August 1, 2004

• Chofu Fireworks 8/2004

  The annual fireworks took place on the banks of the Tama River in Chofu. I went by myself, because DH did not want to use up all of hia stamina for the week in a single evening. He probably made the right choice.

  

  The train to the Tamagawa Station was rush hour crowded on Sunday night, and we were heading in from the suburbs, so I don't even want to imagine what the trains coming in from the city were like. As the train crossed the bridge over the Tama River there was a group gasp at the view of the riverbank, paved with solid yukata clad bodies. And we thought we were going down there??

  

  Will we even be able to get out of the train station??

  

  As we passed through the train station and down the road to the river, it turned out that we were most definitely not going down there, as that portion of the riverbank had been declared filled to capacity and in danger of sinking.

  

  We mob members were all instead directed to turn left instead of right, (At this point there is a general traffic jam and no one is going anywhere, so one has to attempt to swim over to a thin current of moving people and get out of the slightly scary humangous herd.) and made our way down the road along the river away from the launch site. I managed to find an open spot to sit on the wall above the riverbank and was able to have a pretty good view from there.

  

  These were taken from my perch on the wall. If I turned to my left, I was facing the train bridge that I had just gone over. The picture from inside the train was taken of the bank on the other side of the bridge, if that gives you any idea of where I was.

  

  The show proceeds. Shutter timing is a bit tricky, and more than half of the shots are deleted. You have to focus on the little tadpole of light going up and then snap just as it begins to explode. Any later than that, and you are left with an image of only the afterglow.

  

  

  

  This was my right-hand side view and the reason that I did not go down to the riverbank. It was nothing but more crowds and concession stands down there, and who knows if I could have found anywhere to settle. Notice the police at the side of the ramp who are there for crowd control. No, as much as I love Chocolate Bananas I stayed out of the concession area and enjoyed what I could see from here.

  

  

  I am still not "faime" enough to descend to les concesseurs.

  

  

  

  More fireworks... and a train goes over the bridge.

  

  Here are a couple more shots of fireworks before the finale. Shortly afterward the last loud noisy colorless bangs were heard announcing the end of the show, and the stampede back to the station began. Fortunately, being at the end of the line coming put me at the front of the line going.

  

  

  

  

  • 20:36
  • 1 Comment