Edogawa Fireworks Festival

The Edogawa Fireworks are the largest of Tokyo's neighbourhood displays and, for many locals, the best. They are fired from the wide riverbed of the Edogawa off Shinozaki Park on the first Saturday of August, from 19:15 to 20:20, and the display is famous for its opening: around a thousand shells launched within five seconds, a wall of light and sound that no other Japanese festival begins with. What follows is a themed programme of roughly 14,000 shells set to music, the kind of tightly choreographed show that Tokyo's older river festivals do not attempt.

Because the display is shared with Ichikawa on the Chiba side of the river, both banks fill with spectators. The Tokyo bank at Shinozaki Park is the official site and the more crowded; crossing to the Ichikawa bank gives a roomier view of the same show and a different set of stations to escape by afterwards. Either way, arrive in the late afternoon to find space on the grass, and bring something to sit on.

Shinozaki Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line is the closest to the Tokyo bank, with Mizue and Koiwa as alternatives; on the Chiba side, Ichikawa and Motoyawata are the stations to aim for. The riverbed is wide and flat, so sightlines are generous, but there is little shade and no shelter, and the display is cancelled in heavy rain or wind. Expect a family crowd, food stalls along the approach roads and a long wait for a train home.