So the Edogawa fireworks display is really big. I don't know if it's the biggest in Japan, or whether it has any particular accolades in terms of size or variety, but just shy of a million and a half people view it yearly. As such, it's a pretty big deal, and a large number of fireworks are thrown into the air for the occasion.
This year I wasn't in England and I had some time off from rugby so I decided to go along.
It's worth remembering that the Summer here is particularly warm, with the humidity also being a factor.
The result is that it gets unbearably hot during midday.
In order to secure a good spot to see the show it was necessary to go relatively early. It began at 7.15, so we decided to head down around two o' clock, throw down a tarpaulin and sit under an umbrella.
Firstly, the place wasn't nearly as crowded as I was lead to believe it would be at this time. With two people you could probably arrive around four thirty or five and still find space to sit down. Whether it's always this easy is up for debate, but on the Chiba half of the river (the show is half paid for by the tokyo side of the river, and half by the chiba side) seating is a fairly simple affair.
The umbrella wasn't see-through, it was entirely opaque. I still got burnt. I have no idea how, but it happened. It also wasn't big enough for my whole body (I need to get a fishing umbrella!) so I draped towels over my legs, making a kind of lean-to against the umbrella.
Long story short, it was hot. It was too hot. I do not recommend going before four P.M. for the simple fact that you will melt. It was the hottest I have ever been while not playing sports, and it felt like I was going to die. It was horrible. Really, soul crushingly horrible.
As a caveat I'm the kind of person that would rather be too cold than too hot, so maybe it was just me. There were a few intrepid locals sitting out in the sun, covered with only T-shirts, drinking beer. Insane. They weren't even sunburnt by the end of the day. They must be made of radiators and zinc oxide.
Anyway, aside from nearly dying, I also fashioned a makeshift tripod. Basically, there's no way to shoot long exposures without something to balance the camera on, that's why we have tripods.
None of my photographs are very good when you stop and look at them, but they hold up to a cursory glance for reasons that I'll explain later - but even getting these results took a bit of crafting.
I cut a slot into one big cardboard box and put a smaller one inside it at an angle, giving a fairly stable triangle. I then taped it, cut wedges into the top, put towels over them and finally plopped the cameras on top. It's good enough for video, the wobble is barely perceptible there, but for stills it's an entirely different story.
Before I get to the pictures, this boat sailed straight into this clearly marked area ignoring the obvious hazard, got caught up in some kind of net (dozens of fish made a bid for freedom when the propeller snagged) and burnt out their engine. Seconds after this picture a big puff of black smoke emitted from the rear and lots of shouting happened. I flitted between wanting to die from heat stroke and laughing at these idiots being hauled out of the net by a couple of other boats. The women on the front did not move one iota the whole time.
When you're on the water, look out for buoys, people.
Anyway, onto the pictures.
It was a pretty day. After my near death exposure experience there was a nice sunset.
There are only two pictures in landscape today, I learned something pretty quickly about which orientation suits fireworks the best. Especially individual fireworks.
This is an odd one in that it's the only 100mm+ picture that wasn't a total mess. Obviously the more zoomed in you are the more stable the platform needs to be, but I didn't realise quite how stable. Cardboard doesn't cut it most of the time.
This is the other landscape. It's also the only picture with more than one firework going off in the same frame. If I had a tripod I could have taken a dozen pictures and overlayed them which can give a cool look with lots of simultaneous colours.
If you don't like this style of picture you can probably close the page now.
This is one of my favourites because it looks like a UFO.
This is another one of my favourites because it looks like a flower.
There was a lot of smoke in the air after only a few volleys which meant pictures often came out with the smoke effects you see here. The top left of the flower at around 11 o' clock is hazy, residue from a past explosion. There are also artifacts from reflected light lower down. I could erase them but it's not really a true image then.
Not that 'true,' means anything in this digital age.
This is a bit earlier or later than the others, it shows the orange afterglow or initial explosion rather than the colours.
This is probably my favourite, just because of the mix of colours and the layers, central bright with a petal texture looking outwards. Just like a flower.
So if you enlarge any of these pictures and look at the lines of light, you'll notice that they wobble, they're not perfectly straight. This is where a good base come in handy, it stops that tiny amount of shake and keeps every line looking pristine. Or at least as it would look in real life.
I don't really like the colour of this one, but it's nice to have context in the form of some housing in the distance below.
The same with this one, the colours are bad but at least there is a wonky horizon, so the firework has a little more context.
This is another of my favourites, it's super blurred (artistic effect, if anyone asks) but it's a nice colour. If only all the pieces would come together every time!
