Young lovers in Tokyo have taken to hanging out at a parisitology museum, necking amongst the tapeworms and other bugs, and their admission tickets may be the thing that saves the museum from bankruptcy.
No amount of reading material, though, can outdo the museum's piece de resistance: an 8.8-meter-long (28.5 feet) tapeworm frozen for eternity in blue Lucite. The white worm is so long that it fits into the vertical case only by being draped up and down seven times. There's an equally long string nearby if you want to measure it yourself. (Warning to sushi lovers: The tapeworm was taken from the small intestine of a man who ate marinated trout.)
Professor Uchida is not sure how the museum, which for years was the province of scientists in lab coats, became a hot spot for starry-eyed pairs. A few years after teens started making their way there, several television variety shows featured the museum, helping solidify its popularity.
(Thanks, Gary!)
