If you’ll ever visit Tokyo you will find some weird and strange recreation places. Some will find the Mom Cafés very unique place, others will rather drop for an IV drip to help fight the jetlag, and others may just want to pass the time by eating at McDonalds.

But the latest trend in Japan nowadays is virtual golf. More than 50 golf simulators allow people to get into the action without getting on the grass. The virtual golf players are coming not just for the sports, but also the company.

The company that develops these virtual golf simulators already sold 30 systems with a price tag of $57,000 (6 million yen). One of these virtual golf courses managers tells that most days the bar draws about 30 golfers. On a busy evening more than 60 golfers will come to play. Most of them have played golf before.

It seems that Japanese people love to play virtual golf together. An analyst explains that Japanese people don’t have a strong individualist streak, and many games are best enjoyed when played with friends.

Technology and golf goes great in Japan, so it seems. Several months ago Sony launched a virtual golf caddy that uses the PSP (Playstation portable) GPS unit in order to keep track of your game.

By the way, if you are interested have a golf simulator at home – you can. Full Swing Golf offers complete systems to home customers for a bargain price of $55,000. You can join customers like Donald Trump, Michael Jordan, Kevin Dillon, Richard Marriott (the hotel chain owner). The Swing Golf System even allows you to play online against other rich friends of yours.

Source: [Guardian]

After recycling used false teeth for gold, the new trend in Japan is “Urban Mining”- or getting precious metals out of used gadgets and electronic products.

The high rise in the price of precious metals, such as gold and silver, makes this new habit quite profitable. The gold can be sold to jewelers and the other metals can be used for new electronic products.

If you get a ton of ore from a gold mine, you only get 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of pure gold. If you have a ton of used cell phones well you are rich. You can get up to 150 grams (5.3 ounce) of gold.

But it seems that only 10-20 percent of the cell phones ever reach recycling, causing the recycling companies to import used electronics from Singapore and Indonesia. Maybe it’s time to recycle some useless robots instead?

Source: [Yahoo News]