I was very lucky to go there for work many years ago. More than any other country I have been to, it is like landing on an alien  planet.  Almost nothing is familiar, the entire country seems to move at a different pace and in a different way to the rest of the planet.

Let’s take an example, and look at the humble truck. This of course is what a truck looks like in most countries.

Not in Japan.  In Japan, the idea of making a truck into a dragon has taken off to epic proportions, as the below pictures clearly show!

… and they don’t look much less frightening during the day either!

If you want to check out some amazing photos of rigs from around the world, the excellent Roger Sneider takes loads and has them all nicely categorised on his website “Ultra Rigs of the World” which is well worth a look.

To see and read more about these incredible machines, check out the great obvious blog here.

All images are subject to copyright.

Something that we all spend a lot of time looking at are of course the indicators for when we can and should not, cross the street.

In Berlin, there was a battle fought by the citizens of the unified city to keep and indeed rollout the old East-German Ampelman, with his business like walk…

… and his endearing, “give me a hug”stop.

Then there are the connect the dots men of Singapore, with their funny third leg…

But my favourite that I came across recently when on our holiday in Cambodia, was the little running man of Siem Reap. They aren’t on every junction, but you can spot them occasionally. Only a video does it justice:

There is so much to see here, my favourite at about the 1:20 mark, where you can see the top of thunderstorms, with hundreds of little mini lightening strikes dotting the skies.

The VIP rows, waiting for the arriving VIPs are in front of the US army generals in the background. Each has a name and the bunker that the VIP has been assigned to in case there is a rocket or mortar attack.

A very sad indictment of the Iraq that the US are leaving behind.

I have also written here before about a fabulous HSBC outdoor ad for Climate Change.

Now an installation in a Japanese gallery has taken the idea of a fake pool to a whole new level. From here, it looks just like a…ummm… pool.

But then you see this, and it starts to kinda go wrong:

This is what it looks like from the other side:

More great images of these pools can be found at the very excellent “if its hip” blog here, you should check them out.

Of course there is also a video which has received an insane number of youtube hits. Check it out:

The Andreas Gursky photo has just been sold by auction at Christie’s for the eye-watering sum of USD 4,338,000 presumably to an anonymous buyer who likes rivers. Click here to see the Christie’s page for the auction  lot.

Admittedly it is a very BIG photograph, which probably helps define its price. And it looks like it has a very nice frame too which is useful.

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Full credits here where you can also find full credits. What is particularly impressive is that the entire film (preumably both sides of it!) was filmed entirely using this… a Nokia N8 mobile phone.

First up a film made from the top of the Tokyo Tower Special Observatory

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And Paris during the Bastille day celebrations:

According to this CNN piece on unusual scuba diving locations, the  water at the Silfra fissure in Iceland’s Thingvellier National Park is so clear, that people sometimes suffer from vertigo while diving.

You can also drink the water while diving as it is perfectly fresh.