Photo/Illutration Visitors can lie flat on tatami mats at the municipal planetarium in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, starting on Nov. 1. (Noboru Tomura)

TOYOHASHI, Aichi Prefecture--A municipal planetarium here will soon offer a family-friendly box where visitors can lie flat on tatami mats and look up at the stars.

The separated seating area, large enough for a family with two children, will be available at the city’s audiovisual education center starting Nov. 1. The box features straw tatami mats, which are often used in traditional Japanese rooms.

“Experience such comfort that you may drift off to sleep,” said Yuki Sugiura, a curator of astronomy at the facility.

Sugiura hopes the new attraction will make the planetarium more appealing to adults.

This new box has been installed among the regular seats in a space formerly occupied by a large star projector until 1989. Additionally, the planetarium has added three premium reclining leather seats that will also become available on Nov. 1.

Both the premium seats and the box will cost 700 yen ($4.68) in addition to the planetarium admission fee of 300 yen for adults and 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students.

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