People in northern Japan don’t do things in half-measures.

When they built lantern floats for a recent summer festival, they decided to erect the tallest in the country.

NTV took a look inside one of them.

Noshiro city is a port in Akita prefecture in northern Japan.

The festival’s name is Tenku No Fuyajo — or ‘nightless city in the sky.’

This lantern is more than 21 meters tall.

That’s as high as a 7-story building.

Artists painted the paper surface with images of a castle and a famous military commander from the 16th century.

Susumu Ojima was in charge of building the lantern.

He says there’s a nice breeze at the top. You can even see a faraway mountain range.

Ojima says more than 200 fluorescent bulbs light the lantern from inside.

Noshiro’s mayor announces the start of the festival.

Locals built their first giant lantern in 100 years in 2013.

This year, they decided to build Japan’s tallest ever.

Almost 200,000 people came to see the lanterns this year.

How high will they go next year?

Return to northern Japan in 2015 to find out.