Even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has 'no idea' what the large metal ball that washed up on a Japanese beach really is

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A 5-foot diameter metal sphere, yellowed with rust, partly embedded in the sand on a beach in Hamamatsu, Japan, on February 18, 2023. Two figures in black protective gear and helmets stand nearby.
A metal sphere, 5 feet in diameter, washed up on a Japanese beach and has mystified authorities.

NHK News

Here's why Japanese calligraphy ink can cost over $1,000

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  • Fine-grained soot made by slowly burning vegetable oil is best for high-quality calligraphy ink.
  • The producers of this ink use animal glue as a binding agent. 
  • The longer the ink stick is aged, the more expen

A Japan Airlines flight was turned away and had to fly 550 miles back to Tokyo after missing an airport's closing time by 10 minutes, report says

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A Japan Airlines flight at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
A Japan Airlines flight at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images

Japan says 3 balloons that floated into its airspace years ago are 'strongly presumed' to have been Chinese spy balloons

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A balloon flies in the sky over Billings, Montana, on February 1, 2022.
A surveillance balloon over Billings, Montana, on February 1.

Chase Doak/via REUTERS

A Yale professor suggested that Japan's old people should kill themselves in a mass suicide, and it made him a celebrity

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An elderly woman crosses the street in Japan.
An elderly woman walks in a street in Tokyo's Tsukiji area on March 13, 2020.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

A Japanese conveyor-belt sushi chain will now be using AI-powered cameras to fight back against 'sushi terrorism': report

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A group of people sit at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
A conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Tokyo, Japan.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Japan says it has 'legal right' to destroy any foreign balloon in its airspace

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A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.
A high-altitude balloon over Billings, Montana, on February 1.

Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP

Zookeepers were stumped when a female gibbon got pregnant while alone in her cage. 2 years later they say there was a tiny hole that she and a neighboring male used to copulate through.

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White-handed gibbons, or lar gibbons, pair.
White-handed gibbons are typically monogamous and form a lifelong bond.

Getty Images

'Sushi terrorism' is spreading as pranksters lick food, utensils in Japan's conveyor belt restaurants

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A group of people sit at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
A conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Tokyo, Japan.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

New US Marine units are taking position on 'key terrain' around Taiwan as tensions rise with China

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US Marines CH-53E helicopter in Philippines
US Marines exit a CH-53E helicopter during Balikatan 22 in northern Luzon in March 2022.

US Marine Corps/Sgt. Melanye Martinez

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