All the major stations in Kanagawa and Tokyo were having fireworks displays almost every weekend. I asked a lot of Japanese what the occasion was, and the general concensus was there wasn't really any occasion, they just wanted an excuse to light shit up. I have no problem with that.

I was originally supposed to go with Haruka to watch fireworks in Tokyo. We were going to wear yukatas, and meet up with her friends from Chiba. But as things turned out, the yukata idea got scrapped because I finished work too late, and her friends ended up having a barbeque in Chiba that night instead. Because Chiba is about 2 hours from where I live, and because it absolutely wouldn't have been worth it for me to go there for only a few hours, before I had to come back home because of work the next day, I asked around at work to see if anyone wanted to go with me to watch fireworks.

I ended up going out with some of the staff, and another newer teacher, Emily. One of the staff suggested that we goto Hakkejima Sea Paradise because they were having fireworks displays. Hakkejima Sea Paradise is sort of a combination amusement park and aquarium, totally tight.

I invited Adam from my school to meet up with us, he ended up meeting up with us and bringing two other Yokohama teachers with him, Lisa and Kevin. We started off with dinner at Pepper Steak, and then headedto Hakkejima Sea Paradise to catch the fireworks. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the fireworks would only be going on for about fifteen minutes, and came in time to watch the tail end of the show.

Afterwards we played some arcade games and ufo catchers, and after had a little romantic walk around the park. All the rides and attractions were closed because it was too late, but we had a good time walking around the park as bats flew around us, and as the cicada's were dropping dead at our feet. Did I mention that bugs are gross in Japan?? I had a red praying mantis chilling out on my door the other day.