Last Saturday, I went to a town to the south, Minamiawaji, for dinner and fireworks. After a nice ramen noodle dinner, we headed to the beach where I met with Atushi. After watching some very cool Taiko drummers and having banana-melon flavored ice cream, he headed down to watch the fireworks. It was a cool show. Never have I been so close to the action, so much so that when the wind shifted in our direction bits of the fireworks rained down on us. The show lasted about an hour, after which we decided to hang out at the beach with a bunch of Atsushi's friends from Tokyo and Osaka for the next five hours. We didn't actually leave until about 3 in the morning, at which point I was completely wiped out. Still, it was a fun night, and my first exposure to a traditional Japanese festival. Check out the videos below!

Taiko Drummers

Japanese fireworks