Day 21 - Hiroshima Fireworks Festival

So today I really had nothing to do.  There aren’t many other attractions in Hiroshima other than the museum and Miyajima, so I just decided to take it easy for the day. I had, however, heard that there was a massive fireworks festival here tonight, at the port, so I planned on going there in the evening. I saw my friend who was at the okonomiyaki place yesterday, and we planned to leave around 7. Then I went into my dorm and found a girl there who was Polish and had just arrived in Japan from London, so I invited her along as well. So at 7, we all walked to the train station, and took a tram to the port. We were on the tram longer than expected, and after a while we heard some seriously loud bangs, and then we could see the fireworks in the distance…well, not that distant. We all got off at the next stop, it was too maddening being stuck in the tram moving so slowly and stopping so frequently. The crowds were already huge as we made our way through towards the waterfront, and everytime a firework went up, everybody made this great 'oooo' sound in admiration. It was very funny, and the fireworks were so good.

We managed to find a really good place to stand for the remainder of the fireworks, and they were really spectacular. I managed to get the two main displays on video, I'm having trouble uploading them here but they are on Facebook :)

After that, we decided to take a wander down the street to get some food from the various stalls that were set up. I ended up having some takoyaki (I just love that stuff) and this weird rolled up savoury pancake thing...It was nice, and filling, so my tummy was happy.

We tried to take some pictures of ourselves as well, but I ended up asking some young Japanese boys, and they ended up joining in the photo with us :) It was all good fun.

It was about 10 by the time we got back to the tram, and we waited for what seemed like ages but was probably less than half and hour before getting the tram home, and it was so packed, we were on our feet for most of it, but we were all on a high from the fireworks, so we didn't really mind.

All in all, I would say it was the perfect way to spend my last night in Hiroshima :)