Nagaoka Fireworks Festival

Nagaoka's fireworks are more than summer entertainment; they are an act of requiem and prayer. On 2 and 3 August every year, a shosanshaku-dama bursts into a ring about 650 metres across above the Shinano River, and the roughly two-kilometre-wide Phoenix fireworks spread their wings to Hirai Ken's "Jupiter" while hundreds of thousands watch in held breath. It is one of Japan's three great fireworks festivals, and one that many Japanese feel they must see once in a lifetime.