The average delay of Japanese trains is 18 seconds. What makes them so punctual? Drivers are trained in ultra-realistic simulators and drive one train line only – many don’t even need a speedometer to know how fast they’re going. Competition is also fierce between rail companies, so lagging behind won’t do – they work hard to keep hold of Japan’s huge numbers of train commuters, whatever it takes (even if it means building fancy department stores in the stations…).

Handshakes are only permissible between two males in Uzbekistan. A man and a woman cannot shake hands. When greeting an Uzbek woman, kneel down to her and lay your right hand over your heart.

In a 2014 interview, Haikyuu!! designer Haruichi Furudate stated that he wants people to see volleyball as 'fun and cool.' He undoubtedly accomplished his purpose, since the number of high school students joining volleyball clubs increased considerably after Haikyuu aired.

Being the first president of the United States apparently wasn't enough for George Washington throughout his lifetime. Following his presidency, Washington established a whiskey distillery. Washington's distillery was the largest in the country by 1799, producing 11,000 gallons of unaged whiskey. However, after the president's death, the company was no longer in operation.

During International War I, Europe was at war, and world powers like Britain were organizing their armies. By 1917, one renowned British admiral of the Royal Navy had retired and wrote to Winston Churchill to express his thoughts on the day's headlines, some of which were so thrilling that he wrote, "O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!)." How could he have realized that the acronym he created would go on to become one of the world's most-used phrases?

The Hiroshima bombing was so powerful that the shadows of persons and things were permanently seared into the earth. These were dubbed "Hiroshima shadows."

If you ate a Macintosh apple and planted the seed, the tree that grew would produce apples that didn't look or taste like Macintoshes. Instead of planting seeds, growers graft a cutting from a genetically desirable tree onto an existing branch or sapling (called the "rootstock"), resulting in apples that are genetically identical to those on the tree from which it was cut. If you look closely at the tree in the photo, you can see that there are several different types of apples on the various branches, all of which are grafted onto the same rootstock tree.

This consumption rate of 163 litres per individual per year is unheard of in any other country in the globe. It is unsurprising that such misuse in Coca-Cola drinking may be noticed in people's health, given diabetes and obesity rates in Mexico are above normal. Other causes include a lack of exercise and an excessive intake of junk food. As a response to widespread health concerns, punitive tariffs on foods with excessive fat or sugar content were implemented in 2013.

Uzbekistan is home to the world's largest open-pit gold mine, which is located near Muruntau in the Qizilqum or Kyzyl Kum deserts. The mine produces around 2 million ounces of gold each year, and the pit measures 2.17 miles by 1.55 miles at a depth of 1,837 feet. The gold reserves in the Muruntau area, including those in the process of production, are estimated to be over 170 million ounces of gold. The gold was discovered in the area for the first time in 1958. Originally, the area was a source of turquoise throughout the Silk Road period. However, the region was not substantially studied until the 1950s. Commercial mining began in 1967 and has continued ever since.

While more individuals use English as a second language, Mandarin Chinese is spoken natively by approximately three times as many people. English is studied as a second language by almost two billion people, yet only 350 million speak it natively.

This one is a bit debatable, as some fans argue that it isn't canon. This is due to the fact that Sonic's entire name was never revealed. Archie Comics, which publishes two separate Sonic comics, published a comic in which Sonic's middle name is Maurice but his first name is never revealed. Sonic's first name is really Ogilvie, according to one of the Archie Comics authors. Fans disagree, claiming that Archie Comics' Sonic isn't actual canon, and that only the video games and Japanese comics are.

Most of you must be thinking of SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS as the longest word in the language that simply means ‘fantastic’ and was popularized by the movie Mary Poppins eventually added to the dictionary. But there is a longer word than this, i.e., PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS, which is the name of a type of lung disease caused by inhalation of dust and ashes. So, now try pronouncing it!

Since you were a child, you've probably heard the phrase "candy will rot your teeth." However, there are many foods that are worse for your dental hygiene than candy, such as crackers. This is because acid, not sugar, is the leading cause of tooth decay.

Einstein was not a participant in the Manhattan Project, although he was essential in its inception. German scientists discovered nuclear fission of uranium in the late 1930s, which was a crucial step toward the construction of the atomic bomb. Much of the world's uranium was stored in the Congo, which was then a Belgian territory, so two Hungarian-American physicists called Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner persuaded Einstein to send a letter to his friend, the Queen of Belgium. Instead, Einstein advised writing a letter to a Belgian minister, but a chance meeting with an economist who knew President Roosevelt resulted in a change of heart and a letter that pushed America to begin its own tests.

Geocaching is an international game in which players use GPS and a geocaching app to decipher clues and go on stash-seeking adventures, similar to a digital/analog scavenger hunt. There is even a geocache target on the International Space Station as of 2008.

CărtureÈ™ti Carusel launched in 2015 in a 19th-century structure that has been refurbished. It has over 10,000 books, 5,000 music and DVDs, plus a café on the top level.

In the 1940s, Anne Frank was an iconic emblem of Nazi cruelty, while Martin Luther King, Jr. was the face and voice of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The two events appear to be so far apart in history, although both people were born in 1929—on January 15, 1929, for King, and on June 12, 1929, for Frank. That's a mind-boggling truth, isn't it?

Apple's initial iPod included a small Easter egg. This game could only be accessible if you knew the correct sequence of buttons to press. "Go to the 'Around' menu and hold down the center button for about three seconds to play a Breakout (Pong) game while you listen." Breakout, the hidden game, is significant in Apple's history since it was a product on which both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak collaborated at Atari.

On January 28, 1887, two years before Montana became a state, U.S. Army troops observed an unusual sight: a frisbee-sized snowflake descending from the sky near what is now Keogh, Montana. Snowflakes can occasionally clump together before hitting the ground, resulting in enormous, thick snowflakes. It is still the Guinness World Record holder for the biggest snowflake ever.

On the tragic evening of April 14, 1865, Samuel J. Seymour was just five years old when he went to see a play at Ford's Theater. He was sitting directly across from the president in the balcony and claims to have heard the gunfire, seen Lincoln fallen over, and seen John Wilkes Booth climb onto the stage before leaving. Seymour related the incident on the CBS TV show I've Got a Secret on February 9, 1956, two months before his death. History is closer than you believe!

In the 1860s, the famed political cartoonist Thomas Nast began painting drawings of Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly as part of an advertising campaign. In a couple of his illustrations, he mentioned that Santa's postal address was the North Pole—a location that had already caught the world's interest as they watched several explorers attempt to reach the icy site. What about the actual St. Nicholas? He was born in modern-day Turkey.

North Sentinel Island is home to one of the world's most isolated human populations. The Sentinelese, estimated to number around 300 people, have rejected all contact with the modern world and fired their arrows at anyone who comes within range. They are thought to have descended directly from the first human populations to emerge from Africa, and they have most likely lived in the Andaman Islands for up to 60,000 years.

It's an earthquake hazard area. Although several earthquakes have been reported in and around the Black Sea, the greatest recorded magnitude was 7.2 in the 1901 Black Sea earthquake (also known as the Balchik earthquake in Bulgaria). The mainshock triggered a 1-16 foot tsunami, wreaking havoc on the Romanian and Bulgarian shores. The aftershocks continued four years longer.

The renowned "Bloody Mary" drink was conceived at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. According to legend, this renowned drink was created for the famed author Ernest Hemingway! Hemingway asked for a drink that didn't smell like alcohol, so he had vodka blended with tomato juice.