I like the colours here, I like how the horizon is almost straight, and I like the light pollution coming from the city. It just doesn't grab me for some reason. Taking 'dem pictures is hard.
This isn't a sharp picture, nor does it have interesting colours, but it's probably my favourite. Have I already said that? Either way, I'll probably make it my phone background at some point.
This last one I've chopped up to make it look like some strange sea creature. Or a bizarre cell. Or an artists rendition of a crazy quantum experiment. Or one of those plasma balls.
I would also mention that the wind was in our faces, meaning we were absolutely pelted with the detritus from the explosions. We were covered in soot, charred paper and big lumps of cardboard by the end of it. It might be worth bringing something with a peak to cover your eyes, even if only a marginal improvement over your hands. It definitely added excitement to proceedings because it's pitch black directly in front of you and it's hard to see when you're about to be clocked upside the head.
Hopefully some of that will show through in the video.
That's it. I got quite a few shots I like, and one or two that will go into the 'keepers,' collection, which is a rare thing indeed for a single outing (for me at least)!
I also shot some video, it's taking a while to edit but I'll put it up here when it's done.
Oh, and some film too. That'll be done in a month or so. Exciting.
So the entrance ceremony was today. Needless to say, it was long and efficient. Patience is a virtue in all matters here, it seems.
Firstly, I sat with all the new teachers for roughly an hour, while the school head teacher, mayor (or some such city official) the deputy head, the head of each of the departments and some specially selected kids gave speeches. Individually they weren't long; but collectively they were taxing. Before each person spoke we had to bow, and after each person spoke we had to bow. This includes standing up and sitting down each time. Tiring.
Then the new teachers were ushered onto the stage to bow in front of the students. We were introduced individually, mine being a particularly drawn out affair. I don't know why, he said something about me being English and from London. That aside, it was relatively mundane. This happened an hour into the ceremony.
We then sat down in our original positions (I don't know how long for) and waited. After that, there was a ton of sitting around and waiting in the teachers room. I was tasked with literally no work, so I busied myself with my university application, and asking those around for help finding local university libraries. From a personal perspective, it was extremely productive. From an education prospective, it was not.
I hope this trend continues, because I will be able to do monumental amounts of work here, if I'm tasked with the same workload as today.
In radioactive news; we had a magnitude 7.0 earthquake some 200km offshore yesterday. No tsunami's that I know of. A tsunami, for those are wondering, is caused by tectonic activity. A tidal wave is caused by lunar or solar interaction with the ocean.
The quake lasted for around a minute all told. It built up slowly (a trend I've noticed with the earthquakes here) and lasted for a long time. Long enough to smash one of my glasses and force me out of bed to lay my computer and TV flat - you suddenly find out what your priorities are when something like this occurs.
Another interesting fact - before I came here I assumed earthquakes were quick events that happened over a period of seconds. It turns out that the big earthquake a few weeks ago lasted for three minutes. In the same way, it built up from minor shaking to become a massive earthquake. The sixth biggest in recorded history. That's huge.
The reactors are all being scrapped after they've been secured. It appears that only one of the reactors is causing the headaches you can read about in the newspapers; the others are either secure or posing little risk. The one that's leaking everywhere, however, is burning holes wherever it touches. Workers are being paid about 700 pounds a day to solve all the problems. Of course, those workers will be dead in ten years, so, frankly, I think 700 pounds is too little. The company in charge is taking advantage of the Japanese 'it's my fault, so I will kill myself to rectify the problem,' mentality. On the one hand it's a crying shame that these people are sacrificing themselves for this; on the other it's amazing they would willingly choose to do so. I don't know many people that would be willing to wade up to their knees in radioactive water to fix a leaking pipe.
The world can't run on oil forever, and using solar, wind or wave energy is, frankly, delusional. Therefore, I guess the Japanese will have to build their power stations on top of bouncy castles or some such earthquake-proof device.
It's interesting to note that the reactors themselves were initially unharmed, it's only the cooling systems that failed. Once a reactor is started, the cooling systems keep the temperatures at nominal levels - it's an ongoing reaction that lasts as long as the fuel does. Once it's started, it doesn't stop. There are emergency backups, but it would seem to me that the actual nuclear reactor technology is safer than people would imagine. They've just got to invent a way of supercooling the reaction much faster than they were able to this time around.
Also, these reactors are forty years old. I wonder how a reactor today differs?
