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    Google Street View Takes You Inside Ancient Japanese Caves [VIDEO]

    By Sam Laird | Mashable – Tue, Feb 14, 2012

    Stalactites and stalagmites galore! Google wants to take you spelunking without your even having to step away from the laptop. The company set loose photography crews to gather 360-degree documentation of a couple underground Japanese wonders.

    [More from Mashable: Dr. Google Will See You Now: Search Can Identify Causes of Health Symptoms]

    Click here to check out the old Okubo-mabu mine, a series of dank-looking tunnels and passageways surrounded by lush greenery outside. Then click here to check out the Akiyoshi-do limestone cavern, a beautiful underground seascape.

    Taking Google Street View off the street is a great idea. It offers people averse to the outdoors -- or Westerners who can't get themselves over to Japan -- an up-close look at the natural wonders of a foreign land.

    [More from Mashable: Valentine’s Day Google Doodle Depicts All Forms of Love [VIDEO]]

    Street View currently offers more pedestrian immersion experiences in most of the United States and Europe, as well as parts of Japan, Australia and South Africa. Small parts of other countries are covered too, and Google announced in August that it would soon bring Street View to the Brazilian Amazon.

    In December, Google used street view in Japan to provide users with a striking before-and-after portrait of the devastation wrought by the tsunami that caused thousands of deaths there. In that instance, Google paired archival footage of damaged areas with updated shots for comparative 360-degree views.

    “In the case of the post-tsunami imagery of Japan, we hope this particular digital archiving project will be useful 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 the extent of the damage.”

    Where would you like to see Street View next? Let us know in the comments.

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

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