岛国新奇葩物 木制面条
Japan has created some interesting and innovated products like selfie sticks, Bento lunchboxes and now, wood noodles.
日本创造出了不少奇趣产品，比如自拍杆、便当，还有如今的“木制面条”。
A textile company, that makes fibre rayon, is taking the term 'going green' to a new level by using cloth-making technology to turn tree pulp into noodles.
Omikenshi, based in Osaka, is turning indigestible cellulose that's mixed with konjac into fiber-rich flour, which the company calls 'cell-eat'.
Konjac,also known as 'Devil's Tongue', is a yam-like plant grown in Japan, and is used in making other Japanese noodles like Shirataki noodles.
Omikenshi's cell-eat is fat and gluten-free, low-carb alternative.
It has just 27 calories per pound, compared to 1,538 calories in a pound of wheat.
Omikenshi is betting on a health-food market worth 1.2 trillion yen in 2013, more than double the level two decades earlier according to Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency.
'We're entering the food business,' said Takashi Asami, manager at Omikenshi's strategic material development department in a recent interview.
"Demand for diet food is strong and looks promising, while the Japanese textile market is saturated and threatened by rising imports'.
Asami noted, other noodles that use konjac aren't flying off shelves, but the wood pulp adds more flavor and texture that the other noodles are lacking.
Omikensh plans to spend about 1 billion yen on manufacturing cell-eat in its textile plant.