Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake In Photos

A massive tsunami hits the coastal areas of Iwanuma, Miyagi prefecture on Friday, March 11. A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan, setting off a 23-foot wave along parts of the country’s coastline. There were several strong aftershocks.

Strangest National Dishes Around The World

Airag, Mongolia

Mongolia without airag would be like America without Budweiser. Both are mild, slightly acidic alcoholic beverages—but airag is made from fermented mare’s milk. During production, lactobacilli bacteria acidify the milk, and yeasts turn it into a carbonated and moderately alcoholic drink. To get the right consistency, the mix is stirred no less than one thousand times every day. The final product is around 18 proof—stronger than beer but weaker than wine.

 Black Pudding, England

Black pudding isn’t pudding at all, but a type of sausage made by combining blood with a filler and cooking until it will congeal when cooled. Fillers run the gamut from meat and fat to oatmeal and bread. Traditional British breakfasters indulge their vampiric tendencies with a few slices alongside baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, and eggs. They call it a fry-up—and while it’s guaranteed to inflate your cholesterol levels, it does cover many nutritional bases.

 Boshintang, North and South Korea

Like it or not, in some places man’s best friend is man’s best-tasting friend. On the Korean peninsula, the most common dish involving dog meat is boshintang—a soup featuring meat from the noranke (“yellow dog”), which are raised specifically for human consumption. The meat is boiled with green onion, dropwort, perilla leaves, and perilla seed powder. Despite pressure from international animal rights groups, it’s still reportedly served at more than 6,000 restaurants in South Korea. Figures aren’t available for the north.

 Capybara, Brazil

While cooks in Peru and Ecuador are busy serving guinea pig—the meekest of all rodents, known locally as cuy—some Brazilians grill up their larger, meaner cousins, known locally as capivaras. Adult capybaras can grow to four feet in length and weigh 140 pounds. The meat is usually marinated with crushed garlic, onions, pepper, bay leaf, and vinegar for five hours, and served up as a sort of casserole. Capybara was more popular centuries ago, in part because of the Catholic Church’s directive to skip meat on Friday. When European missionaries first encountered the capybara, they classified it as a fish.

 Kenke, Ghana

It may sound innocent enough—fermented, partially cooked cornmeal—but kenke is one of the planet’s most pungent foods. Ground corn is soaked in water, then allowed to ferment for three days. The kernels are then partially cooked, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed until they reach the consistency of warm, mushy polenta. Kenke is usually served with a stew of crushed tomatoes and pepper.

 Lutefisk, Norway

This traditional Norwegian dish is made from air-dried or salted whitefish and lye, the corrosive alkaline used in oven cleaners and drain openers. The trick to making a decent lutefisk is to incubate the fish in the lye solution for just the right amount of time that the fish fats don’t turn into soap. It’s ready when it has a jelly-like consistency—and smells awful. In 2008, more than 3,000 tons of lutefisk were snatched from Norwegian shelves.

 Muktuk, Greenland

Since roughly the last ice age, Greenland’s Inuits have been harpooning 3,500-pound whales from kayaks in the open ocean. During the brief summer they also hunt narwhals (the so-called “unicorns of the sea,” thanks to their long spiraled tusks). The dish made from the blubber and raw skin is called muktuk—and it’s considered a delicacy. The textured layers consist of the rubbery, hazelnut-flavored skin, the chewy white fat, and in between the two a thin, corklike protective layer (the hardest part to bite through).

 Shirako, Japan

Considering the popularity of caviar—not just in Japan, but worldwide—it’s not outlandish to imagine eating the male counterpart to fish roe. That is, milt—the sperm-filled reproductive glands of male fish (usually cod, anglerfish, or puffer fish). In Japan, it’s called shirako, which translates to “white children.” At best, when cooked, shirako has a creamy, custardesque texture. At worst, it’s an unctuous gooey blob served raw—and eaten proudly by only the most, er, seminal of Japanese diners.

 Tacos de Sesos, Mexico

In a sly inversion of the old adage “The brain is a terrible thing to waste,” Mexicans are proud to serve up tacos de sesos. That’s cow brains—and, strictly speaking, they’re not unhealthy. But gray matter is very high in cholesterol—and according to the medical textbooks, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (a.k.a. mad cow disease) has an incubation period of up to 50 years. Brave this national dish at your own risk.

 Trung Vit Lon, Vietnam

Need an aphrodisiac? Try eating a fertilized duck egg with a nearly developed embryo inside. The age of the egg is a matter of regional preference. Northerners often prefer theirs mature, when the chick is old enough to have a beak and claws. Trứng vịt lộn is boiled and eaten in the shell; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled. Inside, the unborn chick’s bones are firm but tender.

Weirdest Skyscrapers of the World

Chang building 

Looming above Bangkok’s skyline like a giant Dumbo, this is the Chang building, a thick-legged monster with a porthole for an eye and a pair of tusks more often seen framing the trunk of Thailand’s national animal.

 The Headquarters of  China Central TV in Beijing

The headquarters of China Central TV in Beijing is 234m high and known commonly as the “boxer shorts” due to its awkward shape. A Mandarin Oriental hotel was planned to take up residence until New Year fireworks started a large blaze in 2009.

 Fuji tower in Tokyo

The futuristic shape and silver orb of the Fuji tower in Tokyo could have been lifted from the set of a Seventies’ sci-fi film. The sea of cars beneath Fuji Television’s headquarters and the night-time lasers only add to the industrial wasteland feel. The 32m wide globe is an observation deck.

