Places Antlerpunch Wants to Go

The middle finger of modernity.

A submerged archeological park still holds the wonders of a Roman Sodom.

Make your own fake treats at this factory and workshop in the epicenter of Japan's food replica industry.

The largest of the Fuji Five Lakes is home to an impressive swan population—some real, some with paddles, and one with an observation deck.

The ruin of a Japanese love hotel almost completely overgrown with brambles.

The divine septet of Japanese fortune gods are rendered in 1,000-year-old wood at this peaceful site.

These Japanese gardens are blankets of light for dark winter nights.

Each year this Japanese temple overflows with scowling, bearded good luck talismans.

Shells collected from over a hundred different countries line the walls, floors and ceilings of this fantasy museum.

A rare festival blending religion, blacksmiths, vagina dentata, sex workers, and the straight-up facts of life.

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

Reportedly 1,400 years old, this may be the first of the Fiji Mermaids.

Every color in the rainbow awaits.

Hanging over one of Japan’s “hidden valleys,” these vine bridges must be remade every three years.

If Hello Kitty were Mickey Mouse, this would be Disneyland.

A Japanese concept restaurant that feels like a party thrown by the monsters in your closet.

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

This massive wooden building contains a giant Buddha, healing pillars, and tame deer wandering the grounds.

Bioluminescent firefly squid light up this Japanese fishing port.

A majestic lion statue guards this Parisian botanical garden, and feeds on an unsettling item.

Behind the pink curtain, Au Bonheur du Jour, an art gallery of erotic archives.

A haunting collection of the vanished and disappearing natural world.

A museum of carnival attractions where you are invited to ride the rides.

Paris' linguistic guide to the international language of, yes, love.