Places lmfukada Wants to Go

Hidden by the roadside in the Iya Valley, this gem brings together folk monsters and the region's unique geography.

A kitsch shrine dedicated to the ogre-slaying folktale hero born from a peach.

The site where the poet Matsuo Bashō read one of the first haiku that comprise his famous travelogue.

The tallest city hall in the world offers an excellent bento box.

This snack factory boasts several tributes to its popular line of rice crackers, including a quasi-shrine.

A lesser-known sister to Paris's world-famous museum, located within a Buddhist sculpture paradise.

A train ride to the middle of nowhere gives its passengers some of the most iconic views of Japan's seasons.

Plagued with warts? Leave a frog at this small shrine in the city of Tosa, and you may be cured.

Surreal giant face-pillars welcome visitors from across the globe to this hotel.

This monument gives insight into how lost children were found in Edo-period Tokyo.

Though it won't take you far, the wood train housed at this station is the last of its kind in Japan.

The largest seated Buddha statue in Japan is the centerpiece of an abandoned complex in a quiet, seaside town.

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.

This garden located inside a bamboo forest once belonged to a famous Japanese actor.

The man who created the first Japanese-English Dictionary.

Visitors to this museum will discover that kaleidoscopes are much more than toys.

Every spring, this walkway outside the Japan Mint turns into a cherry blossom tunnel.

Made to improve road safety, these policemen-like figurines in Miyakojima island have earned an enthusiastic fanbase.

An open-air museum exhibiting a total of 52 century-old buildings, recreating Hokkaido’s “pioneer village.”

The former site of the U.S. military base redeveloped as an art district, boasting a collection of 109 public artworks from 36 countries.

Open since 1690, this former teahouse makes “strength mochi” based on the centuries-old recipe.

This glass-themed tourist park in northern Japan feels like taking a step back in time.

Model trains whizz around an extensive room-sized diorama of Kyoto City.

A lone torii arch stands on a coastal rock where a deity is said to have landed.