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 carries a block of ice left behind by a hailstorm in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 19, 2014. After the severe overnight hailstorm a layer of hailstones as deep as 20 centimeters covered streets and parks, drawing people to make snowmen and play in the ice, an unusual scene to the city. (Photo by Nelson Antoine/AP Photo)

A partial solar eclipse is seen in a break in the clouds during rush hour in downtown Wichita Kan., Thursday, October 23, 2014. A partial eclipse occurs when the moon covers a portion of the sun as seen from the Earth. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)

Maine-based Robert Dowling Jr. creates wonderfully whimsical stories with a slightly surreal touch. The self-taught artist, who works primarily in acrylics and oils, often paints characters with their faces covered or turned away. Love art like this that both children and adults can enjoy in their own unique way.

This project features a house covered (inside and out) with thousands of round mirrors that makes it nearly camouflaged. The round mirrors have different shapes and size because each one was handcut by the artist. Visitors are in for a unique experience when the mirrors interactive with nature, glistening as it reflects sunlight while gently flickers when the wind blows.

A greater bird of paradise (Paradisaea apoda) displaying in Badigaki Forest, Wokam Island (Aru Islands, Indonesia). Found here in Aru and on adjacent New Guinea, the greater bird of paradise represents about 40 different species of birds of paradise that depend on intact rainforest across the New Guinea region spanning eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. With more than 80% of forest cover still intact, this region represents the largest remaining block of rainforest in the entire Asia-Pacific. (Photo by Tim Laman/naturepl.com/LDY Agency)

A Russia-backed rebel looks at the flag covered body of an Ukrainian serviceman in Debaltseve, Ukraine, February 20, 2015. The struggle for the strategic rail hub, Debaltseve, a sleepy town with a pre-war population of 25,000 people, left the town in ruins and became one of the darkest pages in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has already killed more than 6,000 people. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo/File)

Protesters run for cover after riot police fired tear gas towards the bridge they were climbing down to the road below, to escape from Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus and from police, in Hung Hom district in Hong Kong on November 18, 2019. Dozens of Hong Kong protesters escaped a besieged university campus on November 18 by lowering themselves on a rope from a footbridge to a highway, AFP video showed. Once on the road they were seen being picked up by waiting motorcyclists. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)