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.

Volunteers wearing face masks, gloves and protective gear to protect against coronavirus, gather to clean an area of an outdoor book market set up at Red Square with GUM, State Department store, left, St. Basil's Cathedral, center, Spasskaya Tower, second with, and the Kremlin Wall, right, in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 6, 2020. Muscovites clad in face masks and gloves ventured into Red Square for an outdoor book market, a small sign of the Russian capital's gradual efforts to open up amid coronavirus concerns. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

In this photo taken Saturday, June 20, 2015, Mahmoud Abdulnabi tries out an oud, an Arabic instrument related to the lute, at his workshop in Baghdad, Iraq. “The oud is different than other musical instruments”, said Abdulnabi, who has crafted ouds played by some of Iraq's best known musicians, many of whom look down from headshots on the walls. “If you feel joyful, it can play your joy. If the circumstances are sad it can play your sorrow and... help to empty whatever is in your chest”. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)

Russian pop art photographer Sergey Chilikov captures a nation liberated from the social oppression of late-era Soviet rule – at parties, in the streets, and bouncing high. His exhibition, Photoprovocations, will be at Photo London, 19-22 May. Here: Yoshkar-Ola, Matrosova Street (1995). (Photo by Sergey Chilikov)

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)

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)