A number of town councils exist in the Sasazuka, Hatagaya, and Hatsudai areas. They range from very large to very small, and each town council has its own unique events! The events held at each town council are also very unique!

This time, I visited the Children's Fireworks Festival held by the Sasazuka-kita Oyakacho-kai (Sasazuka North Parents' Association), which covers the Sasazuka 3-chome area. When I peeked into Sasazuka Park around 6:30 p.m., the sun was already setting, I saw many parents and children gathered there, ranging from children as young as 2 years old to those in the upper grades of elementary school, and there were about 50 children.

A few minutes before the start of the event, participants pick up their handheld fireworks at the reception desk and stand by around the candles and buckets that are dotted around the grounds. Each person will have about 10 fireworks.

Then let's get started! the fireworks were ignited all at once! The fireworks started to spark off with a loud "sizzle, sizzle, sizzle" sound. Compared to ordinary hand-held fireworks, they were much more vigorous! And they burn for a long time! Adults had to watch out for their own children and also watch out for their own backs, because there was another firework going off right behind them. Look, don't point it at people! Oh, no! My candle went out! Don't light them facing each other! In the midst of all this fussing, I looked around and saw a huge amount of smoke billowing up into the sky, and the multicolored fireworks blending in with the smoke made for a fantastic sight. The "sizzle" sound of the finished fireworks in the bucket and the smell of gunpowder was also nostalgic, reminding me of the excitement of summer vacation I had experienced as a child.

Unlike in the past, it is no longer possible to casually enjoy hand-held fireworks in front of houses or in parks. I sincerely felt that it was a good project to be able to enjoy fireworks, which are a summer tradition in Japan, with friends in the neighborhood of my house.