Places butterflywings Wants to Go

Walk through depictions of the torture inflicted on those who go to Buddhist hell.

This $62 million dollar temple was erected to house one little dental fragment of religious history.

An undeciphered text is inscribed on a mysterious stone slab.

This mesmerizingly colorful pond looks like a scene straight out of a fairytale.

This village is home to the largest existing settlement of the Ainu, the Indigenous people of Japan.

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

This isolated Japanese mountain village untouched by time showcases unique and stunning traditional architecture.

The site of a prehistoric settlement spanning millennia, complete with a reconstructed timber circle.

This giant bronze Buddha, the third largest in Japan, is the last in an ill-fated series of statues.

This abandoned park is home to hundreds of stone statues ranging from humans to mystical beings.

A massive wintry wall of snow up to 66 feet tall flanks a highway through Japan's mountains.

This museum showcases the art of ancient sword-making.

A 17th-century Shinto shrine that is home to statues of Mickey Mouse and Pikachu.

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.”

Walls of VHS tapes adorn this Golden Gai B horror movie themed bar.

Go through the looking glass in Tokyo's Wonderland-themed shop.

Weighing nearly seven tons, this massive sculpture was carved out of 500-year-old wood and decorated with thousands of jewels.

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

Snow-capped peaks, colorful waterfalls and stunning vistas on the edge of the Himalayas.

Stretching almost 2,000 feet, this painting is one of the longest pieces of Buddhist artwork in the world.

Natives of this mud-brick desert village use an ancient irrigation system to grow sweet, seedless grapes.

A fictional Coupe DeVille built by hand and gifted to the Man in Black himself.

The site where Poe “in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance” likely died.

The trials and tribulations of marking Poe’s grave.