Places Charles WV Wants to Go

This glass-themed tourist park in northern Japan feels like taking a step back in time.

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.

A school destroyed by fire and tsunami simultaneously is preserved as a memorial.

A quaint amusement park now sits, rusting and forgotten among the foliage.

These tiny pine-covered islands have inspired art and poetry for centuries.

The Buddhist temples of Yamadera, built into a mountain side, feature a viewing deck with sweeping views.

One of the tallest statues in the world, and the tallest statue of a goddess in Japan.

Marvel at the world's largest collection of jellyfish, including more than 10,000 undulating moon jellies.

"Bug Bug" Land, a natural park for beetle watching, still hasn't fully recovered from Fukushima's nuclear disaster.

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

A glimpse into life in 1830s Tokyo, back during the heyday of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Stuck in a bygone era, the oldest subterranean shopping street in Japan hides beneath the popular Asakusa district of Tokyo.

Starship-temple contains 400 tons of drinking water and offers free Japanese lessons.

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

Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan.

Sample specialties from Xinjiang at this Shinjuku neighborhood gem.

Inside the columbarium, thousands of colorful, high-tech Buddhas guard the ashes of the dead.

Discover the past, present, and future of packaging in this unique Japanese museum.

Disused for decades, this freight railway bridge is finally being renovated into a scenic promenade.

Tatar Russian in origin, the largest mosque in Japan is now an Ottoman-style Turkish culture center.

Installed in 1965, this whimsical slide has spawned a brood of “octopus mountains” across Japan.

Just outside Tokyo, a 45-story-high observatory with a stunning view of Tokyo Skytree and Mount Fuji.

The only natural gorge in metropolitan Tokyo, with lots of greenery and ancient burial chambers.

This Metabolist, retro-futuristic residential complex resembles a cyberpunk space colony established on Earth.