Ocean Day is a celebration of the sea and her relationship and importance to Japan. Celebrated mid July, it is a national holiday. Odaiba, Tokyo’s romantic beach front and popular dating spot, is set in a wonderful light using beautiful paper lanterns, which are lit up by citizen volunteers every year on the third Monday in July to celebrate Ocean Day. 2015 schedule : JULY 19 and 20. Evening 18:30 to 22:00
Event starts at 7pm and  the light up is done on the beach sides of Odaiba. Many volunteers first arrange hundreds of paper lanterns in patterns in the afternoon itself. Last year the patterns were to celebrate the selection of the Tokyo City as an Olympic venue for 2020.
As the light started to go down we took a snap of the Rainbow Bridge from the Odaiba decks. Walk from the Decks Promenade to the beach side where you can watch the lanterns from.
The play of lights and colors is a magnificent visual picture of Japan’s unique tradition. Volunteers light up the lanterns with lighters and there were also a few kids helping out their parents light the lanterns. The number of photographers these days outnumber the volunteers though. In my early years in Japan (1999-2000), there used to be a few phtographers who came to take snaps, but nothing like its today….
The whole beach front is covered in the lit up lanterns. Note that the celebrations are suspended if it is a rainy day. Usually conducted on two consecutive days, this year it will be 19th  and 20th of July and the event continues late until 22:00 in the night.
The Odaiba waterfront, the passing by ships and the magnificient Rainbow Bridge offer an amazing view in the cool summer evenings. A romantic celebration with lights all around. Quite surreal.
On the way back, stop at the Odaiba decks which has many attractions, restaurants including a Disney Store too.
This is the first picture I took in 2001 of the celebrations, now its a literal July routine, one which I love to visit for the cool lantern light-up on the beach front. You can also enjoy music shows organized on the beach front.