— With Love from Japan —

Ohorikoen Hanabi Taikai(大濠公園花火大会) + Summer Plans for the Blog!

August 7, 2014

Exams are finally over, and I’m going back to Singapore tomorrow morning! So I figured I’ll quickly share about the Ohorikoen fireworks (大濠公園花火大会) and what I’m planning to do for this blog while I’m in Singapore.

So, even though the fireworks were three days before my exam, I decided to go and take a look because I can’t study at night, and since I studied the whole day, I felt like I deserved a break. But in a concession to my exams, I used the time I would normally use to wear Yukata and do my hair and make-up and stuff to study.

When I got on the train though, there were so many people in Yukata. Even most of the foreigners were in Yukata )O.O(

And the people. There were so many people I wanted to head straight back home. But that would be a waste of ticket money so….

People

I actually met Hanae at this ^ entrance. She was on her way to meet other foreign students and another classmate, but there was already too many people, and all I wanted to do was look at the fireworks, not mingle. So I in the end, I went alone (although we are planning to go together next year).

There was a carnival-like atmosphere, with lots of stalls selling food and drinks. And then, people sitting everywhere.

People sitting in playgrounds

People sitting on ramps:

All those places were making me confused. But then, it started to rain and since I was conveniently next to a shelter, I hid there and decided to hang around till the fireworks. Turns out I got a pretty good view after all. 
By the way, here are a few facts that I found out about the hanabi taikai: 
a. It can be seen from Fukuoka Tower. 
b. It lasts 1.5 hours. Yes, it’s very long. I left after 30 minutes.

c. The reason why it isn’t pandemonium is because of the awesome work the police do. They were everywhere, directing the crowds and making sure people could move.

And now, for the part everyone’s been waiting for – pictures of the fireworks! If you have me on Google+, you’ve already seen the iPad and handphone photos, now here are the DSLR photos that I think turned out pretty well.

Boom!

Pretty <3 

Everyone’s taking photos! 

I think this is a butterfly?

Fireworks in the park 😀 

And if you want to hear what it sounds like, check out this video I took. 

Just to give you an idea of how loud the fireworks are. When I reached Muromi (which is 5 stations away from Ohorikoen station), I could still hear the regular drumbeat of the fireworks as they exploded.
In fact, as I neared the end of the bridge, I found a small group of people standing at one vantage point where you can see the fireworks in the far distance. 
Even at home, I could hear the fireworks as they exploded.

Summer Plans for this Blog

Since I’m going back tomorrow, I bet a bunch of you are wondering “how are you going to blog about Japan while you’re in Singapore?” Well, the last two days were full of stuff, and I’m definitely going to blog about the Moomin Cafe and the latest game in Huis ten Bosch.

I’m also planning to talk about the interesting stuff that happen in Singapore, like me going to talk about studying in Japan in schools, and my birthday 😀

And and *excited flailing*, and this I thought about for a while, I plan to review some language apps! Not just Japanese-learning language apps (although if the app does teach Japanese, I’ll either test it myself or get someone like my brother or my mom to test it for me), but language apps or sites in general. So far, I’ve got:

Duolingo
Mindsnacks
Memrise
Lang8 (maybe)

Feel free to let me know if you’ve got any app/website you want me to test.

Misc. Stuff
I got home today and recorded my Bahasa Indonesia self-introduction! This is for you +Tamara Larasati, since you asked for it 😀 It’s not very good though, I think I made a lot of mistakes :p

I’m not sure how Youtubers are so cool in front of a camera. I was a nervous wreck (and I was way more nervous than my actual exam haha).

What do you think?