Hanabi ~ Summertime Fireworks @ Tokyo (Summer 2002 Aug 10th)

Hana means flower in japanese, and bi, or hi, means fire (hahaha some japanese here) ~ so there u go~ flower fire! damn this was one of the best show since millenium! i must say i’ve already seen a lot of big firework shows (cuz in hong kong they have those twice a year - 2nd day of chinese new year and the return of sovereignty memorial) but i still consider this one excellent. my day went by like this:

it was actually my 1st day in japan for this trip, so me and my aunt landed in Narita at around 2:30pm and we were still right on schedule. but the immigration was sooo slow and it was such a looong line it started ruining my perfect timing. we spent at least 40 min there and finally got out at around 3:30pm and my aunt’s friend Mr. Takahashi (an engineer that works at Sony’s audio design department). he was supposed to hand us our train reservation and bring us to the JR counter to get our japan rail pass. he was the 1st real local japanese that i talk to (after 2 years of japanese education... haha) and i didnt know why i got hella nervous (yup... i forgot how to say hajimemashite and doozoyorushiku... i even addressed myself as Chun-san lol LMAO...) well that got hella funny... anywayz after we got all the train issues settled we said good-bye and it was already 4:10pm so we’ve missed the 4:06pm Keisei Skyliner express that i planned to take so instead we took the N’EX Narita Express @ 4:15pm and went straight to Shinjuku. The plan was: my friend Daisuke and his japanese friends were supposed to wait for us at the hotel lobby @ 5:30pm, but since the train would take 75 mins to Shinjuku we knew we were already late, and it took us 10 mins to find + go to the hotel. so as planned they were already there waiting. this time i was all prepared so first i said “osokunatte sumimasen” - sorry i’m late. and then to these 2 new japanese friends -- self intro “hajimashite, watashi wa Chun desu, doozoyorushiku”. PERFECT!!! so after we did the japanese way i taught them the American way like “yoo~ whatsup mannn!” it was hella funny. anywayz after the hotel check-in and stuffs we took off together at 6:00pm to the hanabi place ~ Tokyo Bay. we took the subway (lol, they werent sure about the way and had to ask even tho they are Tokyo natives). the subway was so crowded cuz all the ppl were going to the same place. many girls wore yukata ~ summer kimono and looked all nice and cute. geez i should’ve taken pictures of them. and Daisuke showed me his hi-tech cell phone that can take instant pictures.... damnnnn it only cost him 800 yen = less than US$8.00!!! when we arrived at Tokyo Bay the train, station, and the street, were already STUFFED with ppl and lots of police were directing the traffic (i’ve never since so many police in tokyo before). it was like the whole world was going to see the hanabi... crazyyy.... there must have been 1 million ppl on the street (there’s 6 million ppl in HK and everytime around 0.3 to 0.4 million ppl go to see firework show; Tokyo has 27 million ppl so there MUST HAVE BEEN AT LEAST A MILLION out there that night!). at that time the show had already started for 10 min and it took us another 10 to find a nice place to view hanabi. we tried different parks and street corners but those were all filled with ppl (we even tried to break into a high-rise apartment so we could view the hanabi on the stairs but we didnt succeed). finally we walked closer and closer and found a seaside park that was not as crowded on an artificial island on Tokyo Bay called Harumi. it got the best view in the bay! mann the show must had been the longest i’ve ever seen ~ 1 hr 20 min, so even tho we were late we still got an hour of show to go. i wondered how they could make the show to be that long, they explained that it’s japanese tradition (something called wabisabi.... blahh i forgot, im probably wrong) not to be overly gorgeous and showy so instead of shooting up tons of hanabi all at once the japanese release them individually so one can truly appreciate its beauty. well, a NEW kind of firework-viewing experience for me! it actually made it easier for me to take pictures too. yup so the show finished at 8:20pm and looked like the whole world was going home so we decided to hang out in tokyo bay for a while to find some food until the “takusan no hibi” all went home so at least the subway wouldnt be as crowded. we went into a ra-men store and had ma-po ra-men (the good thing about japan is that u are alwayz guaranteed with decent food even if u just walk in some random stores on the street). we talked and it was a good time for me to practice my nihongo. that was my day.

a huge one~ In the backdrop is the Rainbow Bridge (if u’ve watched Love Generation u should’ve seen it). altho the Tokyo Bay is not as beautiful as HK’s Victoria Harbor (which is the best place in the world for hanabi) it is still very pretty.
this show was supposed to be the 2nd biggest in Tokyo. the biggest one took place on Aug 3rd but yeah i was still on that damn 14 hrs flight back to HK.

this should give u a perspective on how we saw the hanabi. see HOW HUGE the hanabi were - the biggest i’ve even seen! ever bigger than those in HK! (i think France got the biggest ones). we had to climb up to the stone curb side in order to get a good view and in the process i hurt my elbow and my knee cuz that damn curb was so damn high and i was with my camera and tripod. got blood all over my jeans but it worthed it! ichiban ii!!! sugoi!!! even my japanese friends were impressed

a wall of hanabi
p.s. i forgot to bring my hat with me to cover up the lense between long exposure so i resorted to use my hands...... wth.... bohahahaha see how “profession” i am. this is actually the first time i take pics of fireworks, so i did some homework on the internet about fireworks photography before going, and it turned out not bad. so it’s actually NOT HARD to take these pictures, go try it if u have the chance!

a pair of hanabi shot from both sides of the Rainbow Bridge. signs of a good hanabi (referring to a TV documentory on Japan’s hanabi history i saw that night in the hotel): the ability to maintain its round shape after the explosion, and an explosion at the highest possible height.

useful tips~ All pictures were taken with settings
[ISO 200 bulb F 9, F 11, or F 13]
<mind that different ISO films require different aperture sizes>

special thanks to the photo guy in S. De Anza Blvd who was willing to accept my request to take special care of my pics, ii sabisu desune~, he actually gave me advices on taking firework pics :-P