August 16th was the Shinmachi fireworks festival. We were REALLY looking forward to it because we returned from our US trip the day after the festival last year, so we missed it. We decided to have a BBQ and invite a bunch of people, since our roof has a really good view. But first we went down to the river for the lanterns and some dancing!
The bridge across the river
The sides are newly built, so the river as a nice place for everyone to relax!
I don’t know what the point of these duck things were…
Fireworks! I didn’t take so many pictures actually, but here are a few…
Kenji has more from the festival area, so I grabbed a few of his to upload:
I liked this picture a lot!
We met Mr. Mizuishi there, one of Kenji’s old English students. He is super nice!
The main dancing platform
I like this picture.. me watching
Mr. Mizuishi saw me watching and literally pushed me into the dancing line. Ummm… I don’t know these dances! They were pretty easy to learn though and I got the hang of it. Kinda like southern line dancing, really.
Except in a circle. And in yukata. And in Japanese. So… not really so much like line dancing, actually.
Anyway, on to the BBQ! Lots of people on our roof
Mmmm BBQ. Kei-kun and Brandt took over the cooking thankfully!
Enjoying themselves
A dark picture of us watching the fireworks
One of Kenji’s nice fireworks pictures
Next year we need to plan a bit better, and I will dance a bit more, but it was a great local festival!
Just another Jess in Japan 