Japanese Storm Water system

Although looking like something out of Half-Life, this apocalyptic underworld is indeed, the real thing. Due to be completed in 2009, the gigantic open spaces connected by 100km of tunneling (in 2005) are, surprisingly, a free tourist attraction (visiting? Edogawa River Office in Kasukabe City). And that’s the cool thing about it – so many of the worlds “big” things are behind government fenced lines, or require special permits to even get near, such as the biggest hole in the world. It’s usually look but don’t touch. Then again, this adds to the mystique - the untouchable, touched, by a select few.

The 6.3km water collecting G-Cans project is due to be completed in 2009, being designed to pump a massive 200 tons of water into the Edogawa river, every second – perfect for filling its flood prevention purpose. There’s a bit of background info on the G-Cans project here.

Unfortunately, the source of many of these images seems to be somewhat permanently down – try here to see if they’re up.

Here’s plenty of pictures from around the web, to whet your appetite: