A Brilliant Midsummer’s Night in Adachi

Summers in Tokyo are notoriously hot and humid with heat waves lasting weeks at a time. While all you want to do during the day is stay inside to escape the heat, the nights, on the other hand, entice us out with promises of some of the year’s most exciting events.

Tokyo’s summer calendar is packed with matsuri (festivals), odori (dances) and hanabi taikai (fireworks). Every weekend—and on many weekday nights—you have the option of going to numerous local or city-wide festivities. It’s just a matter of choosing where you want to go and what you want to do!

Adachi Fireworks Festival kicked off Tokyo’s 2018 fireworks season on July 21st, this year celebrating their 40th annual show. It’s one of the biggest and most popular fireworks shows, along with the Katsushika Fireworks (July 24th), Sumidagawa Fireworks (July 28th), Edogawa Fireworks and Itabashi Fireworks (both August 4th).

Over 600,000 people pack both sides of the Arakawa River for the free, one-hour show. As the fireworks are shot up into the sky, the crowd goes wild, clapping and cheering! The atmosphere is electric and you can’t help but smile. It’s amazing how much happiness fireworks bring people!

Reserve your spot early with a picnic sheetEnjoying the view of Tokyo Skytree and a beautiful sunset while we wait

This year’s show was split into five segments, celebrating the past four decades since the inaugural show. In the segment about the 70s and 80s, there were lots of criss-cross comets, huge sparkling spheres, millions of crackling sparks, and shells in the shape of mushrooms, hearts and smiley faces.

In Part 3 (the 90s), we saw stunning cascading fireworks that seemed to last forever as they gracefully fell down to earth. And one of the highlights of the whole show – the ‘Double Niagara’ where fireworks form a massive burning curtain along two lines.

Part 4 (the 2000s) was designed to feel like a party! The fireworks were wild and flashed in the sky like disco balls. Part way through, everyone in the crowd took out their glow sticks and waved them about as the fireworks were combined with laser beams and dance music. So much fun – and so well organised!

And lastly, Part 5 was dedicated to the future. I was in awe of the elegant ‘weeping cherry blossoms’ fireworks and the mammoth ‘chrysanthemum’ fireworks that filled the entire sky. It was an epic first fireworks show of the year! I can’t wait for the next one!

Double Niagara A sea of glow sticksLet’s get this party started!

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I love waterfalls of any kind, even ones falling from the sky! How do they even make fireworks do this?! ・ #fireworks #adachi #tokyolife #igersjp #team_jp_ #japan_night_view #gaijinpottravel #tripoutjapan #visitjapanau #japan_of_insta #wonderful_places #lovetheworld #足立花火大会 #東京 #花火 #キラキラ #綺麗

A post shared by Celia Knox (@celiaintokyo) on Jul 23, 2018 at 6:45am PDT

What are some memorable fireworks shows you’ve enjoyed in the past?