6-2-11 through 6-5-11: Museum, Fireworks, and Matsuri

This past Thursday (6-2-11), my 日本事情 class went to the 徳川博物館.

Yesterday, I bought some fireworks (well, sparklers) for some of the other foreign exchange students and went lit them on the nearby bridge.

Early today, there was a fairly large 祭り(I think 熱田祭り-あつまつり). It was unbelievably crowded.
I was actually surprised at just how similar it was to the State Fair, it was mainly just a long line of vendors selling foodstuffs, there was very little in the way of anything traditional beyond a group of taiko drummers by the temple and a group carrying a small cart of lanterns.

I was also given the impression that Japanese fireworks were far superior to U.S. ones, but the display at the 祭り fell far short of my expectations; rather than having a short, continuous chain of fireworks, it was more like they set them off in ten second intervals and just kept at it for a long, long time. Ultimately, a lot of us, not to mention many the other spectators, just got bored of it and went home.

If I seem a bit jaded, its probably due to standing in the middle of crowd that refused to budge for over an hour. The food was excellent, though.