L&N

Women are pictured taking a self portrait on the bed of a ice hotel during a photo opportunity in the Alpha Resort-Tomamu's ice village in Shimukappu town, Japan's northern island of Hokkaido February 3, 2009. The hotel, where dining room, bed room and bath room are made out of ice, charges 80,000 yen (US$696) for two per night and provides dinner served on an ice plate. It opens until Feb. 15, 2009.

The photo shows the unique dining room "Ithaa" of the world's first underwater restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali resort in Maldives. The US$5 million restaurant was constructed 5 metres below the waves of the Indian Ocean, offering 270 degrees of panoramic views of the sea-life. Designed by a New Zealand firm and constructed in Singapore, the restaurant was installed in November 2004 and took a team of divers and 50 locals 13 hours to set in place under the waves.

Engineers get their robots ready before the match begins at the RoboCup2008 in the Suzhou International Exhibition Center in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, July 16, 2008. Some 300 teams of scientists from 30 nations will compete in the five-day event, the soccer world cup for robots, also known as the world's most renowned intelligent robotics competition.

Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy's "Flower Rock 2.0" are displayed at the International Tokyo Toy Show in Tokyo June 19, 2008. The product, which changes its LED colours and dances to music and surrounding sounds, will go on sale in Japan late October for 5,800 yen ($53)...

The Mazda Taiki