A new website describes different odours around the world and pinpoints where they can be found on a map.
Launched in December, the Japanese website "Nioi-bu," or Smell Club, has registered more than 160 scents around the world, ranging from "steam coming out of a rice cooker" to "used socks in the summer," and pinpointed their locations on a Google map.
Nearly 200 members, called "smellists," have joined the Japanese-language only site, said Kayo Matsubara, spokeswoman of its operator, KAYAC Inc.
Users can either click on a balloon on the world map on the website, or use an index to find each scent if they're not yet on the map.
Some of what they report: "A toasty odour of cow dung" in Fujisawa City, just south-west of Tokyo. In Kamakura, eastern Japan, "cats with halitosis" were suspected to be roaming about.
"All that is missing on the web is a smelling function," Matsubara said.
"That's our next challenge."
Not all reports are of stenches, with others including mouth-watering dishes, fresh laundry, greenery and scented soap.
From Paris, there is a "scent of verbena soap near a monastery," and from Thailand's ancient capital Ayuthaya, a mix of "incense, grass, dirt and wild dogs."
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