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

Devoted Buddhists can earn enlightenment in the next life by crawling through this symbolic nostril.

A 1000-year-old shrine in Kyoto with a poorly planned sacred arch.

This 700-year-old street food market features baby octopus and soy donuts.

This Kyoto Starbucks takes coffee drinkers back in time.

This compact temple is filled with garlands of colorful balls that represent restrained monkeys.

The groundbreaking Japanese shrine maiden who invented the art of kabuki.

This enormous monument is one of the most iconic structures in Tokyo, rudely nicknamed "The Golden Turd."

After being lost for decades, this striking mural depicting the atomic bomb covers the wall of a busy Tokyo metro station.

Inspired by the famous sculptures on Easter Island, this head serves as a popular meeting spot by Shibuya Station.

Colloquially known as “piss alley,” this narrow street filled with tiny bars and barbecue stands looks like it was pulled straight out of “Blade Runner.”

A bibliophile's heaven that contains hundreds of bookstores, offering over a third of secondhand books for sale in Tokyo.

A shrine dedicated to a 10th-century samurai emperor, whose head is not buried on site (contrary to popular belief).

Once the main gateway to Tokyo, sneaking through this checkpoint was a capital offense in feudal times.

Existing for more than four centuries, the last of Hakone’s historic teahouses serves a sweet, mold-based rice drink.

The centuries-old cobblestones of a feudal highway remain in the woods of Hakone.

Legend holds eating just one of these black eggs can add seven years to one's life.

You can receive a blessing for your electronics at this Shinto shrine near Akihabara.

Rows of stone statues are dressed up to mourn children that are lost before birth.

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

Rumored to be a giant robot in disguise, this colossal chef has been the beloved symbol of Tokyo’s kitchenware district for decades.

An enormous pair of straw sandals woven in the traditional way—to keep demons at bay.

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

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.