Hanabi season started

Now the fireworks (hanabi) season has started in Japan and roughly every week in august fireworks will be arranged in some area around Tokyo. This weekend we went to see the fireworks in Sumidagawa, the biggest arrangement in Tokyo during the year where different companies are competing with each other to arrange the best fireworks.

It is really amazing fireworks going on for more than an hour straight and they launch the rockets from two different locations a few hundred meters apart along the river in the Asakusa area. We didn't go very close to the launch scene to avoid the massive crowds that gather for the hanabi but even on a distance enough people came to have picnic in the street to get the right feeling for the occasion, similar to how people gather in the spring for watching the cherry blossoms.











For all becoming fathers it might be worth to consider that the stroller you buy should be able to carry your own weight, so that you can always use it as a comfortable chair when watching fireworks. This little guy didn't seem to happy that his father occupied the stroller for him but it wasn't much he could do about it. Just wait a few more years.











On sunday we went to Yokohama bay area for a relaxing day. The temperature was some where over thirty degrees when I noticed this "Ice World" house keeping a temperature of just as many degrees below zero. I couldn't resist to try the sudden 60 degree drop in temperature even if it cost me 500 yen (40skr) and it was well worth the money. Mostly young kids were running through the house screaming "samui! samui!" (cold! cold!) when I took a break in there to try to get as cold as possible. It was really nice to come out cold as a block of ice into the burning hot sun. Even Maki appreciated a cold hug.

Kamakura beach

Today we finally got ourselves to a beach. It has been a few weeks with warm weather but it's like I just keep thinking how nice it would be to go to the sea but we never get to it. The last summer I kept complaining that the sad thing about Tokyo is that it's so far to go to a beach, and we only went once in the whole summer. Today I realised it's only 50 min by train from our house to the beach in Kamakura so it's not so bad after all. It was a fun day and I kept trying to body surf in the quite high waves. Until the next time I'm thinking about buying a body board, a lot of people using them today and looked like lots of fun.











The beach in Kamakura is quite long. Closest to the water the sand is i bit hard but further up it's pretty good. All along the beach there are bars and restaurants and even some small concert halls. Today we stumbled in to a Jamaican reggae concert by accident. Concidering that we were walking on a beach in the middle of the day it was a bit surprising - but fun.

Back home I noticed to no suprise that I'm just as red as always after the first day on the beach.

Wind charm festival

Yesterday we went to a wind charm festival in Kawasaki daishi, located in the middle between Tokyo and Yokohama.











The festival was arranged in the tempel area in Kawasaki daishi and on the open space in front of the tempel there was traditional dancing by a group of women.











All japanese tempels have the place for washing hands and mouth to prepare for entering the tempel.











The thing that has given this festival its name is the wind charm that is being sold in thousands of different models - made of glass, china or metal. Here is some models made of painted glass. We got one with us back made of metal so now there is a constant ping-ping(!) sound coming from the balcony.











All festivals include the typical fast food restaurants where you can get grilled chicken, pancakes or other traditional food.











And we got to meet the japanese "grännapojkarna" chopping up what would best be described as a kind of polkagrisar made of rice. Sounds awkward but was indeed very tasty candy.











To finish off the day we continued down to Yokohama with Eric and Caroline to meet up with Paul at a beer garden located on the roof of a 10 storage tall department building. Nice feeling to be outside in a garden located high up and surrounded by tall buildings.

Summer time and BBQ

Summer is approaching and now temperature is normally around tirty degrees and humidity around 75%. The warmest period is yet to come though.

With summer comes the traditional BBQ season in Japan and last weekend we had our first big BBQ party with the team from work. Despite alarming weather reports showing thunderstorms the days before it was a very nice day by the sea at Nojima park, approx. 30 mins south of Yokohama.














Some of the people in the happy group of around 20 people from the team with friends that joined the BBQ.











The grill was constantly loaded with good stuff like chicken, lamb, shrimp, squid, veggies etc. After using up all 10kg of char coal we had to go get more to be able to finish all food!

The group that stayed till the end.