Tajimi City Summer Festival

Tajimi Summer Festival 2
Originally uploaded by pookie_san99.

Tajimi City had its annual Summer Festival yesterday.A chance to dress up in your yukata and clip clop about in your geta.
Throughout the day from nine a.m various groups performed on the temporary stage near the station.A very colorful spectacle.

The main event of the day was the hour long fireworks display from 7:30pm.The fireworks were launched from two sites nearby the Toki River banks.The best vantage point is the bridge between the two sites.Failing that a spot near either of the sites is also good.By 5:30pm most of the good positions had gone.Marked or reserved with chairs,mats,tables,cushions or tarps.
The food stalls on each bank were doing a roaring trade.The smell of squid,grilled noodles,burnt bacon and crepe batter hung over the area.
The fireworks got underway on schedule.The crowd "uhhed" and "ahhed" as each series of starshells and rockets exploded.
In the background a massive stereo system blasting out the soundtrack of "Top Gun" and Bon Jovi.
The detonations of some of the larger explosives set off some young children crying,while someones dog equally shaken began to howl.Which begs the question..why bring a dog to a fireworks display?
Trying to capture the pryotechnics on camera proved difficult.I swopped tips with an elderly man afflicted with the same problems.Too much exposure,too little?..a matter of trial and error.Seems the best results were obtained by waiting for a rocket to rise then count to two and shoot.Hopefully one captures the resulting explosion.Then again good timing has never been one of my virtues.
The photo above, shot from the bridge over the Toki River, was one of my better if not great efforts from last night.