Members of the “Elizabeth Club”, a club for non-professional transvestites and cross dressers, carry a large pink phallic-shaped “mikoshi” float through the streets as part of the Kanamara festival (Festival of the Steel Phallus) on April 1, 2012 in Kawasaki, Japan. The Shinto Kanamara festival is held each spring at the Wakamiya Hachimangu shrine. The central theme of the event, the phallus, is venerated in floats, with its icon produced as candies, carved vegetables decorations and shrines, partaken throughout the event. The festival is now a popular tourist attraction, the festival originated from prostitutes who wished to pray for protection from sexually transmitted diseases.