So this day was absolutely fantastic. It began with a long journey up through Tokyo to the Tokyo Aquarium. We took a quick walk around the area, taking in the sights and snapping a few on the way. We then saw an unbelievable family of wadaiko drummers. I don't really know what the difference between Taiko and Wadaiko is, but they're both incredibly awesome. I love both of them, the noise they make shakes your bones, it must be amazing to be able to play those instruments. I can vaguely see the appeal of learning something like the guitar, or violin, or something of that nature; but I can absolutely see the attraction of playing with Wadaiko, it's like playing with thunder. Fantastic.
We then went into the aquarium and had a nose around there. It was pretty good, but here we felt the sting of the Japanese population. It was packed. Absolutely full to the brim. We had to go on a weekend because of my schedule, so I should have expected the crowded nature of things.
Again I'm posed with something of a dichotomy of opinion about the packed nature of certain attractions during the day. Firstly, I can't speak Japanese, so all the shouting and general high level of noise is just that, noise. It holds no meaning to me and therefore cannot be annoying. Secondly, a few smaller attractions aside, I stand nearly a head taller than everyone; so seeing things is not a problem for me. I can see everything, even when there are thirty people in front of a single tank. Of course the downsides are the same no matter where you're from or you're visiting. Lots of people.
These aspects are entirely selfish of course, because my companion was a little over five feet, and couldn't see a thing. I offered to lift her for a better view, but she declined...
So after the aquarium I readied myself for dinner. I have wanted to try yakiniku since I've been here, but it's really expensive; so today I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. If you don't know what yakiniku is, wait for the pictures.
Unfortunately this meal, coupled with the shinkansen ride the following day has pretty much wiped a few zero's off my budget, which is unfortunate...
So now we move onto the pictures, and today we have an awful lot.
So I saw these guys driving around the street, right outside my hostel at the beginning of the day. They're pushing a crazy gear that basically means their feet go round a hundred times, and the wheels go round once.
It pretty much set my day up with a smile to see these guys driving around in their stupid vehicles, bought a smile to my face from the very beginning.
This is the view from the aquarium complex. There's a great big park with all kinds of amusements, and one of the attractions is this beach/seafront area. Lots of kites and frollicking happens here, by the looks of things.
It was a pretty hot day too; I've no idea how many celsius, but I would imagine a fair number more than in England.
So the glassdome/planetarium kind of structure is actually the aquarium. Nothing is housed in that dome, literally nothing, it's just an empty shell.
I suppose it looks quite nice, but all that just to house a few escalators? Overkill methinks.
This is from the top of a small (glass again) structure overlooking the entire area. All things considered, it's a very nice place.
So this is the big ol' drum. I think the big one is wadaiko, and the smaller ones are taiko, but I'm not sure about that.
It makes an absolutely fantastic sound. It really is thunderous, and sounds amazing to say the least.
I want to learn how to play taiko and wadaiko, but I also like the flute, (you can hear it in almost all of my taiko videos) in the earlier matsuri the players were all able to play everything, again, a fantastic breadth of skill involved there!
Maybe I can study somewhere back home? I wonder... Anyone reading this who lives near the Letchworth/Stevenage/Hitchin area and can teach Taiko? No, I didn't think so... Oh well, I'll have to wait until I come back here I guess.
The stand seen here didn't look particularly solid when I was watching it, but they all pounded the absolute hell out of that thing, and it didn't even wobble, so they obviously know what they're doing.
I badly wanted to hit this drum when they weren't looking. It's just begging to have the hell beaten out of it.
I'll say again, it sounds like rolling thunder. The kind of sound a hyper car makes in a tunnel, the guttural sensation that makes the hairs all over your body stand on end.
Ok so these are some more shots of the traditional dress. I've not shown you many; the view of the traditional Japanese wedding was an extremely lucky and privileged one and I've just left it at that really. So here's another close-up, even if it's from a rather obscure angle.
The trio, man, woman and girl, are actually a family. From what I understand they travel around performing their amazing act, provide tuition and generally provide taiko based products for Japan.
They're cool!
So here's a stills shot of the same performance as one of my videos. As I may (or may not) have said before, my camera had a fit and lost a lot of information; namely a number of videos I made, and a few pictures. This really is a crying shame, but it gives me a greater incentive to find some more performances around the place.
So here's the patriarch. He really looks the part doesn't he? That's a rhetorical question by the way, I'm telling you he does.
What you can't see in this picture is the vocal accompaniment he gives while drumming, namely shouts and jeers; (presumably in time with the music) if you've ever seen the shaolin monks live or on the tele, you'll hear them make similar kinds of noises to psyche themselves up. It's all very macho and masculine, and frankly very cool.
So this is macho mans' wife. I put the ownership over 'mans', even though I'm sure a few feminists would object.
So his wife is also fantastic.
They move so quickly between drums, and they move over the face of the drum to create different sounds so easily; practice makes perfect I guess.
