomatte delivery but I reckon it could be the delayed jetlag mixed with his general incompetence. Or some other food. Well, this kind of impacted on Saturday as he felt like crap. Much like the atmosphere - we had a typhoon situation. Typhoon[A] sounds so strong but I don't think it was so extreme in reality. Admittedly most of my clothes did end up near the bike sheds but still don't think it was enough for a "warning". And the Japanese warnings are really specific. They give a time for when it will hit each area. It is funny because they do the same thing for the passing of the seasons. The rainy season starts and finishes on particular days which are marked on the calendars. Not too accurately in my experience though.
Anyway, Paul's illness promoted his lethargy which meant that we got a bit delayed in leaving. There were meant to be fireworks in Urawa - the capital of Saitama. Pretty big ones too - 13000 of the bangs according to one report I read. It was going to be excellent I thought, note the tense.
Paul and me got to the station (where we had not been before) and walked towards the bright lights and sounds. Except there were none. So we walked in a direction. Until we heard some English chatter from some people on bikes. I say English but they were obviously American you could hear them from about a mile away[B]. Paul shouted to them to ask where the fireworks were. Cancelled due to the wrong kind of rain. In Japan!! Everywhere I go, I always take the weather with me. Unfortunately. Paul felt rubbish but, trooper that he is, didn't want to waste the trip so we walked around for a bit. Then we went into an arcade. It wasn't too busy but there were a few players. Paul picked up the courage to have a go on a new game that is pretty popular here now (though I think "flavour of the month" rather than long-term) SVC Chaos[C] - an SNK beat 'em up with some Capcom characters - an SNK riposte to the Capcom vs. SNK series. Within a few minutes, he was pretty chuffed with himself having beaten a real life Japanese person in the arcades. Quality. Had another look around and then went home to start another day.
And on Sunday, another day did start. With plans again. Plans to go to Odaiba which is an area in the south built on reclaimed land. The reason for these plans: A digital Arts Festival and more fireworks. I will see some! Now, the problem is that to get almost anywhere in Tokyo, I have to go via Akihabara (usually getting out to change trains, and lines). So we stopped off in Akihabara and had a "quick" look for a CD-writer and some arcades. Ooops. Too long.
We made our way towards Odaiba for the fireworks festival. To get to Odaiba, you take a new monorail[D] thing which is very nice, but a little expensive. People seem very proud of it as they are so open, windowed and driverless. A bit like the DLR in fact.
Japan has been in recession for about a decade now and the government has tried, many times, to kickstart some regeneration by major public projects. Odaiba is one of them. A totally commercial place with no real reason to exist. Retail and leisure. Like so much of "New" Tokyo. The monorail is decent, if a little busy today. But there is a completely pointless (as far as I can tell) loop that the tracks make out in the bay. It just turns all the way round (can see it on the map) whilst going up. I thought that it was used to go up but I think there is a downhill bit before the next station. Totally pointless[E]. But fun.
The Tokyo Bay Fireworks are supposedly some of the best in the world and, I think, the second biggest ones in Tokyo. The popularity definitely showed on our arrival. The great thing about the fireworks being on such a scale is that people can see them from all over the place. Even so, everywhere you can see them from is totally packed. We went to some fake beach and tried to find somewhere to sit. The operative word being tried.
After the explosions had started (accompanied by a few "oohs" and "aahs") we sat down on the path. There was a lot to see both in the sky and on the ground. The other good thing about festivals is that lots of people "make an effort" so there were a lot of very attractive girls floating about too. Quite a few wearing Yukatas but also a lot in "normal" attire.
The fireworks were actually very, very good. I'm not a massive fan of fireworks but big displays are usually better than the school type that we normally get to see back home. These are free, better and have a great atmosphere too. The quality of the fireworks was excellent and some real thought had been used for the choreography. My personal highlights were the huge ones that exploded, but you heard the bang a good few seconds afterwards as they went so high up, and the Doraemon ones. These were particularly impressive as they exploded into the shape of cat's faces - with whiskers!
As ever, the problem now was getting back. The station we were at was rammed so we walked through some of the shopping centres (one of which is called Palette Town pokefans) until we came to another station. This was also rammed but there was a smaller overspill so we queued. And queued. We got on eventually and the monorail guards had prevented the train getting packed at each station by buffering us through so the train was pretty spacious. And people could actually get on at the next station. Good organisation.
NOTE: The original blog did not have photos within posts (as it seemed too tricky to code it for me to bother) but sections for photos. I have put some of the relevant ones in the post.
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. I had a number of experiences of typhoons over the years and they are quite scary when they pass over. It does not happen so often but it will require the shutting down of the rail system which causes havoc as Tokyo really needs trains to operate. They also leave behind a trail of broken umbrellas (I say trail, but they are usually disposed of neatly in the bins) and the last time I was in one, I broke two umbrellas within about one hour and then just escaped inside.↩
B. The stereotypical, loud, American tourist is based on experience but they are not all, of course, like that and there were a number of annoyingly loud British people I encountered on my travels - and not just in Japan. My "favourite" was when I first went to Itsukushima jinja which is near Hiroshima looking out to a particularly lovely scene of the torii gate out in the water during sunset. It would be a wonderfully serene moment in photographs but in reality, there were a group of tourist loudly exclaiming how peaceful it was there. Repeatedly. And loudly. ↩
C. It was a pretty popular game but I am not sure it had legs to keep going and the 2D fighting games that seemed to have long lasting appeal over the years were Street Fighter, the actual King Of Fighters series and the Guilty Gear series.↩
D. This is called the yurikamome line (named after the black-headed seagull) and Odaiba, in many ways, was supposed to be a little like Canary Wharf but ended up very different↩
E. I guess it isn't totally pointless as the bridge it uses - the Rainbow Bridge - is elevated quite high above the water to allow larger ships underneath but it did feel like it could have been done less extravagantly. ↩
Anyway, Paul's illness promoted his lethargy which meant that we got a bit delayed in leaving. There were meant to be fireworks in Urawa - the capital of Saitama. Pretty big ones too - 13000 of the bangs according to one report I read. It was going to be excellent I thought, note the tense.
