MtShowashinzanFireworksFestival

SUOMEKSI
Well now that we are off and running, maybe it will be easier to work on the site. The very day I arrived, August 26th 2001, I was taken by my employers to watch the Showashinzan Fireworks Festival. The festival is held on a weekend in late August on both Saturday and Sunday. Fireworks celebrations are a very common event in Japan. During the summer many retail outlets offer fireworks packages for sale along with their other merchandise, and people usually set them off on the weekend when they go camping, for example. At Toya lake the hotels set off displays from boats in the lake almost every evening if the weather is good and the hotels are full of guests. Well, Mt Showashinzan is an active volcano, and Mt Usu next door is also very active recently erupting in the year 2000 from new a side "vent". On both days people will gather at the Mt Showashinzan Tourist Center located at the base of the volcano, where there are many shops that sell a variety of souvenirs and merchandise to the tourists, as well as several restaurants, many beverage and food stands featuring roasted corn, roasted squid, tempura and other Japanese "goodies".
The people bring camp chairs and mats and have a picnic in the main parking area.

as darkness falls....	....the excitement builds

First there are speeches	...then the fuse is lit!

The fountain begins to gush	and GUSH!

...then BOOM! the show is on!	WOW!

and the "finale"	....a gushing booming cascading fountain!
It looked as if the whole mountain was erupting with rivers of red hot lava pouring down. I wish I had had a DV camera to record it, it was so awesome....The show lasted around 45 minutes!