Incredibly Ingenious: Japanese Inventions You Can't Find Elsewhere

11. Heso Matsuri Hokkai

What It Is: A festival honoring the navel, held every year Average Cost to Attend: $0 Japan has the distinctive Hokkai Heso Matsuri celebration on July 28 and 29 each year. There is nothing else like the Belly Button Fest anywhere in the world. Founded in the late 1960s with the goal of "strengthening social bonds using the belly button," Hokkai takes place in Furano City.

Hokkai Heso Matsuri is on Facebook and at ohmatsuricom. The Hokushin Shrine, which honors the belly button and offers prayers for birth, love, life, growth, peace, thriving, happiness, and health, is the focal point of this celebration. The festival's centerpiece is the Hokkai Belly Dance Competition, where 4,000 dancers compete over the course of two days in Furano's streets.