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On August 4th, Kobe had Fireworks. When I was trying to find out exactly why from my students, they all said the same thing. To celebrate summer. Now there’s an idea, but if we started having big firework events for things like summer in the US, I think there would be no end:-)

So far this is the only big Japanese event we’ve been to. It was sort of a sneak preview of what any big event would be like. PACKED full of people. Just today, we were shopping (looking for a little inexpensive computer desk) and the store we were in was having some sort of sale because it was totally packed. Up until these 2 occurrences, I haven’t really felt the crowds like I was expecting to. But, yeah when it is crowded, it is SUPER crowded.

These fireworks were shot off at Harborland/Meriken Park right by the sea. We had to work and then went home to change into comfortable clothes before going, so as we were still walking to where we wanted to watch, they started. When we got closer and saw how crowded it was, we decided to stop a ways back. We still had a decent view except sometimes the fireworks weren’t high enough so they fell behind the big Mosaic mall building. I took a couple pictures, and they of course didn’t turn out all that great, but you get the idea:-)

For those of you who don’t know, nowadays most Japanese only where Kimonos (made usually with silk) or Ukata’s (cotton Kimonos) on special occasions such as festivals. So the Summer festival was filled with tons of people wearing their Ukata’s.

These girls were so cute, they thought I wanted them to take our picture, so when they realized they were sort of embarrassed and a little nervous but aren’t they pretty:-)

Some innocent people minding their own business:-)

This was in the underground shopping area leading from the park to the train station, just to give you an idea of the crowd. Pretty blurry, sorry, I was walking while taking the picture so I didn’t get run over.

Last but not least. We couldn’t resist taking a picture of this ad on the train. We just thought it was a little funny.

Coming up next, our adventures with Annie, Chris’ mom while she was in town for about 2 weeks.