In summer, numerous spectacular fireworks events are held throughout Japan. One of those is the Tokyo Bay Fireworks. Although its not as large as the Sumida-gawa Fireworks (Ryogoku), also held in Tokyo, the Tokyo Bay Fireworks still fires off 12,000 fireworks over an hour and half. The Sumida-gawa Fireworks fires off 20,000 fireworks, but the crowds are extreme.
Rather than dealing with crowds and lack of toilets, we decided to get on a yakata-bune boat (old-fashion houseboat) to view the Tokyo Bay Fireworks. Tempura dinner was served on the boat.
The fireworks were spectacular -very artful and many were absolutely huge:
BTW – wrote this post using the new Google Chrome browser – like it so far.
Pursuing Wabi 
屋形船の大江戸 http://o-edo.net/top.shtml ってところでチクに1ヶ月以上前に予約してもらってて行ったんだけど、品川からの乗船間際に500円で酔い止め買って飲んだのが効いたのか、酔うってことはなかったが、なんか揺れのせいでか薬のせいでか、眠くなったよ、あたしは。ゆかたで来てる人たちがいて、あたしたちもゆかた着て行けばよかったと思いました。船のうえにデッキがあるんだけど、いっぺんに全員は上がれないとかで半分ずつの交代でデッキから、待ってる間は船の窓から顔をだして見ました。ああ、いい日本の夏だった。
Hello, I don’t know if this is the proper place to respond to you, but it was all I could find.
It’s interesting, I have been researching the charred wood technique from japan for sometime and finally I re-googled some key words and came across your project in San Diego referred to in an article on a UK builders website! In any case, your project looks fantastic! I am a designer/builder in Oakland, CA specializing in Japanese timber-frame construction and I really think you have captured some of the essence of contemporary japanese space. I think the introduction of the charred wood-I have been looking forever for a client who would go for it!- is perfect. My wife and I were on Naoshima near Shokoku just last September and got very inspired. In any case, thank you for the images; we have a design build company and think you might find our work interesting, there is a small sample in our site:
mrcwdesignbuild.com