Awa Odori, one of my favorite festival in Japan, takes place every year the last weekend of August. Over 12,000 dancers and drummers parade through the streets of Koenji, and more than 1 million people show up to watch. Every year I end up taking hundreds of photos of this festival, and last year I followed some of the dancers into some local bars and izakayas (Japanese style restuarant/bar) after the festival ended, where they kept drumming and dancing in the already overcrowded shops. Good times every year.