Fireworks can be dangerous

Some people almost got killed at the Fireworks festival last night. (fireworks = hanabi = flower fire = 花火)

It was a great show. We eventually found a tiny rectangle of sandy cement near the shore amongst hundreds and hundreds of happy onlookers. Either there was some "park-cat" poo in the bushes right beside us, or one of the happy onlookers was having gastro-intestinal issues, as every few seconds my girlfriend and I exchanged wrinkled-nose glances. I started breathing out through my nose and in through my mouth in order to enjoy the show.

It all started with a count-down: kyu, hachi, nana, roku, go, yon, san, ni, ichi, BOOM!! (9 - 8 - ... - 2 - 1 or 九、八、七、六、五、四、三、二、一 for those of you who can enable Japanese fonts). The fireworks were truly incredible. One hour straight using 7000 casings, with 2000 saved for the 10-minute grand finale. The show was a combination of aerial- and water-based explosions. This was the first time I had seen the latter type. As the main fireworks were shooting up from a barge in the middle of the bay, a small boat could be seen traversing the width of the bay from right to left and back again, dropping water-based fireworks every 10 to 20 metres. These would produce a hefty explosion like a bomb blowing out of the water. These were much closer than the aerial explosions - the flash and the sound were extremely close together and you could feel a blast of air push against your clothes. The feeling in the crowd was a mixture of excitement and fear - it felt like an aerial attack of some kind. And then something went wrong.

The water-based explosions started to get closer and closer to land. At one point, I held up my fan (uchiwa) to prevent some burning ash to fall on us from above. Then, about 50 metres to our left, an explosion occurred extremely close to the shore - maybe a few metres out. Half the explosion went directly into the spectators. I can't imagine how loud the blast was, nor how frightened the people must have been. A few minutes later, two injured people in stretchers were carried out by police.

Soon after, we decided to move further to the right. We didn't fully enjoy the next part of the show, knowing that some people had been hurt. Then the finale, accompanied by some odd choices of music (although I liked the Dance with Sabres by Khatchaturian), seemed to erase our worries and we smiled and laughed in amazement until the last ember died in the sky.