Soccer is quite popular in Japan and sometimes they play it with binoculars. Let’s see what that looks like (from an 80’s Japanese TV show):

How is Tokyo prepared for an event of a major earthquake or some other natural disaster? For an answer, we need to go underground!

In the video, a city official opens a trapdoor on the sidewalk and descends 20 meters deep down the stairway to huge underground warehouse that stocks emergency supplies meant for the public in an event of a natural disaster.

In this hidden area the size of 1480 square meters (15,930 sq ft) that would make James Bond especially happy, they keep stocks of emergency medical supplies, food, 5000 blankets, 8000 rugs, 4000 candles, 300 cooking pots, 200 t-shirts and various other items. They also built a system of conveyor belts that can transport the supplies up to the street level.

For this city of 13 million people, 300 cooking pots certainly won’t be enough. It is known that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government maintains a number of such warehouses along unnamed stations at the Oedo line which circles around Tokyo in a 40 km loop. Where exactly are these warehouses is kept secret in order to prevent too many people from gathering at the locations after a major disaster. At the end of video, the TV crew exits at one of such stations.

The Cats’ House is an unusual house that was designed by Japanese architectural firm Fauna+DeSIGN for an avid cat lover.

The house, owned by a family with 16 cats and 5 dogs, features beautifully designed modern furniture and various structures that were created especially for cats: shelves and platforms with rounded corners, bookcases that work like stairs, hidden tunnels and passageways, catwalks on the ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling scratching post and all kinds of other goodies meant for discovering, climbing, playing and of course sleeping.

The architecture is very open and invites a lot of natural light to every room.

The owner came up with the idea after a family cat has passed away because of illness. He wanted to build a home that will be enjoyable for cats and people at the same time.

The house was built in August 2009. The owner says he is not 100% sure in his success but is satisfied because he can see that his felines have a lot of fun and enjoy living there. The carpenters also say the cats were very curious and playful while the interior was being built.

Interested in more photos of this house? Head over to The Cats’ House official web site.

The Cats’ House, however, is not the only such house in Japan! Here you can take a look at floorplans and photos of a few other modern houses that were built for cats and dogs in mind.

Japanese TV reports about a dog that is quite possibly Japan’s most spoiled dog. Merumo, a materialistic 10-year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a top model for Japanese dog magazines and holds the title “The Best of the Best of Breed 2004″  given by the prestigious Pedigree Award.

The TV crew visits the apartment where Merumo lives with her two owners (or servants as the case may be). The elevator has a special security system that won’t let you enter the 9th floor without owner’s permission to protect the dog from uninvited guests, curious kids, possible kidnappers, robbers and other villains.

Let’s check out some highlights from the report:

※ Merumo gets a haircut twice a month and spends 8000 yen per visit (about $90).

※ The dog is sensitive to heat so the owners invested into marble flooring for the living room at a cost of nearly 3,000,000 yen (about $34,000).

※ Merumo quenches her thirst from a silver Gucci bowl. When she goes out, they can carry her around in a Louis Vuitton bag or walk her using a Hermes brand leash worth 85,000 yen ($950) and a collar that cost separately 65,000 yen ($726).

※ The owners rent a separate room in the building that serves as a closet for Merumo’s clothes. They even sell some clothes to Merumo’s fans who want to buy her clothes for their own dogs.

※ Since Merumo is a Japanese dog, she also has her own kimono (80,000 yenov or $895).

※ The dog owns 10 fashionable fur coats (one cost 180,000 yen, about $2000) and a lot of other clothes and accessories that cost altogether about 3 million yen (around $34,000).

※ Merumo’s daily meals are prepared from expensive vegetables and first-class Matsuzaka meat. They buy his food at luxurious Takashimaya department store.

What about the owners? The husband and wife don’t have any children, run a private dance school and also have two just as spoiled cats that keep Merumo company. They don’t buy any expensive clothes for themselves and purchase cheap food from a local supermarket. At the end of the report, the wife justifies Merumo’s extravagant lifestyle by comparing him to a child. She says that many parents would spend large amounts of money to send their child to the best schools, so they spend this money on the dog instead.

Which chocolate bar is real?

Japan has invented a chocolate bar that works like a mirror! This handy and folding chocolate mirror–which you can’t eat, by the way–looks just like a real Meiji milk chocolate bar, the famous brand that pretty much everyone knows in Japan. It even comes wrapped like the real thing.

You can buy this chocolate mirror right here at Strapya World. But hurry, they have less than 100 of them in stock right now. It costs only 640 Yen (about $7) and they ship worldwide.