“A Hadaka Matsuri (“Naked Festival”) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Japanese men wear loincloths as they splash about in freezing cold water during Saidaiji Naked Festival, at Saidaiji Temple on February 18, 2012 in Okayama, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Photographer Han Youngsoo captured the ordinary people of Korea as the country emerged from war into an age of prosperity. Han Youngsoo: Photographs of Seoul 1956–63 is at the International Center of Photography (ICP), Jersey City, New Jersey, until June 9, 2017. Here: Seoul, Korea. (Photo by Han Youngsoo/The Guardian)

Miss World 2011 participants Miss USA, Miss Canada, Miss Mexico, Miss Guatamala, Miss Costa Rica, Miss Dominican Republic pose beside the Thames during a photocall as part of the Miss World 2011 UK Tour, on October 31, 2011 in London, United Kingdom. The tour celebrates Miss World's 60th birthday. The final of the competition will take place in Earls Court, London on Sunday 6th of November. (Photo by Ian Jones /Miss World Ltd via Getty Images)

Football transfers are not cheap. To have a player strengthen their ranks, teams are willing to pay big money. The football transfer considered to be the most expensive in the sport's history was that of Gareth Bale leaving Tottenham to play at Real Madrid. The Spanish club paid not less than £86 million (about $133 million at today's exchange rates) to have the player among its own. But recent news suggest that this record might be broken this year. According to reports in the media, UK Premier League team Manchester United is willing to almost double that amount.

Pixie Howitt,left, Jada-Jo Branney and Darcey McKechnie, pupils at the Dance School of Scotland, pose alongside works in the exhibition Discovering Degas: Collecting in the Time of Sir William Burrell, in Glasgow on September 3, 2024. (Photo by Wattie Cheung/The Times)

In this April 28, 2014 file photo, a woman throws a rock and a bag at police blocking her from getting home in the Huepetuhe district of the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Security forces began destroying illegal gold mining machinery in Peru's southeastern jungle region of Madre de Dios, as authorities began enforcing a ban on illegal mining. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

In northwest Russia, in a small village called Alekhovshchina, Nadia Sablin's aunts spend the warmer months together in the family home and live as the family has always lived, chopping wood to heat the house and making their own clothes. Sablin's book of photographs, “Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila”, is published by Duke University Press. Here: “Two-Handed Saw, 2014”. (Photo by Nadia Sablin)

Star Wars collector James Burns, 44, poses for a photograph with some of his collection in London December 2, 2015. He said “I've met so many wonderful people, all over the world. It's a wonderful community of likeminded people with an interest in Star Wars. There's nothing else like it”. (Photo by Paul Hackett/Reuters)