1001Places - Architecture, Japans Indoor Man-Made Beach

        
          

The world's one and only indoor beach can be found in Japan’s Ocean Dome about 1,200 miles south of Tokyo in Miyazaki, on Japan's southernmost Kyushu Island.

Here, the water is always blue and salt-free, waves are perfectly timed, sharks are elsewhere, and its never too hot, or cold, to take a dip. 

Japan's Ocean Dome even has its own marble sand and a volcano that spits fake flames every hour, on the hour. Shores are sanitized; permitting surfers to drip-dry in the perfect climate, which never varies, day and night, every day of the year. 

The Ocean Dome also boasts the world's largest retractable roof.

The beach sits inside a vast dome that measures 300 x 100 meters (984 feet x 328 feet). The heated ocean sends 13,500 tons of salt-free water sweeping across 600 tons of polished marble chips that comprise a long shoreline.
The world's largest artificial sea washes over the world's biggest indoor beach, fringed with artificial fish and fauna.
 
Bogus parrots ruffle their feathers and squawk at tourists from the rainforest that has no rain.
There are no bugs here or sun burns either.

But like most things in life, entrance into this paradise costs. Visitors pay with payment tokens that are computer-coded plastic tags. Admission runs about US $50 for adults, with rides running $5-10 more. 

Add $10 more for two hours with a boogie board, or $5 for two hours of inner tube rental.

Visitors are offered many diversions in the form of shopping centers tennis courts and golf courses. On the other side of the beach is the plastic rainforest, where guests can travel among holographic sea pirates, demons and dinosaurs...