Went to Toyota city to see fireworks!

During my first week of training, I told all of my students to let me know of cool things to do while in Nagoya if ANYTHING ever came up, festival-wise or other. So the second week, Megumi, one of my Talking Point 1 (first part of 2, of the highest level book) students brought in a book with a ton of Summer firework shows. Some had 2,000 fireworks and were weeks away and over an hour away, some less and 3 hours away, but one caught my eye...

Toyota (Home of Toyota cars and Denso) city, about 30 minutes away, had 15,000 fireworks... Yeah I know where I was going. So between Megumi and my manager I had some directions scribbled down from a nearby train station.

During the week I made plans with Atsushi to go to HRC for lunch. We decided to meet at Nana chan (she is the big giant doll you see in pics, and they change her clothes at some interval, not sure yet) and she is now in her summer clothing, a bikini and an inflatable intertube. After we met up we headed to HRC, where we both had Hypnotiq Tea (which are damn good, and strong...) and got some potato skins (which I miss my mom making) and fajitas (like I had the first time at HRC). After lunch I wanted to head to Toyota early to get good seats, so I asked if Atushi could show me how to get there from where we were, using the directions I got earlier in the week. He felt sorry for my poor baka gaijin soul with sukoshi nihongo skills he decided to come along with me, so I could at least GET there. Yeah without him I woulda been lost as HELL, but now I could make the trip again and be just fine.

So the trip pretty much consisted of the advice he gave me, follow the girls in the yukata, they are heading to this show, which ended up being true. From Nagoya station to Toyotashi, we followed a group of people with girls in yukata and the last train was honestly the most crowded train I have been on in my life, up to THAT point... When we got off the scope of how big this event hit me. I expected 3,000 people probably, give or take 100 or so, but when I got off the train, I probably saw that many in my viewpoint from the train station! It was a long stroll from the train station to the ticket uhm, the thing that collects your tickets, because of the amount of people that were on that train. Every last one of them were exiting at this stop! We eventually made it out of the station part and into the sea of people heading towards where the show would be.

It was at this point that I saw THE most foreigners I have seen in this night alone, compared to my total time in Japan, inclding my week in Tokyo! There were people from dif parts of the world including America. Lots of foreign guys with Japanese girlfriends, but also a lot of families just in for the festivities. Atsushi and I found a seat on the sidewalk where we stayed and snapped photos for an hour or so. We then decided to try to get closer and we got a much better view of the show, but it was about to end, so I grabbed some beer, him some food, and we decided to head back to the train before the show ended. Wow was the train crowded! Him and I slipped in between people into some invisible space for JUST 2 people to stand. Once we had to change trains, it was much less crowded and the night ended with me making it home safe. Thanks to Atsushi for spending the day with me, making sure I didn't get lost or anything, I definitely would have.

Anyways on to the part you were waiting for! PICTURES! There are a LOT and my camera SUCKS for nighttime pics, but some came out well! Also look for pics of the yamanba/ganguro girls I took! I didn't know this style was all the way in Nagoya, I saw a ton of em in Tokyo though!

Fireworks in Toyotashi

Things Japan is better at over California (I can NOT represent the whole US, hell I can't represent all of California!):

Firework shows
Public Transportation
Politeness at places of business
Japanese language