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)

A man looks at kebabs cooking on the street side in Rawalpindi, Pakistan October 2, 2017. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

An Afghan woman walks along a street covered with snow on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan February 7, 2017. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Two girls in cosplay dresses walk in the street in Beijing on March 27, 2017. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

An Afghan woman clad in burqa begs in a snow-covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Women stand on a street ahead of the Lunar New Year celebration at the Chinatown in Bangkok, Thailand, February 10, 2021. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)