What makes an Olympic show work in Japan -- grim sumo wrestlers or a heavy, yet artistic, dose of fireworks? After Sunday night's closing ceremony, the answer was clear.

''The opening ceremony wasn't very good, but in the closing ceremony the fireworks were very good,'' said Takeshi Tsuchigahata, managing director of the Japan Skating Federation.

The heavyweight practitioners of Japan's ancient sport made a ''solemn'' and ''simple'' and a largely silent entrance during the Feb. 7 opening ceremony and the crowd appeared intrigued, if not entertained.

Many were also not too impressed with the five-continent choral singing of ''Ode to Joy'' because they had to watch in on a large-screen television.

But at Sunday's closing festivities, the 50,000-strong crowd oohed and aahhed at the brilliant 11-minute display of 5,000 rockets bursting against a backdrop of clear night skies at the Olympic stadium in southern Nagano.

With their different colors, shapes and patterns, they depicted the four seasons while the final firework produced a gorgeous depiction of the ''Snowflower'' emblem of the games made of the colors green, yellow, red, blue and orange.

Some segments of the 1 hour, 40 minute ceremony were less transparent.

The huge black ''shishimai'' lions floats from the city of Iida, Nagano Prefecture which danced at center stage looked more like gigantic caterpillars from the seats in the higher reaches of the stadium.

But on the whole, the audience enjoyed itself.

''That was one of the best closing ceremonies I've ever seen,'' beamed Dick Pound, an International Olympic Committee vice president. ''It was crisp. It was clean. It was fun.''

''There was lots of action and music. It was also very Japanese which showed what it means to have the Olympics hosted around the world,'' Pound added.

Celia Smith, a ceremonies official for the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, agreed.

''It was lovely to see the people get behind the organizing committee and really celebrate their success with the paper lanterns and fireworks and things like that,'' Smith said. ''I think the people of Nagano are a real example to the rest of us.''

Many Japanese, from volunteers to local housewives to spectators coming from Tokyo, expressed sadness following Sunday night's ceremony at the fact that the Feb. 7-22 games, after a seven-year-long wait for their arrival, are over.

Spectators heaved a collective sigh when the Olympic flame, which burned for 16 days inside the stadium's cauldron, was extinguished. The flame suddenly reappeared for a brief moment, producing laughs from the crowd, before dying out for good.

''Yes, it's one of those things. You wait seven years and the games never come. Then all of a sudden, 16 days and it's done,'' Pound said. ''It doesn't seem like 16 days, it feels like 48 hours.''

Athletes from an unprecedented 72 countries joined the final outdoor party, and TV and radio footage was beamed to a record 160 countries around the world.

''We had a wonderful time here,'' Pound said. ''I think an enormous contribution was made by Nagano to winter Olympic history.'' (Kyodo News)