Poor planning? Engineering gone wrong? Unconventional street decor? Whatever the explanation, this quiet residential street in Tokyo’s Setagaya ward boasts perhaps the highest manhole density in town, with 85 of them scattered along a 200-meter stretch of pavement. Fans of the curious street call it “Manhole Ginza.”
[Link: Google Maps]
Related: Japanese manhole covers
Original post by Edo
One day after a wild Japanese macaque caused a commotion at Tokyo’s Shibuya station and escaped back into the streets, police have received multiple reports of monkey sightings in the area.
According to this TBS video news report, which refers to the search effort as “Operation Capture Monkey,” the Japanese macaque was observed at various locations in the Harajuku/Omotesando area near Shibuya early this morning. Police armed with nets roamed the streets of Omotesando after at least one person reported seeing the monkey climbing a pink building. Others reportedly witnessed it scurrying across power lines. In addition to the sightings, a local resident found tomatoes and eggplants missing from his garden. He believes the monkey was responsible.
Original post by Edo
One of the world’s rarest fungi, an exotic star-shaped mushroom known to exist at only three locations on Earth, has been discovered in the mountains of Nara prefecture.
The Devil’s Cigar (a.k.a. “Texas Star”) — known to botanists as Chorioactis geaster — had been observed only in central Texas and at two remote locations in Japan prior to the recent discovery in Nara. The peculiar fungus is described as a dark brown cigar-shaped capsule that transforms into a tan-colored star when it splits open to release its spores. It is also one of only a few known fungi that produce an audible hiss when releasing spores.
First reported in 1893 in Austin, Texas, the curious mushroom appears in a limited area of central Texas each year, and until now, the rare sightings in Japan have occurred in forests in Miyazaki and Kochi prefectures. The fungus is included on the red […]
Original post by Edo
In nature, it is quite rare to encounter octopi with extra tentacles (or “arms,” for the purists), but a pair of aquariums in Japan’s Mie prefecture have some extraordinary specimens on hand.
The permanent display at the Shima Marineland Aquarium in the town of Shima includes a 96-tentacled Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) that weighed 3.3 kilograms (about 7 lbs) and measured 90 centimeters (3 ft) long when it was captured in nearby Matoya Bay in December 1998. Before dying 5 months later, the creature laid eggs, making it the first known extra-tentacled octopus to do so in captivity. All the baby octopi hatched with the normal number of tentacles, but unfortunately they only survived a month.
96-tentacled octopus laying eggs
The preserved octopus actually has the normal number of 8 appendages attached to its body, but each one branches out to form the multitude of extra tentacles. Apparently there is no theory […]
Original post by Edo
A 21-leaf clover discovered on June 3 by Iwate prefecture farmer Shigeo Obara has shattered the Guinness world record for most leaves on a clover stem (Trifolium repens L.). The current official record is held by an 18-leaf clover that Obara found in his garden in May 2002.
The record-breaking clover’s 21 leaves each measure about 1 centimeter long and overlap each other like rose petals on a 3-centimeter stem.
Read the full post (203 words, 1 image)
Original post by Edo
Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. The Abominable Snowman. Tales of unidentified mysterious animals have long intrigued and captured the imagination of people around the world — and Japan is no exception. Here is a brief introduction to 7 of the island nation’s most notorious cryptids, complete with grainy photographs where available. Whether you regard these tales as fact or fiction, their impact on the culture where they were encountered is undeniable.
* * * * *
- Hibagon
Read the full post (2042 words, 14 images)
Original post by Edo
This 1979 photograph shows the teary-eyed Our Lady of Akita statue at the Seitai Hoshikai (The Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist) convent in Akita prefecture. In January 1975, 12 years after a local sculptor carved the statue from the wood of a Japanese Judas tree, it began to cry. Over the next 6 years, around 2,000 witnesses reported seeing the statue weep 101 times. The quantity and frequency of the tears varied each time — sometimes the statue cried a few times per day, and sometimes it went months, and even years, without crying. The statue, which is still housed at the Akita convent, shed its final tears in September 1981.
(116 words, 1 image)
Original post by Edo
