July
05
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Big Bouquets Of Fire Flowers
SUMMERTIME! In the land where fireworks are more like giant flaming bunches of posies than boisterous, wham-bam, shock & awe, that’s what hanabi really means in Japanese: fire flowers. A summertime treat accompanied by those other traditional favorites, squid-on-a-stick & beer, the first time I saw a Japanese fireworks display, I was struck dumb with amazement. Not only did they shoot off a mind-boggling grand finale-like muchness for over an hour, the colors and shapes were like nothing I’d ever seen before.
The colors went way beyond red, white & blue. More like crimson, teal, ultramarine, chartreuse and gold
And the shapes! This one was a ringer for an imperial chrysanthemum
And this one (sorry for the shaky camera) is unmistakably a cat with sparkly whiskers
The show these are from was a tiny one at a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji, and while it was very pretty to see the reflection of each firecracker in the lake, they weren’t shooting off the usual simultaneous monster display. I’ve composited a few different shots here so you can see the range of colors!
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Beautiful! We’re still daylight so the fireworks haven’t started. Don’t know if we can see them from our home. Didn’t feel like walking the 7 miles round trip just for that. Lazy American? No, just too old for that kind of effort in the hot summer.
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I think you made the right choice! And I’ve NEVER watched them in San Francisco, because the chance that the fog will roll in and all fireworks will be reduced to vague pink flashes in the clouds isn’t worth fighting the crowds to get a prime viewing spot. (><)
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What a fabulous website you have! Thanks for all that!
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