Places emmjay35 Wants to Go

This 14th-century temple is also known as the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" for its gorgeous gilded reliquary hall.

The quintessential Japanese rock garden has existed for more than 500 years.

Established over a thousand years ago, this family-run teahouse continues to serve skewers of sweet rice cake to this day.

Have a soak at this retro bathhouse, where you will find Japan's first electric bath, tiling from Spain, and wood carvings representing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

This neighborhood thoroughfare is haunted by dozens of homemade monsters.

A hidden empanada shop run by the biggest Boca Juniors F.C Japanese fan.

A pentagram-covered shrine dedicated to a famed court astrologer known in the west as the Merlin of Japan.

The “bridge of return” is haunted by a myriad of legends, from ghosts to demons to nuptial superstitions.

Shrine dedicated to boars that is believed to cure foot and leg injuries.

An ancient Greek physician is honored as a god at this hole-in-the-wall shrine.

One of Kyoto's oldest food establishments has supplied soba noodles to temple priests and the Imperial Palace.

A strip of traditional hand towel serves as an admission ticket at this modern tenugui museum.

Visitors to this museum will discover that kaleidoscopes are much more than toys.

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

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

This kitsch-forward diner is dedicated to an almost-forgotten “one-cent” prototype of okonomiyaki.

Known as the "Hobbit Houses," these storybook homes look like they're straight out of the Shire.

A Buddhist temple on an artificial island that houses a monument to the fugu fish.

Rice balls symbolize fate and relationship at this adorable shrine, which was once dedicated to the Buddhist Devil.

One of three official copies of Marcel Duchamp's enigmatic masterpiece is on display in an obscure Tokyo museum.

A lonely chimpanzee lures you into a narrow alley leading to this hidden shrine.

This abandoned, spaceship-like building is home to a museum so unpopular that it has been put on hiatus for over two decades.

This gnome sculpture and his wonderous hat forces train passengers to do a double-take.

This infamous execution site inspired the beginning of Japan's modernization in the late 18th-century.