A list of intriguing things

One: Japan has some great architecture, but perhaps the most kawaii are these fruit-shaped bus stops, in the town of Konagai in Nagasaki. You can rest inside a giant melon, strawberry, orange, or even a tomato, while waiting for your bus along the National Route 207 between Konagai and Isahaya city centre. There are 14 such resting areas around the town—which were built in 1990 for an expo held in the city of Osaka.

Travel was the expo theme, and it was hugely successful. So successful that other towns and cities jumped on the fruitcart and had expos of their own. The fruit-shaped bus shelters made their way from the original Osaka expo down to Konagai, where they helped draw crowds to the coastal town on the Ariake Sea.

You can see the strawberry bus stop in the lead. Our favourite is the tomato—which you can see below. Time Out has more images. (Atlas Obscura)

A bonus bus stop: We couldn’t resist adding this gorgeous wave-shaped mosaic bus stop located in the resort town of Gagra in Georgia. It is inspired by the works of Barcelona’s Antoni Gaudi. For more unique bus stops around the world, check out Architectural Digest, or this thread on X.

Two: A college in the Philippines devised a unique way to stop students from cheating: make them wear ridiculous anti-cheating hats that would obscure their field of vision, so they don’t peek into another student’s paper. The hats are so wild and large in size, that any attempt to move one’s head away from the paper would be pretty conspicuous. You can see the colourful hats, which the students made themselves, in the vid below:

However, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Back in 2022, students in a college in Legazpi City in the country came up with unique contraptions as anti-cheating hats, including one made with egg cartons, and a paper bag with holes for the eyes and nose. Some of the earliest mentions of anti-cheating hats comes from Thailand, back in 2013, where about 90 students wore anti-cheating headgear during a test. Sadly, the move was heavily criticised, back then, and the college junked the idea altogether, thanks to the backlash. But the concept seems to have aged better than expected! (Buzzfeed) 

Three: After smellmaxxing, Gen Z boys are chasing the new social media trend of “looksmaxxing” to upgrade their jawlines. And they’re doing it by chewing gum. Brands are promoting “facial-fitness gum” to “build the most attractive jawline” and “tone and tighten 57+ facial and neck muscles, anytime, anywhere”. These chewing gums are 2X to 10X harder than regular gum. But, but, but: According to celebrity cosmetic dermatologist Dr Paul Jarrod Frank, it may only give them a square-shaped or wider face, but little else, at this age: “Younger people tend to have more natural fat volume in their face. For men that are thin and fit, as they age into their 20s and 30s they will naturally, likely, see more definition.”

Another facial plastic surgeon says facial aesthetics are influenced by a combination of bone structure, skin quality, and fat distribution, not just muscle tone. So chewing the gum might strengthen jaw muscles—but it won’t do anything else. There are no general problems with chewing these gums—except that they cost more than regular gum, and there’s some potential for jaw pain—which could result in temporomandibular disorders like jaw-clicking or locking. Ouch! (The Cut)