Once every three years, a particular summer returns to the old quarters of Tokyo. Monzen-nakacho, in Koto City. The annual festival of Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine — one of Edo's three great festivals, alongside the Sanno and Kanda festivals. Its scale turns on a three-year cycle, and 2026 falls on the honmatsuri, the fullest year of all. On the final day, more than fifty great mikoshi are carried through the low city at once, some eight kilometers across the parish wards. Wasshoi, wasshoi. And then the thing this festival is known for: the water. From the roadsides, people fling buckets and train hoses on the bearers, dousing them with water of purification. Carriers and onlookers alike end up soaked, and laughing. It began, they say, as water and salt thrown to wish the bearers safe passage. Somewhere along the way the prayer became a summer game that pulls in the whole street. The polish of old Edo, and the heat of high summer. Three years of waiting spill into these five days. In the very center of the capital, a summer you can still get drenched in — and laugh.