An event in which 30,000 Hina dolls collected from throughout Japan are displayed throughout the city. Visitors can see various kinds of Hina dolls by touring the various venues. Numerous other events are held, such as a hina parade where children wear the same Chigo costumes.

Back on March 3rd, several years back, I found myself in Katsuura for a martial arts seminar. It takes place every year for any foreigners in Japan, who are black belts or at least more than just beginners and they try different styles, attend seminars and on the last night drink way more than they should making the trip back to Tokyo rather rough. But we had some time and we visited the town only to find this shrine on March 3rd, or Hinamatsuri. This is the doll festival where dolls representing the Emperor and Empress from the Heian period are arranged with all their courtiers on different tiers. And as this shrine is seemingly famous for this, there were a lot of dolls there and a lot of people including a rather sketchy looking man wearing a magical girl outfit. Don't ask, we avoided him as much as we could. But the shrine and the dolls were impressive and it made for an interesting time.