On the evening of August 26, more than seventy torches — each three meters tall — are lit simultaneously along a two-kilometer stretch of road at the foot of Mount Fuji. The street becomes a corridor of fire. This is the Chinka Taisai, a ritual to appease the mountain's eruptions, and to mark the close of the climbing season. One of Japan's three great "strange festivals." A national intangible folk cultural property. The mountain is open all summer to anyone who wants to climb it. One night a year, the town reminds you it belongs to the gods.