An Eerie Town Where Everyone Wears Gas Masks

If the environmental features in your hometown greatly increased your chances of inhaling potentially fatal toxins, would you leave? Faced with a similar predicament in light of ceaseless volcanic activity, the inhabitants of the small Japanese island known as Miyakejima couldn’t bring themselves to leave their home…even if it killed them. Instead, many of the island’s denizens decided to “suck it up” and don gas masks to combat the poisonous air. It was a pretty good business move, too. Today, the island receives all sorts of visitors who cite the bevy of gas mask-clad citizens as their reason for visiting.