Summer Festivals

Earlier this month, I participated in one of Tokyo’s biggest festivals.
(Click here to read that post.)

There are many great festivals all year round…but especially so in the summer.
(Click here to see a list I made of some of Tokyo’s best festivals.)

I like Japan’s festivals a lot…and I go to many of them.

In early August, my family and I went to watch a summer 花火大会 (fireworks show) near our house that we usually go to every year.
The 花火大会 (fireworks shows) in Japan are excellent! If you have a chance, you should see one!
(Here is a list of some of Tokyo’s biggest fireworks shows.)

It’s not easy to photograph fireworks with the camera I have…but here are a few that I took:

花火 (“hanabi”)…literally “flower (of) fire”, is the Japanese word for “fireworks”.

We also went to a festival at a temple not far from the Tokyo Sky Tree.

After that, we went to 上野公園 (Ueno Park):

(Click here to see some other photos I took in Ueno a couple of years ago.)

If you have any questions about festivals in Tokyo, things to do in this city, or whatever…feel free to contact me.

What are your country’s summer traditions?

Summer in Japan is very 蒸し暑い (“muggy” / hot and humid).

“Beware of heat stroke in the hot summer!”

Florida, where I grew up, is also hot and humid during the summer. But, unlike Japan, I don’t recall any particular traditions of summer in Florida…other than going to the beach or water-slide parks.

Japanese people like to celebrate the uniqueness of the seasons of the year. There are traditions in autumn, winter, spring and summer in Japan.

A few of Japan’s summer traditions are:

● Summer festivals and fireworks shows.
Japan has 祭り (festivals) all year round…but there’s an abundance of them in the summer. And in late July to early August, there are many excellent 花火大会 (fireworks shows).
Click here to see my listing of summer festivals in the Tokyo area.

● スイカ割り (“Watermelon smashing”)

This is a Japanese summertime tradition that is similar to Mexico’s piñata. In both traditions, people take turns being blindfolded and try to hit the target with a stick, but in Mexico, the target is a kind of paper doll filled with candy that gets hit until it breaks open, Japan’s スイカ割り (“Watermelon smashing”) has a watermelon as the target. Once the watermelon gets hit and breaks open, everyone enjoys eating it.

● アナゴ (freshwater eel)
Eating eel is believed to give stamina to survive the grueling summer heat.
Click here to read a post that I wrote about it.

● 蝉 (Cicadas)
Every summer the 蝉 (cicadas) can be heard chirping in Japan. It’s considered one of the sounds of summer.
I wrote this post about the cicada in Japan.

● かき氷　(Shaved ice)

Eating shaved ice with a sweet syrup flavoring is a popular way to people to stay cool in the summer in Japan.
If you want to buy a  かき氷　(Shaved ice) in Japan, you can find them when you see a flag or poster that looks like this:

The character is 「氷」 and means “ice”

● ビアガーデン (“Beer garden”)

In the summertime, many places in Japan offer space to drink beer outdoors (and often on the building’s roof) in the cool night breeze.
Some places offer an “all-you-drink” (within a time limit) special.

●Pools and beaches

Of course, swimming is popular in the summertime in Japan just as it is in Florida.
Pools and beaches in Japan have lifeguards on duty and very few are open year-round.
Most of them are opening around now. Toshimaen, an excellent amusement park / waterslide park / pool in Tokyo opened on weekends only beginning July 2nd this year and will be open everyday from July 16th until September 4th.

What types of traditions does your country have in the summer?

The new ベスト・キッド

I wrote an earlier post about the remake of the classic ’80s movie “The Karate Kid“.

Click here to read that earlier post. In it, I discussed the impact the original made on the world and how it almost seemed sacrilegious to attempt a remake.

Well, the remake version has been released in theaters in America on June 11th.
Here’s the U.S. flyer for the movie:

U.S. "Karate Kid" flyer

Have you watched this movie yet? What do you think? Is it good?

The date that this movie will hit theaters in Japan has been announced. The ロードショー (screen debut) will be Saturday, August 14th in Japan. I was skeptical about this movie until I saw the trailers.
You can see the U.S. trailer for this movie on my other post here or the Japanese trailer on the official 「ベスト・キッド」 (Japanese “Karate Kid”) website.

In Japan, both the original ’80s “Karate Kid” movie and this new remake are titled 「ベスト・キッド」 (“Best Kid“).

Here’s the Japanese flyer for the ’80s 「ベスト・キッド」 (“Karate Kid“):

Japanese flyer for 1984 「ベスト・キッド」 ("Karate Kid")

And here’s the new Japanese flyer for the 2010 remake version:

Japanese flyer for 2010 remake version of 「ベスト・キッド」 ("Karate Kid")

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On a different subject…

It’s now summer in Japan. There are many summer festivals in Japan.
Check out my “Festivals In Tokyo” page for a listing of some of the major festivals in summer (and the other times of year too).

One of the most popular festivals in July and August in Japan is 花火大会 (fireworks shows).

You can see a basic listing in English of the fireworks shows around Tokyo on my “Festivals In Tokyo” page by clicking here.

But for a more comprehensive listing of this year’s fireworks shows for Tokyo and anywhere else in Japan, you can visit the 「花火カレンダー２０１０」 (“2010 Fireworks Calendar”.

This fireworks calendar site is a collaboration between the “Walker Plus” magazine and Suntory 「金麦」 (Kinmugi) beer.

It’s in Japanese only though.
But if you can’t read Japanese and want help finding a fireworks show in your area, Email me and I’ll help you.

Have you ever watched a fireworks show in Japan? It’s crowded but a lot of fun.

花火

梅雨 (The rainy season) will be over soon in the Tokyo area and then the rest of summer will be filled with hot, humid, sunny days.

