Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
In Osaka, Japan this group of people have gone one better than the original Mysterious Circle of People, and have created a Mysterious Double Circle of People…
Maybe this is the beginning of a new form of flash mobbing for Google Earth!
Thanks to Zeus.
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And what about a star of people ?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Via virtualglobetrotting
http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/48138/
Not far to the north/east what appears to be another group of people.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
And another to the southest.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
And another…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
If one looks all around the surrounding city there are lots of people in groups, and lots of baseball games.
And most mysterious of all…another form of a doubly mysterious circle of poeple!!
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
My theory…aliens have obviously taken control of the minds of the good people of Osaka!!
Maybe it’s just another Stonehenge replica? (To make that obvious comment before anybody else does…)
Or maybe it’s just the National Line-Up at the Sports Field Day?
Couldn’t it be that the pictures have been taken during some sort of ‘national sport day’? I don’t know much about Japanese culture, but IIRC they have some strange “national something day”s all around the year.
If it’s any help, it’s the sports field of Tanaka Elementary school in the Minato area of Osaka.
I think it’s some new version of dodgeball!
Maybe it’s a version of Duck, Duck, Goose.
Let’s play ball! Google Map
I love the way you can see the pitcher complete with massive hand (glove).
@ julian
yeh, and you can see the shadow of the bat in the batters hand, he’s ready to hit it out of the park
Check out these giant letters not far away:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Maybe:
Hankachi-otoshi: One person runs around a circle of people facing the center, and drops a handkerchief behind someone. If that someone recognises the handkerchief and chases the runner to touch him/her before another round is over, the runner is out. If the runner touches the person in front of the handerchief before that person recognises, that person is out.
It could be a twisted version of dodgeball?
In autumn or spring, most Japanese elementary schools hold school athletic meets. Maybe they are pupils practicing folk dance for the meets. In school athletic meets, school is usually divided into two teams, red team and white team. In some reports of Nova72, you can tell who is the member of red team or white team, because they wear caps of their team color.
Also, in Japan, most companies do mandatory exercises, but for THIS one, if you switch to the road map, you can see it’s a tan-colored community area, so it’s probably a school. Those are kids doing PE.
Maybe this Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth plus someone from Japan will explain what event it is.
National ring a ring a rosie a pocket full of posies day.
>>Nico
Hmmmm, I can see they are all young girls, because it’s a girl’s school.
Dancing girls and audience?
I can’t explain further.
I meant: They seem to throw something into the air.. like flowers. So maybe it’s a special holiday?
I have a plausible explanation : it’s a training for the opening ceremony of world championship in Athletics in 2007 in Osaka.
Chinese fire drill.
(Yes, I appreciate that it’s Japan, just give me some artistic license here!)
I know I’m looking into this too much, but I guess that’s not that odd on this site.
If you look at the shadows of the people on the lower part of the circle, you’ll see most of them are standing with 70-30 pressure on their legs. This is usually a pretty standard martial arts blocking stance. I’d wager this is some sort of fitness thing for this school in the form of a martial art.