Japan — If you often find yourself too busy to go globe trotting and explore to get a view of some really cool looking caves, tunnels and passage ways as lone adventurer. Thanks to Google’s Street View service in Japan that took a new directions last week into the world’s hidden nooks and crannies, not only lets you travel underground to an ancient Japanese silver mine, but also lets you virtually explore 360-degree views of many exotic (and run-of-the-mill) locations around the world, as if you were really there, right on your computer, as reported by Mashable.
The company’s photography team took some exceptional shots of a few dug up caves in Japan and it is now available for public viewing. To poke around underground in Japan visit Google Street View Japan’s homepage where the project explores 360-degree tours of Okubo-mabu mineshaft and the Akiyoshi-do limestone cavern are featured alongside other Japanese landmarks can be viewed here.
The Akiyoshi-do limestone cavern is located in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and has amazing features, such as the Hyakumai-Zara (“100 plates”) section, which contains layer upon layer of limestone, as reported by CNET.
The idea is that users of Google Street View can seamlessly explore the Japanese countryside from the safety and comfort of their homes. It provides an interesting educational opportunity that few who do not reside in Japan or near the wonders could afford. More so, it is important to note that this digital imaging will be of good help to researchers as well as scientists who can analyze the causes of natural disasters and their effects on these caves and passages.
Street View, at present is more pedestrian oriented, and with these images it looks like things are set to change.
So for instance, “In the case of the post-tsunami imagery of Japan, we hope this particular digital archiving project will be worthwhile to researchers and scientists who study the effects of natural disasters,” Street View’s senior product manager Kei Kawai wrote in a blog post at the time. We also believe that the imagery is a useful tool for anyone around the world who wants to better understand their effects and to assess the extent of the damage, he added.
Google’s Street View tours Japanese cave, mine (images here)