In Japan, 夏 (summer) means スイカ (watermelon), 祭 (festivals), 海 (the beach), 小鳥線香 (mosquito repellent coil)…

and 花火 (fireworks)!

宮島水中花火大会 in Hiroshima.

In the evenings of July and August (usually on the weekends), there are summer 花火大会 (fireworks shows) all over Japan.

If you go to a fireworks show in Japan,
– you should bring a picnic style food and drinks for yourself and your group…there’s no BBQ grilling done at fireworks shows in Japan,
– bring a plastic tarp sheet for your group to sit on…but, although many people do it, you’re not supposed to use the sheet to reserve a spot for yourself ahead of time,
– if you want to use 線香花火 (sparklers), don’t wave them around…it’s considered dangerous in Japan,
– you can wear 「ゆかた」 (summer kimono) or 「じんべい」 (Japanese traditional summer shorts / shirt outfit) if you want to,
– and Japanese people call out 「たまや！かぎや！」 (“Tamaya! Kagiya!“*) when the fireworks go up…you can yell that out too, if you want. (* Long ago, Tamaya and Kagiya were competing fireworks companies in Japan. Fireworks spectators began to call out their names to egg on their competition to make bigger and bigger displays. Today it remains popular to shout it out at fireworks shows.)

There are too many fireworks shows around Japan to list them all, even just in the Tokyo area there are too many to list.
But here’s a list of the main ones in the Tokyo area and the date of the summer 2009 shows (also you can click here to see a list of some of Tokyo’s Fireworks shows on my “Festivals in Tokyo“):

• 宮島水中花火大会 (Miyajima Suichu Fireworks Show) in 広島 (Hiroshima) – Friday, August 14
  (It’s far from Tokyo…but this show gets special mention. The photo in this post above is of this fireworks show. (The rest of the shows on this list are in Tokyo.)).
• 調布市花火大会 (Choufu-shi Fireworks Show) – Saturday, July 18
• 葛飾納涼花火大会 (Katsushika Nouryou Fireworks Show) – Tuesday, July 21
• 足立の花火大会 (Adachi Fireworks Show) – Thursday, July 23
• 隅田川花火大会 (Sumida River Fireworks Show) – Saturday, July 25
• 飯田橋花火大会 (Iidabashi Fireworks Show) – Saturday, August 1
• 江戸川花火大会 (Edo River Fireworks Show) – Saturday, August 1
• 青梅市納涼花火大会 (Oumeshi Nouryou Fireworks Show) – Saturday, August 1
• 昭島市民くじら祭夢花火 (Akishima-Residents Whale-Festival Dream-Fireworks Show) – Saturday, August 1 – Sunday, August 2
• 江東花火大会 (Koutou Fireworks Show) – Tuesday, August 4
• 日刊スポーツ主催2009神宮外苑花火大会第30回記念大会 (30th Nikkan Sports Shusai Shrine Outer-Garden Fireworks Festival 2009) – Thursday, August 6
• 東京湾大花火祭 (Tokyo Bay Grand Fireworks Festival) – Saturday, August 8
• 八丈島納涼花火大会 (Hachijyoujima Nouryou Fireworks Show) – Tuesday, August 11
• 第五回せいせき多摩川花火大会 (5th Performance Tama River Fireworks Show) – Tuesday, August 11
• 世田川区たまがわ花火大会 (Setagawa-Ward Tama River Fireworks Show) – Saturday, August 22

If you want any more information about these or other 花火大会 (Fireworks shows) in Japan (such as how to get there, the times of the shows, etc), please feel free to post a comment (click here), or contact me with this E-mail form, and I’ll help you as much as I can:

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花火大会

Yesterday my wife, our two youngest daughters and I went to a 花火大会 (fireworks show).

My oldest went to the fireworks show with her friends.

One of our daughter’s friends came with us, too.

My wife and daughters prepared a wonderful picnic for us to enjoy during the show (just as they do every year 🙂 !)

We had おにぎり (rice balls), 枝豆 (soy beans), イカ (squid), 寿司 (sushi), corn on the cob, pineapple slices, and beer (the kids had grape soda)! Wonderful!

Fireworks shows in Japan are great. It feels like summer has officially started with the fireworks shows.

Even before the fireworks begin, the feeling of Japanese summer is in the air…

the sounds of 蝉 (Cicada (if you don’t know what a Cicada is…you can read about them on this Wikipedia page)), people eating スイカ (watermelons), the jingling of 風鈴 (wind chimes), and people wearing 浴衣 (summer kimono) and 甚平 (traditional summer outfit).

Here’s photo of some people sitting down before the start of the fireworks show:

Here’s a couple videos I took of people finding a spot to watch the fireworks (there were many people dressed in 浴衣 (summer kimono) and 甚平 (traditional summer outfits) but not so many can be seen in these videos 😦 ) :

If you ever have a chance to watch a 花火大会 (fireworks show) in Japan, you’ll feel they’re excellent, I’m sure.

Also you may hear people shout 「タマヤ」 (“Tamaya!”)　and 「カギヤ」 (“Kagiya!”) when the fireworks go up and explode. It’s not heard as much today as it used to…but some people still do.

This came about because centuries ago, fireworks shows were done by the Tamaya company. After a while, some workers formed a rival company called Kagiya. When that company started, the two groups would compete at fireworks shows to put on better displays.

From then on, Japanese people would call out “Tamaya! Kagiya!” at fireworks shows.

Anyways, here are six videos that I took at yesterday’s fireworks show (it’s hard to appreciate fireworks works on small YouTube screens…to really appreciate Japanese fireworks shows, come to Japan in the summer and watch one in person!)