Wataru Itou, a talented art student from Tokyo, spent 4 years of his life building this trully incredible paper castle.
Named Umi no Ue no Oshiro (A Castle on the Ocean), this paper craft castle features electric lights and even a moving train, made of paper. It is set on exhibit at Uminohotaru, a service area between Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture and you can check it out with Google Earth.
The world’s one and only indoor beach can be found in Japan’s Ocean Dome about 1,200 miles south of Tokyo in Miyazaki, on Japan’s southernmost Kyushu Island.
Here, the water is always blue and salt-free, waves are perfectly timed, sharks are elsewhere, and its never too hot, or cold, to take a dip.
Japan’s Ocean Dome even has its own marble sand and a volcano that spits fake flames every hour, on the hour. Shores are sanitized; permitting surfers to drip-dry in the perfect climate, which never varies, day and night, every day of the year.
The Ocean Dome also boasts the world’s largest retractable roof.
The beach sits inside a vast dome that measures 300 x 100 meters (984 feet x 328 feet). The heated ocean sends 13,500 tons of salt-free water sweeping across 600 tons of polished marble chips that comprise a long shoreline.
The world’s largest artificial sea washes over the world’s biggest indoor beach, fringed with artificial fish and fauna.
Bogus parrots ruffle their feathers and squawk at tourists from the rainforest that has no rain.
There are no bugs here or sun burns either.
But like most things in life, entrance into this paradise costs. Visitors pay with payment tokens that are computer-coded plastic tags. Admission runs about US $50 for adults, with rides running $5-10 more. Add $10 more for two hours with a boogie board, or $5 for two hours of inner tube rental.
Visitors are offered many diversions in the form of shopping centers tennis courts and golf courses. On the other side of the beach is the plastic rainforest, where guests can travel among holographic sea pirates, demons and dinosaurs.
Who could ask for anything more?
(Link)
Japanese scientists and one astronaut are making a new kind of odor-free history.
J-Ware clothing, which was created by textile experts at the Women’s University in Tokyo, may transform the chore of changing one’s underwear into a thing of the past.
Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to live on the International Space Station, is now involved in a project that has more to do with personal hygiene than outer space exploration, as he is currently the tester for a new line of stink-free underwear called J-Ware.
“He can wear his trunks (underwear) more than a week. The other astronauts become very sweaty, but he doesn’t have any sweat. He didn’t need to hang his clothes to dry,” said Koji Yanagawa, an official with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The underwear, which was developed by researcher Yoshiko Taya, is very versatile. It is designed to kill bacteria, absorb water, insulate the body and dry quickly. Believe it or not, they are also flame-resistant and anti-static, not to mention comfortable and stylish.
It is expected that J-Ware will greatly reduce the amount of clothing sent to the space station, which has no laundry facilities. Having clothes that can stay fresh for weeks at a time is expected to reduce expenditures significantly.
The Japanese space agency plans to make the line of stink-free underwear available to NASA and its other space station partners once development is complete.
“Nobody has complained, so I think it’s so far, so good,” said the non-smelling tester himself.
(Link)
