Obihiro Fireworks

Last night I saw my third fireworks of the summer season. A group of foreigners had met in some friends' 8th floor Obihiro apartment. The location was perfect. Centered exactly in the middle of the display but back about ten blocks from the river and away from the multitudes of people. It was a blessing not to have to fight the crowds. The size of the crowd and size of the fireworks, in my opinion, about matched that of Sapporo's fireworks last month. The difference between Sapporo, of course, is that Sapporo has three large firework displays on three consecutive Fridays. It is futile to try to describe the fireworks in detail because I can never do them justice. At one point they had some very interesting shapes: The most common and impressive were Sakura blossoms and dandelion seeds. But one could also spot the ubiquitous happy face, squid, octopus and Japanese cartoon characters Kitty-chan and Unpaman. The types of fireworks were very diverse; at one point there was just plain, white fireworks that produced a momentarily super-bright flash that, from our high vantage point, lit up the city. I especially liked the huge fireworks that just went up and up and up and then when they exploded you could feel the boom in your chest. The finale was amazing, they must have set off hundreds, really sparkly, called "pika-pika" here, golden fireworks at all heights that gave the impression that the whole horizon was on fire. Also thrown into the mix for good measure were giant spotlights and a uber-laser that made the sky turn green over the apartment.