There's a town in Japan where over half the residents are actually life-sized dolls

Thomas Peter/Reuters

In the tiny town of Nagoro, Japan, 66-year-old Tsukimi Ayano is hard at work creating an incredibly involved arts-and-crafts project.

Propped up around Nagoro are roughly 115 life-sized dolls, each arranged in a different fashion.

Some plough the fields; others wait for the bus. Inside the village schoolhouse, child-sized dolls sit at their desks while a newspaper-stuffed teacher stands at the blackboard.

Ayano's creation is known as "Scarecrow Village." Here's what life is like inside.

In many ways, Nagoro is like a lot of Japanese towns. Its population is aging, and basic services are closing down.

But there's a special ingredient no other town has: Ayano — who, since 2002, has been fashioning life-sized scarecrows out of cloth and newspaper. Her first doll paid homage to her late father and was meant to scare off birds.

But in the decade and a half since, the dolls have transcended their normal use. Now Ayano sets them up all over town in various arrangements.