Tokyo Bay fireworks

As i previously mentioned, there are fireworks in Tokyo throughout the whole summer, but one of the biggest shows was last Saturday night. I had planned to meet some Japanese friends there and a guy who i went through training with, a guy from work, and his housemate all accompanied me there. Me and Gio (the black haired lad) were keen to wear a jinbei as the Japanese friends we were meeting were sure to wear Yukata. We decided against geta as many people had told us that they were uncomfortable and cause blisters, so instead, we wore normal thongs. Andrew (the blonde haired lad), however, took a bit of convincing/harassing to buy and wear a jinbei. He finaly conceeded but didn't have any thongs, so he wore shoes (which he was paranoid about the whole night- paranoid of looking like a git... haha). Brendan opted out and wore normal clothes... soft.

So we met at Shinagawa station and caught a bus, and after about half an hour of searching for a 'fireworks watching spot', we decided on a nice crowded corner of footpath next to the bay, which had a nice view of a bridge ( i don't know which bridge). The fireworks appeared to break over the bridge... I had conjured a romantic notion in my mind that the fireworks were going to involve sitting on a nice patch of grass, with plenty of room to move as we consumed food and champagne (well, not exactly, but you get the idea)... It was soon made appparent that my expectations were a little off the mark as we watched from our crowded footpath, and dined on potato chips and cans of Asahi (Japanese beer). But, thats Tokyo for you... Always masses of people everywhere... It was still great though!!

During our walk back to the bus stop, we came across a traffic warden (i guess thats what they are called). They are found everywhere in Tokyo and their prized tool is an electric fluro red baton that they point and swing around. These batons somewhat resemble light sabres, and because our jinbei clad selves somewhat resembled jedi knights, we convinced the warden to let us borrow her baton and we got some snaps.

We then went to Shibuya and had some beers and some food at an Izakaya. We got lots of looks from the young trendy Shibuya crowd, who i'm sure were suprised to see Gaijin wearing jinbeis (at least in somewhere as busy as Shibuya).

We then cught a taxi to Roppongi and went to a club. Some people were very suprised that we wore our jinbeis to a club and many Japanese approached us during the night, and informed us that they were glad we were sporting jinbeis.

P.S my Jedi shot looks more like i'm trying to hit a home-run.


Andrew has shoes, Gio has thongs...


Filing in time on the train


Tokyo Bay


My one and only actual fireworks shot!


Some strange gaijin wearing jinbei and watching fireworks...


Japanese watching fireworks


The team


The mystique and beauty of the Yukata is somewhat lost when the wearer has one sleeve rolled up and is smoking a cigarette!!


The force is strong in this one


Shibuya Hachiko intersection (I have no idea who the Japanese bloke is...)