The eighth annual Nipponbashi Street Festa stamped Osaka March 20, 2012 (Nipponbashi is Osaka’s geek district – much like Akihabara is for Tokyo). Cosplayers turned up in colourful outfits, dressing as characters from their favourite manga, anime, and video games. The street was closed to cars, and otaku flooded the streets, snapping pics, cosplaying, and hanging out.

In this February 4, 2016 picture a masked participant of the traditional carnival parade poses in the streets of the village of Kippel in the Loetschental valley, southwestern part of Switzerland. During this sinister carnival, participants wearing wooden masks and animal furs, crowd the streets of the villages to scare the people. (Photo by Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP Photo)

A view of popular train street in the old quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam on July 30, 2022. Hanoi Train Street is one of the most well-known and exciting tourist destinations in the city and trains pass the street twice a day close to buildings on either side of the tracks. (Photo by Chris Humphrey/Anadolu Agency via AFP Photo)

Carnival revellers dressed as “Peliqueiros” run along a street in the village of Laza, Spain February 26, 2017. “Peliqueiros”, or ancient tax collectors, pursued villagers through the streets ringing their cowbells and hitting villagers with their sticks. (Photo by Miguel Vidal/Reuters)

A reveller of a street party known as blocos, dances during a protest against restrictions by city officials in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. City Hall has banned the street parties during Carnival celebrations, which were delayed by almost two months due to the pandemic. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

A man wearing a mask walks past the “Christmas Cab” sculpture displayed along Fifth Avenue on December 02, 2020 in New York City. The annual Holiday Sculptures display is organized by the Fifth Avenue Association and consist of 10 sculptures that runs from 50th Street to 59th Street. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Costumed participants are reflected in a woman's sunglasses during the Summer Carnival Street Parade, which travels through the streets of the center of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 27 July 2019. Twenty floats participated in the parade with dance acts and lots of music. (Photo by Marco De Swart/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People crowd onto 42nd Street as they take photos of the “Manhattanhenge” phenomenon in the Manhattan borough of New York July 11, 2014. Manhattanhenge, coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, occurs twice a year, when the setting sun aligns itself with the east-west grid of streets in Manhattan. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)