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Partytime! A float at the 35th Asakusa Samba Carnival, Asakusa, Tokyo, 2016Easygoing, fun-loving, downtown Asakusa is one of Tokyo's most colorful areas even on an ordinary day - but positively dazzles at the end of August each year with the huge, Brazilian-inspired Asakusa Samba Carnival. This event recreating Rio in Tokyo is a celebration of dance, performance and music that has become part of Asakusa's heart and soul over the past three decades, and draws crowds of up to half a million - rivaling that other huge annual Asakusa event, the Sanja Matsuri.

Porta bandeira at the 35th Asakusa Samba Carnival, Tokyo, 2016The 35th Asakusa Samba Carnival happened again today at 1pm - the contest beginning at 1.30pm - and ended five spectacular, unbridled, kaleidoscopic hours later at 6pm. The approaching typhoon meant gray skies and scattered rain, but that didn't deter anyone. The streets were a blaze of color and dancing, and were packed with exuberant spectators who, although on the sidelines, radiated just as much excitement as the participants.
Tokyo Skytree forms backdrop to 2016 Asakusa Samba Festival17 samba teams from around Japan took part today: veterans such as G.R.E.S. Uniao dos Amadores and G.R.E.S. Barbaros - both associated with the Carnival since its very beginning in 1981 - to relative newcomers like G.R.E.S. Sol Nascente, for whom this was their sixth carnival.

Asakusa Samba Carnival parade in front of Sensoji Temple's Kaminarimon Gate
The C...