Yesterday I went to see fireworks in Edogawa. It’s hanabi (flower fire) season in Japan and every weekend there’s at least one place in Tokyo where you can see fireworks. It’s a really huge thing here; the fireworks here are longer, bigger, and more exciting than the US. Edogawa had 14,000 fireworks!
A MISTI Japan alum had reserved a spot near the river, really close to the fireworks, and said he would go there at noon to spread out his enormous blue mat. He told us to definitely get there before 6pm (fireworks start at 7:15) so naturally, I got to the station at 6:15pm. This is what I saw:
it took 15 minutes to get up the stairs…. then…
in Japan, we pay on the way out, since the amount you pay is based on how far you travel. So, there was a really long line… When I got out, I had no idea which way the river was, but all I had to do was follow the crowd!
And Lawson, a popular convenient store, had a line outside of it…
this is what it was like for over a mile along the river, people’s mats spread to the left and right of this street. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in one place at once.
So I was supposed to look for the big blue mat that had MIT taped to it, near the number 2 sign. This is what it looked like… I even walked among the mats until it got too dark and I couldn’t see any MIT people so I decided to just stand there and watch the fireworks by myself.
There was a whole show with a burning bridge and the Olympic Flag in the middle. Tokyo is a Candidate City for the 2016 summer Olympics and people in Japan are really hyped up about it.
I realized pretty quickly that I would have to leave early because there would be no way I could get back home if I stayed till the end with so many people needing to get on the train. So after half an hour (the show is 1.5 hours long), I started walking back to the station, which takes around 30 minutes. There were still people arriving so I was this lone person going against the crowd.
And there were cute shops everywhere that sold noodles and okonomiyaki. I got some soft serve or “soft cream”, it was actually some of the best soft serve I’ve ever had.
And when I got to the station, there was already a huge line to buy tickets and charge cards. Luckily, I charged mine on the the way out so I only had to go through the ticket gate. The station was already crowded despite it being really early, haha, probably people thinking along the same lines as me. The whole platform was full, but I managed to squeeze onto the immediate next train! yay! It was fun watching the fireworks, definitely more exciting than the US, but I’m not doing it again.
So today, I went to an opera called Il Trovatore! My first opera! Amy’s orchestra plays in it so I went to see her. It’s in Italian with Japanese subtitles so I had no idea what was going on, but the music was cool and Amy’s friend, Yu, gave a scene by scene commentary. I really should’ve read the Wiki before going, hehe. The scenery and costumes were very nice though. And the curtain was really nicely embroidered.
Afterwards, we went to Arabian Rock, a place similar to Lock Up, for Yu’s birthday. The set up inside was really nice. The stairs leading down to it kept playing Aladdin songs like “A Whole New World” and “One Jump”, hehe.
a room
golden eggs! I thought they were just fake eggs, hehe, but they were real smoked eggs! Really yummy!
He set a kabob on fire! and told us to yell FIREEEEE
the birthday wisher
a set up at the front, is that one of the seven dwarfs?
The hallway. There’s golden sand and artifacts under the glass!
A pyramid that turns colors! And there’s a small room for two on each side 
kimchi rice, yum yum!
Two more weeks left and only one weekend! My goodbye party for work is this week since I’m basically taking the last week off to go to Nagano with my mom and sister. I’m excited to go to China, but I’m really sad I have to leave Japan 
Maybe I’ll come back next year? We’ll see… Adrianna is coming next week!! Can’t wait to see her!
