Here is a selection of Kyodo News photos taken this week in Japan and beyond.
Feb. 24
Kanoa Igarashi of Japan competes in the men's event on the first day of the World Surfing Games in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. (Kyodo)
A team of dancers from Japan's Kochi Prefecture perform during the opening ceremony of a lantern festival in Tainan, Taiwan. (Kyodo)
Feb. 25
Feb. 26
Some 1,550 traditional Japanese "hina" dolls are displayed on a 7-meter-high, 31-tier pyramid at a shopping mall in Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, in celebration of the March 3 Girls' Day festival. The town of Konosu is famous for producing "hina" dolls, which are traditionally put on display every spring in the homes of families with daughters. (Kyodo)
Feb. 27
The annual Cobra Gold drill, one of the Asia-Pacific region's largest and longest-standing multinational military exercises, kicks off on Thailand's east coast with more than 9,500 personnel from 30 countries taking part. (Kyodo)
Feb. 28
Feb. 29
Fireworks light up the night sky above Toyama, central Japan, in a show of support for evacuees from the quake-hit city of Suzu in neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture who are currently staying in a nearby resort hotel following the Jan. 1 disaster. (Kyodo)
March 1
Plum trees are blooming at the famed Kairakuen garden in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. (Kyodo)
A woman prays in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, two months after the Jan. 1 earthquake that devastated the Noto area on the Sea of Japan side of central Japan. (Kyodo)
Public high schools in quake-hit Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan hold graduation ceremonies. At Nanao High School in Nanao, roughly 190 students bid farewell to the school at which they spent the last three years studying. Representing the graduating class, Kana Sonoyama, 18, said, "We know how precious everyday life is. For that can be taken away from us in a flash but cannot be taken back immediately." (Kyodo)
Back number:
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 17-23
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 10-16
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Feb. 3-9
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Jan. 27-Feb. 2