The streets of downtown Tokyo were flooded with enthusiastic crowds on Monday as Japan celebrated its record haul of 38 medals (7 gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze) at the 2012 London Olympics with a “triumphant return” parade featuring nearly all of this year’s Japanese medalists.

The athletes rode on open-air buses through the streets of Tokyo’s upper class Ginza shopping district, waving to the some 500,000 cheering supporters that were said to have gathered.

Check below for a collection of images showing the impressive scale of the festivities, originally shared on Japanese message board site Hamster Sokuho.

▼ Taken by Nadeshiko Japan forward Karina Maruyama from one of the buses and uploaded to her TwitterKarina Maruyama

Japan is a ardent sporting nation and nothing brings the country together like international events such as the World Cup or Olympics.

The country’s impressive showing at London 2012 in particular has given the Japanese a much-needed morale boost after last year’s earthquake and nuclear disasters and years of continued economic stagnation in general.

We here at RocketNews24 are also proud to welcome our Olympians home!

Source: Hamster Sokuho