Paul and me got to the station (where we had not been before) and walked towards the bright lights and sounds. Except there were none. So we walked in a direction. Until we heard some English chatter from some people on bikes. I say English but they were obviously American you could hear them from about a mile away[B]. Paul shouted to them to ask where the fireworks were. Cancelled due to the wrong kind of rain. In Japan!! Everywhere I go, I always take the weather with me. Unfortunately. Paul felt rubbish but, trooper that he is, didn't want to waste the trip so we walked around for a bit. Then we went into an arcade. It wasn't too busy but there were a few players. Paul picked up the courage to have a go on a new game that is pretty popular here now (though I think "flavour of the month" rather than long-term) SVC Chaos[C] - an SNK beat 'em up with some Capcom characters - an SNK riposte to the Capcom vs. SNK series. Within a few minutes, he was pretty chuffed with himself having beaten a real life Japanese person in the arcades. Quality. Had another look around and then went home to start another day.
And on Sunday, another day did start. With plans again. Plans to go to Odaiba which is an area in the south built on reclaimed land. The reason for these plans: A digital Arts Festival and more fireworks. I will see some! Now, the problem is that to get almost anywhere in Tokyo, I have to go via Akihabara (usually getting out to change trains, and lines). So we stopped off in Akihabara and had a "quick" look for a CD-writer and some arcades. Ooops. Too long.
We made our way towards Odaiba for the fireworks festival. To get to Odaiba, you take a new monorail[D] thing which is very nice, but a little expensive. People seem very proud of it as they are so open, windowed and driverless. A bit like the DLR in fact.
Japan has been in recession for about a decade now and the government has tried, many times, to kickstart some regeneration by major public projects. Odaiba is one of them. A totally commercial place with no real reason to exist. Retail and leisure. Like so much of "New" Tokyo. The monorail is decent, if a little busy today. But there is a completely pointless (as far as I can tell) loop that the tracks make out in the bay. It just turns all the way round (can see it on the map) whilst going up. I thought that it was used to go up but I think there is a downhill bit before the next station. Totally pointless[E]. But fun.
The Tokyo Bay Fireworks are supposedly some of the best in the world and, I think, the second biggest ones in Tokyo. The popularity definitely showed on our arrival. The great thing about the fireworks being on such a scale is that people can see them from all over the place. Even so, everywhere you can see them from is totally packed. We went to some fake beach and tried to find somewhere to sit. The operative word being tried.
After the explosions had started (accompanied by a few "oohs" and "aahs") we sat down on the path. There was a lot to see both in the sky and on the ground. The other good thing about festivals is that lots of people "make an effort" so there were a lot of very attractive girls floating about too. Quite a few wearing Yukatas but also a lot in "normal" attire.
The fireworks were actually very, very good. I'm not a massive fan of fireworks but big displays are usually better than the school type that we normally get to see back home. These are free, better and have a great atmosphere too. The quality of the fireworks was excellent and some real thought had been used for the choreography. My personal highlights were the huge ones that exploded, but you heard the bang a good few seconds afterwards as they went so high up, and the Doraemon ones. These were particularly impressive as they exploded into the shape of cat's faces - with whiskers!
As ever, the problem now was getting back. The station we were at was rammed so we walked through some of the shopping centres (one of which is called Palette Town pokefans) until we came to another station. This was also rammed but there was a smaller overspill so we queued. And queued. We got on eventually and the monorail guards had prevented the train getting packed at each station by buffering us through so the train was pretty spacious. And people could actually get on at the next station. Good organisation.
NOTE: The original blog did not have photos within posts (as it seemed too tricky to code it for me to bother) but sections for photos. I have put some of the relevant ones in the post.
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. I had a number of experiences of typhoons over the years and they are quite scary when they pass over. It does not happen so often but it will require the shutting down of the rail system which causes havoc as Tokyo really needs trains to operate. They also leave behind a trail of broken umbrellas (I say trail, but they are usually disposed of neatly in the bins) and the last time I was in one, I broke two umbrellas within about one hour and then just escaped inside.↩
B. The stereotypical, loud, American tourist is based on experience but they are not all, of course, like that and there were a number of annoyingly loud British people I encountered on my travels - and not just in Japan. My "favourite" was when I first went to Itsukushima jinja which is near Hiroshima looking out to a particularly lovely scene of the torii gate out in the water during sunset. It would be a wonderfully serene moment in photographs but in reality, there were a group of tourist loudly exclaiming how peaceful it was there. Repeatedly. And loudly. ↩
C. It was a pretty popular game but I am not sure it had legs to keep going and the 2D fighting games that seemed to have long lasting appeal over the years were Street Fighter, the actual King Of Fighters series and the Guilty Gear series.↩
D. This is called the yurikamome line (named after the black-headed seagull) and Odaiba, in many ways, was supposed to be a little like Canary Wharf but ended up very different↩
E. I guess it isn't totally pointless as the bridge it uses - the Rainbow Bridge - is elevated quite high above the water to allow larger ships underneath but it did feel like it could have been done less extravagantly. ↩
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