In case it wasn't already obvious based on recent Japanese news, the country is in a fully-fledged love affair with everything Star Wars.
The latest manifestation of this obsession comes to us by way of the annual Aomori Nebuta street festival in Japan, which this year added the space fantasy franchise's characters to its array of traditional illuminated floats.
Normally the festival primarily shows off elaborately designed lanterns designed to look like everything for Japanese demons to mythic dragons, but the Star Wars characters were added in honor of the global release of The Force Awakens in December.
Accompanied by humans dressed as characters from the film, the floats included illuminated versions of Darth Maul, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, as well as new characters such as the droid BB-8 and Rey (played by Daisy Ridley).