 Genex Tower

The Brutalist-style Genex Tower is an enormous city gate welcoming new arrivals from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. It is 115m tall and has two raw concrete towers connected by a small bridge and a 360 degree restaurant. It scores extra retro points for its dated signage.

 Hong Kong’s Lippo Centre
Known as the “koala” building for the bear shapes that hug each tower’s circumference, this is Hong Kong’s Lippo Centre, completed in 1988. The uniquely cuddly twin towers are 186m tall and were intended to appear less harsh on the eye than your average skyscraper.

The Nagakin Capsule Tower

New York has lofts and Paris apartments, but in 1972 Tokyo had capsules. Stacked in a concrete tower. The Nagakin Capsule Tower, part of the Metabolist movement, has 14 storeys. The 140 individual capsules were manufactured seperately and designed to be replacable.

 Ryugyong Hotel

For the last two decades the 330m-high Ryugyong Hotel has been a vacant concrete shell towering over the city of Pyongyang. Construction on what would have been the world’s tallest hotel began in 1987 and was due to cost 2 per cent of the country’s GDP before economic difficulties set in. But work began again in 2008 and the building has since been given glass panels. It has been estimated that it will cost up to $2 billion to finish.

 solar furnace

This solar furnace has a curved wall of mirrors that sucks in light to generate heat. The tower’s warped reflection of the surrounding French countryside creates a striking image. It is the largest solar furnace in the world and opened in 1970.

 The Zizkov

The Zizkov is one of the most recognisable television towers in the world, thanks to the unnerving black infants crawling up its 216m sides. These babies were created by Czech sculptor David Cerny in 2000, also known for painting a Soviet war memorial tank pink. There are great views of Prague from the top and lifts to take you there.

 Wooden Jumble

This wooden jumble of rooms and spires looks like it was built without the use of a spirit level. Created by a one-time gangster, this was once the world’s tallest wooden house, standing (just) in the Russian town of Arkhangelsk. Nikolai Sutyagin kept adding to the 12-storey house bit by bit, each time feeling that it still didn’t look quite right

The Most Bizarre Hotels of the World

 Hotel Kakslauttanen, Finland 

It’s hard enough to pronounce “Kakslauttanen” while sober—don’t even think about attempting it after a shot of Finlandia vodka. We do, however, recommend a few glasses of the stuff to keep warm while staying at this Finnish resort near the North Pole.

 The futuristic glass igloos guarantee unrestricted views of the aurora borealis from the comfort of your zebra-striped bed; the phenomenon turns the night sky dazzling shades of green, red, and blue from late August to April.

 Jumbo Stay, Stockholm, Sweden

In the cockpit-located suite, you can move the controls and push as many buttons as you’d like without ever worrying about crashing.

 The 450 seats on this retired Boeing 747 have been replaced by 27 rooms, and instead of fold-down trays, there are café tables for dining.

 Palacio de Sal, Bolivia

If you’re one of those people who believe you can never have too much salt, this is the place for you.

 From floor to ceiling, including the walls, beds, and chairs, it’s all salt, all the time.

 The 16-room Salt Palace is located on Bolivia’s vast salt flats.

 Hotel Utter Inn, Sweden

At first glance, this one-room hotel appears to be a cheery red house in the middle of the lake. But don’t be fooled: Your room isn’t actually in the house; it’s 10 feet underwater.

 Designed by artist Mikael Genberg, the inn’s one room has two twin beds and a tinted-glass window. It isn’t the most comfortable place to stay, but it certainly will be memorable.

 Can Sleep, Lake Skanderborg, Denmark

 Beer lovers of the world unite here for a full-immersion experience: drinking by day and sleeping in a giant beer can by night.

 Les Roulottes de la Serve, Provence, France

Gypsy (Roma) circus performers once traveled through the French countryside in the three restored caravans that now welcome guests.

 Owners Pascal and Pascaline Patin outfitted the caravans (roulottes) with eclectic bohemian and Indian touches: lanterns, garlands, woven carpets, framed images of deities, and plush armchairs.

 La Villa Hamster, Nantes, France

Ever wonder what life is like for a hamster? If so, you’re not alone—ever since it opened in 2009, La Villa Hamster has been booked almost every night.

 Wrought iron has been affixed to the walls to suggest a cage, and, if they so choose, guests can drink water out of a glass tube attached to the wall. And there’s a large, fully functioning hamster wheel, naturally.

 Elephant Safari Park Hotel Lodge, Bali

Guests can hang out in the on-site baby elephant nursery and catch the 29 resident Sumatran elephants performing in four shows per day. They roam the property, and you can admire them while you’re lounging in the pool or dining in the restaurant.

 Pachyderm “chauffeurs” show up to transport you to and from your room.

 Free Spirit Spheres, Vancouver Island, Canada

This five-acre property in an old-growth forest consists of three pods (made of cedar, spruce, or fiberglass, respectively) suspended 10 to 15 feet in the air and accessed by staircases that wind around the trees.

 The teak interiors are surprisingly comfy—each is equipped with a double bed, a microwave, a refrigerator, and even an iPod docking station—but the spheres do sway gently.

 Wigwam Motel, San Bernardino, Calif

This motel on Route 66 feels less like a place one might commune with Native Americans and more like something from the set of a Mad Men-inspired, late-1950s road trip. But whatever authenticity this hotel lacks, it makes up for in serious kitsch.