Places futurespacegirl Wants to Go

Exploring crime and punishment in feudal and pre-modern Japan.

A sobering scientific reminder of the human damage caused by the advent of the nuclear age.

Be a ninja - or just act like one.

The small candy-colored ride is the last rooftop Ferris wheel in Tokyo.

An unlikely hit, this museum is dedicated to the inventor of instant ramen and cup noodles.

The largest volcanic caldera in Japan holds an entire city in its maw.

Enormous underground chamber built to detect 'ghost particles' of the universe.

This 400-year-old sweet shop serves a delicacy some have described as "edible incense."

One of Kyoto's oldest food establishments has supplied soba noodles to temple priests and the Imperial Palace.

A Japanese cat island also populated by the descendants of a band of banished samurai.

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Coast along one of Japan’s mountain railways for coveted views of magnificent hydrangeas.

This pond is so stunning it looks like you've stepped into one of Monet's masterpieces.

This subterranean spot might be the epitome of Japan's baroque, retro coffee houses.

A 20-meter (65-foot) robot towers over Tokyo Bay.

Once a black market electronics marketplace, now an otaku shopper's paradise.

Not quite the menace it once was, this monster still has some chops.

Tokyo’s only Vaudeville-cuckoo clock–steampunk-Victorian curio cabinet time piece.

An exquisite tunnel of cascading flowers.

This little town supplies Japan with most of its calligraphy brushes, still made by hand from animal fur.

This enormous "shamoji" means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate.

This glass wall is gradually filling up with paper cranes, in honor of Hiroshima’s past and dedication to its future.

Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.

An office building covered from head to toe in over eighty variety of plants