Agata Shrine Uji, Kyoto

Known to the locals as the “eccentric festival in the dark,” Agata Festival’s main ceremony takes place in the middle of the night. During the day, approximately 700 stalls fill the streets leading towards Agata Shrine, conveniently located near Byodo-in. Stalls close around 10pm, and around 11pm, the street lights are dimmed as men carry bonten, a wooden ornament adorned with hundreds of white rectangular papers that form a ball-like shape. The highlight of the ceremony is the bunmawashi ritual where the bonten is aggressively shaken.