There were many people there and I realized that Shiki alone had 10+ buses going to the Nagaoka fireworks. On the day of the tour, I followed the instructions to arrive at the bus terminal, where we all meet. But the picture turned out alright considering. My camera settings were wrong for fireworks I think. However, I read online that the “better” seats on the Shiki buses aren’t that great and isn’t worth the price, I opted for the regular seats. There are regular seats and there are “better” seats for a premium. I asked her to write down the name of the park so I can use Google Map to find my way there after the fireworks should I get lost.ĭuring the reservation process, she asked what kind of seats I want on the bus. She also showed me a sheet indicating where the bus would eventually park in Nagaoka. The instructions were clear (at least to me, because I can read some Japanese and I have a Chinese background for reading Kanji… otherwise, I’m sure you can use Google translate by taking a picture of the instruction sheet and have the app translate for you) and there are even pictures directing you from the Shinjuku station to the bus terminal. She gave me a print out specifying where to meet on the morning of the tour.
It took a while for us to totally comprehend each other, but it turned out ok. I spoke my broken Japanese, the lady helping me spoke her broken English. To book their tour I personally went to their office near Tokyo Station. 6 weeks before the actual event and Shiki Club still have availability in their Nagaoka Fireworks tour. But I tend to be wordy, so pardon my ranting. I’m going to write my experience in more detail and hope that it’ll help. Also, considering that hotel rooms go for sky high prices in Nagaoka for the event days and you won’t have to hurry off to catch the last train if you are staying in another city, it’s well worth the price. In summary, it was well worth it! The fireworks was grand, the crowd was great and the Shiki tour guide was very attentive to me as I don’t speak much Japanese. It includes a bus ride from Shinjuku bus station to Nagaoka (few service stops on the way), paid seating and overnight bus ride back to Shinjuku station arriving at 5AM the next day. If I remember correctly, I ended up paying about 17,000 yen. So I went with my 2nd choice, Shiki Club. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Japan the JTB tour was fully booked. Initially, I wanted to go with JTB, but they don’t accept foreign address for online booking, so I had to wait until I got to Japan to do the booking. I did end up going to the Nagaoka Firework festival on a tour. One of my favorite pictures that I took at the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival in 2015. So here we go, my long winded post on my experience last summer. There really aren’t that much English materials on the Nagaoka Fireworks Festivals to begin with, let alone local tour information. Then I figured, hey, since I wrote so much, might as well put it in my blog post. And I, being me, end up sending him/her a long-winded reply. Just today, someone on Tripadvisor PMed me asking about my experience. Although I’ve gotten some pretty good websites from the replies. When I was planning my trip last year, I posted on the Tripadvisor forums asking about local tours to see the Nagaoka Fireworks in August, but there weren’t much feedback in terms of other people’s experiences. Perhaps I’ll post them here one day, but I’m sure they’ll get much more attention over at Tripadvisor though. Since then I’ve written a couple of reviews here and there on Tripadvisor. I meant to blog more about my long vacation I took last year, but I guess I was never good at following through when it comes to non-work stuff.