Places CaveVex Wants to Go

This ancient burial site was once thought to be the home of a race distinctive to Ainu folklore.

When this massive wooden temple ran out of rope, they made one out of devotees' hair.

A whimsical museum dedicated to the mischievous kappa, a mythical cucumber-loving water sprite.

450 dead and frozen fish, proudly on display in Japan.

This historic hydroelectric power plant in Japan has been preserved and is open to the public.

This temple is steeped in local folklore involving a teakettle and a raccoon dog.

A hub of information on tropical diseases and their treatments.

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

What's believed to be the country's first shrine is, in Shintō mythology, the annual meeting place of the gods.

This water goblin statue represents a 19th-century urban legend about a haunted canal that became a Japanese idiom.

Roots and stumps that lay inundated for two millennia are on display in Japan's city of three mysteries.

An anthropological theme park that depicts the cultures of around 20 different countries.

An eerie reminder to the horrors of World War II.

These wondrously illuminated caverns extend under the mountains of the Fukushima Prefecture.

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

One of the few surviving World War II-era air-raid shelters in Tokyo.

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.

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

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

Children's literature inside, forest all around.

A few hidden stones are said to bring fortune and love.

You can still find treasures on the pebbly beaches of one of the world's oldest jade-producing areas.

If you forgot something to read during your trip to Tokyo, this hostel has you covered.