Places everywhereemily Wants to Go

This massive wooden building contains a giant Buddha, healing pillars, and tame deer wandering the grounds.

Devoted Buddhists can earn enlightenment in the next life by crawling through this symbolic nostril.

Perhaps the world's cheapest vending machines.

This neighborhood thoroughfare is haunted by dozens of homemade monsters.

An LED art installation composed of 600 poles wrapped in kimono fabric.

A 59-ft. robot statue looks over the citizens of earthquake-ravaged Kobe.

A collection of the specialized tools used to construct Japan’s beautiful architecture.

A museum run by retired highway engineers who helped rebuild after the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

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

At a Japanese train station, a goddess emerges from a dumpling.

An unusual structure of stone and glass honoring one of Japan’s most eminent Christian leaders who founded the non-church movement.

Children's literature inside, forest all around.

This iconic “station bento” comes in an earthenware pot you can take home and repurpose.

This 24-hour vending machine serves up homemade treats inspired by the local Japanese snow monkeys.

"Excuse me sir, your submarine is blocking my building."

Museum dedicated to the largest battleship ever built.

This little town supplies Japan with most of its calligraphy brushes, still made by hand from animal fur.

This enormous "shamoji" means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate.

In the oldest zen temple stands a descendant of the very tree that introduced tea to Japanese culture.

It is rumored that if you spot this little golden frog hiding in plain sight, good luck will come your way.

A bizarre, tuberculosis sanatorium-themed café moonlighting as an underground art gallery.

Home to thousands of dolls from around the world, including the "blue-eyed dolls" that came to Japan as American ambassadors.

An oddly touching memorial to a little-remembered nuclear tragedy.

This museum showcases the art of ancient sword-making.