OTAKI, Chiba -- A police officer here got a little more flame than he was expecting when he flicked on his lighter in a police box men's room early Friday and an explosion opened a seven square meter hole in the ceiling.

The 51-year-old officer was sent to hospital with minor burns on his face and hands.

According to police, there were no explosive materials in the washroom, and when another officer came running after hearing the blast he found a 1.5 meter pillar of flame spewing from the drain in the floor. It's thought the washroom was filled with gas from a natural gas pocket that had leaked into the drain pipe. Investigators are now searching for the source of the gas.

Otaki is in the center of the Boso Peninsula, the location of the first natural gas well in Japan, drilled in 1891. According to the prefecture, the peninsula is in the center of the southern Kanto gas fields -- the broadest in the country by area and producing the second highest volume of gas, at about 463.22 million cubic meters per year (as of 2008). Kanto Natural Gas Development Co., which developed the fields, says that the gas is 99 percent methane, which is odorless.

The region has seen a number of explosions believed to have been caused by natural gas since 1988, including the July 2004 explosion of a museum in the town of Kujukuri in which an employee died and one other person was injured.

By Katie Scott | 16 December 2009

A Japanese department store is offering tech fanatics the chance to buy their own robotic doppelganger.

According to Pink Tentacle: "Department store operator Sogo & Seibu has announced plans to sell two humanoid robots custom-built to look like the people who purchase them."

The robots will be made by Kokoro, a Japanese robotics firm, which will mirror the robot owner’s face, body, eyes and hair as well as his or her movements, facial expression and speech.

To order yourself a robotic twin, you have to visit one of Japan’s 28 Sogo, Seibu, or Robinson’s department stores between January 1 and 3. But expect a queue and disappointment, as only two mechanical doppelgangers are available and each will be priced at 20.1 million yen (£135,000). It may be for the best – anyone who's ever watched a horror film knows how this will end...

An English countryside church is proving to be a popular place for couples to marry - in Japan.

Developers have reproduced All Saints Church Brockhampton, near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, on the 21st and 22nd floors of a tower block in Osaka.

On the same floors as the reproduced church are photographic studios and restaurants, while a hotel and honeymoon suites are above.

The Grade-I listed church is one of the few with a thatched roof in England.

Reverend Will Pridie said the developers had visited the church and took laser measurements to enable the new one to be built.

His wife, Wendy, said the Japanese developers, European Connections Ltd, had found the church by accident.

"They were travelling through Herefordshire and, I don't know if they got lost or not, but they happened to pass by the church," she said.

The developers said it was popular for Japanese couples to travel to Western-style churches to get married or for blessings. They then contacted the church through its website and asked for permission for it to be copied.

"The Parochial Church Council agreed and they then made the replica," she said.

The replica is three quarters the size of the original church.

"It looks stunning, it looks like the church in so many aspects," Mrs Pridie added.

"We are a very tiny village and congregation. I think everyone is just astonished that anyone would do such a thing - especially when you consider it is 21 floors up."

Lots more on the Pink Tentacle website.