The 10,000 Torii shrine.

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

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

Japan’s tallest Godzilla statue contains a piece of the original 1954 film within its base.

Here once stood an opulent state guest house that symbolized the Westernization of Japan.

This park boasts a unusual collection of curious monuments from around the world, from Micronesia to Antarctica.

Every autumn, this hillside is ablaze with red summer cypress.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Is this cat asleep or just pretending?

These sculptures were created by a 17th-century artist who had never seen an elephant.

Stretching for 22 miles, the world's longest tree-lined avenue dates back to the early 17th-century.

A lone torii arch stands on a coastal rock where a deity is said to have landed.

The preserved ruins of the Hōjō clan’s palatial estate, hidden in the basement of a tourist information center.

This frenetic mural recalls an annual festival that once took the city by storm.

A bronze statue dating back as far as 1252, still has remnants of gold on its right cheek from ancient gilding.

Once upon a time in Kamakura, a five-headed dragon fell in love with an Indian water goddess.

A major Japanese execution ground site from the Middle Ages.

An eclectic fountain commemorating the 1964 Summer Olympics.

The oft-overlooked site of one of the first marine biological research facilities in the world.

A romantic escape inspired by the legend of a child-eating five-headed dragon.

Tragic reminders of the 1945 firebombing campaign over Tokyo still haunt this bridge.

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

Students pray here in hopes of entering one of Japan’s most prestigious universities.

Mythical beasts symbolizing the city of Tokyo guard a historic bridge.