At the end of rice harvesting season, the folks of the Kagawa and Niigata Prefectures in Japan hold a straw festival to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Dried straws cover wooden frames to form larger-than-life sculptures from animals like sharks and gorillas to vessels such as ships and tanks. The family-friendly event invites visitors of all ages to engage, interact, and play on the enormous structures.

A man enters an adult amusement establishment in Shinjuku's nightlife district of Kabukicho in Tokyo, August 27, 2015. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

People watch the Pikachu parade which is a part of the 2023 Pokémon World Championships, at Grand Mall Park in Yokohama on August 11, 2023. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

A dog walks on the street as it snows in Kyoto on January 25, 2024. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

People are walking with umbrellas on a snow-covered street during the first snowfall of the year in Tokyo, Japan, on February 5, 2024. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Ayaka Oshita, a 27-year-old diver, practices in preparation for the upcoming seasonal feeding performance as a Santa diver at Sunshine Aquarium at Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Japan, 07 December 2021. Oshita has 15-month experience for feeding fish at the aquarium after she joined the aquarium in 2019. The Santa diver performance will be held for three days around the Christmas time. The aquarium will not inform the performance time to avoid the visitors' crowd due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA/EFE)

A man stands in front of a poster created by artist Tomoko Konoike, one of 20 posters officially selected for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Monday, January 6, 2020. The official posters are out for this year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The 20 posters have been created by 19 artists in fields ranging from painting, graphic design, and photography. Calligraphy and Japanese manga are also represented. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

A tourist pauses for photos with her mask on at Sensoji Temple Thursday, January 30, 2020, in Tokyo. The country began evacuating Japanese citizens on Wednesday from the Chinese city Wuhan hardest-hit by the virus. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)