As of 2018, which country is home to the world's largest hourglass?

It might be hard to lose track of time in Nima, Japan, where the world’s largest hourglass is located.

Built-in 1991, the enormous hourglass is on display within the tallest of the six glass pyramids that house the Nima Sand Museum. The museum was built to feature the area’s unique Osodani sand, which is said to make a distinctive “singing” or squeaking noise when walked upon. (Apparently, not only will the enormous hourglass tell you the time, but it will also sing you to sleep.)

The Nima hourglass is over 17 ft (5.2 m) tall and has a diameter of 33.7 inches (1 m). The hourglass itself weighs over 1,234 lbs (560 kg). It is filled with 629,100,000,000 grains of the “singing” Osodani sand, which add over a ton of additional weight; 2,205 lb (1,000,368 g).

The sand was sifted to ensure that each grain measured an average of 0.11 mm so that it flows smoothly and continuously through a nozzle measuring 0.03” (0.84 mm) in diameter. It takes exactly one year for all the sand to run through the hourglass. It is flipped over at midnight every 31 December, with the upper globe taking exactly one year to empty into the lower globe. I wonder how long it took to count the sand.