SUWA, Nagano Prefecture--Some 500,000 revelers packed the shore around Lake Suwako here on Aug. 15 for one of Japan's biggest annual fireworks extravaganzas.
SUWA, Nagano Prefecture--Some 500,000 revelers packed the shore around Lake Suwako here on Aug. 15 for one of Japan's biggest annual fireworks extravaganzas.
It was a sizable crowd, given that the Lake Suwako Fireworks Festival is held in a mountainous area.
Officials said 39,000 fireworks were launched.
Before the start, three rockets were sent aloft with messages from local citizens for victims and survivors of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Suwa city was jammed with visitors from the lake shore right up to the slopes of the mountain basin where the lake is situated.
The crowd burst into loud applause at the start of the show when an ultra-wide water starmine lit up the night sky in a continuous display of explosions.
The festival climaxed with a spectacular display of "Kiss of Fire," in which two fireworks coming from opposite directions exploded simultaneously to create a half moon.