Star sand is both a beautiful sight and a scientific marvel. Each grain once housed a tiny single-celled organism. Found most frequently on the Taketomi, Hatoma, and Iriomote islands of Japan ...

But at a few beaches in Japan's Okinawa prefecture, the sand grains really are stars. Take a stroll along Hoshizuna no Hama (Star Sand Beach), located on Iriomote Island, and your feet will become ...

But perhaps the villagers residing on Japan’s Iriomote Island sum ... killed by a sea serpent and remain as beautiful star-shaped grains of sand scattered across the beach.

Scoop up some sand on their beaches ... eventually wash up on Okinawan beaches. Japanese folklore, however, tells a different story. According to legend, the star-shaped sands are the result ...

Sand on three islands south of Japan, on Iriomote, Hatoma, and Taketomi, all have the usual fragments of shell and rock but ...

The grains of sand on the moon and in the Tottori dunes are highly similar, according to Tanaka. “Tottori is the most suitable place in Japan to have a moon experience,” he said. Tottori’s ...

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A group of U.S. and Japanese historians are breaking a taboo and distributing black sand from Iwo Jima to relatives of Japanese soldiers who perished in the bloody World ...