The fact it's a family troupe would also help in their timing and whatnot I suppose.
So another shot of the head honcho.
He's pulling quite an interesting face too!
Ok there are a lot more wadaiko photos because I like them so much, but I'll try and limit them!
Sorry!
The whole family unit.
Taking the plaudits for their great performance.
I want one of those drums...
You can see the traditional dress in this picture as well, amazing stuff.
So when the main performance had finished they pulled the smaller taiko around and did a little pair drumming. These make a completely different sound to the big drum, and the smaller black ones.
Sorry for another taiko picture...
So the girl really laid into the drum with all she had, and the sound was really something else.
How many times can I say fantastic without it getting boring? How many has it been now?
Hammerhead sharks in a tank. Yummy! I've never seen hammer heads in a tank before, so it's pretty cool.
Coming to think of it I don't think I've seen these guys in the flesh before.
They sense electrical currents between the two eye protrusions, and feed on creatures hiding in the sand. All creatures give off a slight eletrical current, so it's a handy combination I think you'll agree.
Stingray.
Steve Irwin look away now.
They were all in the same tank, so they don't eat each other.
There were a couple of cool looking fish hanging around the bottom of the tank. かわいい！ (Cute) Well I think they are anyway...
Cute in an ugly kind of way, not in a rirakuma kind of way.
Taking pictures of seaweed is pretty bo... Wait a second, is it an animal?
Who knows.
Good camouflauge though.
So I also like this picture.
There's not a lot else to say really, without telling you what it is, but that would be no fun.
A random picture of Japanese people?
Yes.
This is basically to illustrate how full it was. This is overlooking a large tank full of tuna, so you're thinking right now, ah, tuna, there would obviously be a large number of hungry Japanese congregating at this part. This may be true, but there were a lot of people everywhere, not just here.
So these slimy critters are fish that survive in rock pools. Their enclosure periodically simluates this, by throwing a lot of water on them. They climb up the sides of the rocks inbetween the drenchings and nibble on the algae.
Strange things. I don't know how they breathe. With difficulty, or they hold their breath for a really long time. It's kind of weird to think they might hold their breath when out of the water...
Some red spiny lobster.
It reminded me of seeing the lobster when diving, and how scary they actually look in the deep dark ocean.
I think they look kind of delicious behind glass though...
Flying fish! I have to say, of all the creatures in this aquarium these looked the least impressed. Not being able to 'fly' must be quite depressing I suppose.
Even if you can only remember the last three seconds, they're three seconds of not gliding over the waves. I can see why that'd make any creature sad.
The last picture is a blurred shot of one of these guys. He changed colours and everything, but my video is also lost!
Damned camera.
They also move around extremely quickly which is why this picture is awful. Sorry about that...
Okk so now we move onto the expensive feast. Yakiniku just means barbecued meat, or something like that.
It does make you happy though...
Wait for the next few photos!
I had an unbelievable craving for some real meat, everything here is fish or wafer thin slices of some unindentifiable meat, that may have once been a cow...
So this was on the bottom of that title page; the menu is worth a thousand yen by itself! (The meal cost considerably more...)
Read this all the way through a couple of times for full impace. Amazing...
So you grill the food on this little barbecue in the middle of the table.
It's cool stuff, for sure.
And here's the platter we ordered!!!
Those are hot dog sausages in case you were wondering; interesting decision on that front...
But yeah the meal was amazing.
Once a month I will make it my mission to eat yakiniku if I get a job over here.
Here's then beginning.
Halfway through grilling the first batch, and hardly a dent made upon the foodstuffs.
And look at the mound of rice that cost 150円. Cool.
Everything about this setup is cool.
Halfway through, maybe two thirds of the way through.
It's all in a tare sauce, I've no idea what it is in English, kind of like a barbecue sauce I think.
It was tasty either way.
And that was pretty much my day. It was all really good, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Some videos now:
So this is the first of half a dozen videos I took of the family; however only two survived... Oh well. Turn the sound up for these; despite the terrible sound quality you can still get a feel for the noise these things make. Unfortunately my videos of the guy hitting the big drum have been lost; take my word for it. It's impressive.
So this is the other video of the family. This has them only playing drums; and you get more of a feel for the sound.
And here are some random jellyfish... I like watching them; they're like a living lava lamp.
I finally took some video of the drum game I like so much! They're all over the arcades in Tokyo, and there are none in Kyoto that I've seen. I'm going to miss these guys while I'm away from Tokyo.
Ok so that's all the video from my trip to the aquarium. Another strange place to visit, just like the zoo. I'm just a sucker for delicious looking animals I guess.
