Photo= Fireworks decorating Lake Biwa in vivid colors (August 8, seen from Biwako Otsukan, Yanagasaki, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture)

Coloring the night sky and water's surface in this lake province, "Lake Biwa Fireworks Festival 2017" was held on August 8 off Otsu Port, in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture. According to the organizer, approximately 350,000 spectators, from both in and out of the prefecture, cheered as they saw the enormous flowers bloom and fade in the night sky.

This year's festival theme was the "Culture of Water Gurutto Expo," a tourism campaign which will begin in the prefecture in October. Fireworks of various colors and shapes were used to represent the water's relationship with "life," "prayer" and "food."

At 7:30 p.m. two nine-centimeter firework balls were launched high above the lake, announcing the start of the roughly-one-hour show. As fireworks featuring the lake's fish and the very popular "Water Star Mine" exploded above the lake like colorful flowers, spectators at the festival site erupted into applause.