Today I visited a long awaited hanabi: the Tamagawa hanabi. But first, do you know what hanabi is? It refers to fireworks (花火＝flower+fire) and is essentially a term describing firework exhibition events. Generally, such exhibitions happen in the height of the summer and various regions are famous for their hanabi, for example Sumidagawa and Adachi in Tokyo, Nagaoka and Miyajima in the rest of the country. Because of the warm weather, people prefer to wear a light summer yukata and enjoy the fireworks while having picnics next to riverbanks or the seaside. Basically, it’s just another excuse for getting drunk outdoors, similar to April’s hanami (cherry blossom viewing).
The Tamagawa hanabi near Futako-tamagawa station is one among the top class firework events. Although it got cancelled last August due to heavy rain, it returned this year in October, in the middle of typhoon season, as a bet to prove that it is awesome and eagerly expected. I guess most of the preparations remained unused from last year, thus this year the show was double. Because futako (二子) stands for “two children” or “twins”, the concept of this show is to have “twin fireworks” for two separate locations along the river. The station area was rearranged in order to accommodate the large crowds arriving in the area, with temporarily closing a coffee shop and turning it into ticket gates. The event was widely sponsored from various sources and more prominent the e-commerce giant Rakuten, whose headquarters are in the area. The show lasted for a full hour (generally such shows last for about 30 minutes) and 6000 fireworks were shot according to the official website. Among the interesting firework compositions, there were cute hearts, cats and smiley faces. Unfortunately, the actual river bank was blocked by the authorities, so I did not manage to witness fireworks together with their river reflection. However, enjoy some of my pictures from the east riverbank of Tama river, close to Kaminoge station!
belleelene 
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