Places HoboPal Wants to Go

A Japanese corporation has turned this small island town into living modern art gallery.

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

The 10,000 Torii shrine.

A shrine contains nearly 200 statues of the Buddhist deity Jizo, dressed in bibs by parents who have lost a child.

Burial mound for the ears and noses of thousands of mutilated Korean soldiers.

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

These turtle-shaped concrete stepping stones provide a unique river crossing in central Kyoto.

This statue of Buddha has a distinctive hairstyle meant to represent an unfathomably long period of meditation.

This compact temple is filled with garlands of colorful balls that represent restrained monkeys.

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

It is believed that this Buddhist temple stands right on the gateway to the underworld.

Crawl through the hole in the middle of this stone to break off a bad relationship or initiate a good one.

A nondescript building is home to a one-room museum filled with an overwhelming array of art and objects.

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

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

The groundbreaking Japanese shrine maiden who invented the art of kabuki.

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

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

150 kinds of unique sundaes and gigantic parfaits await at Kyoto’s iconic vintage café

Royal milk tea was invented here at the Far Eastern capital of Sir Thomas Lipton’s tea empire

Little did a museum know, they possessed the last-known lunch wagon in existence.

This church in Pittsburgh is home to the largest collection of religious relics in North America.

The Paul Bunyan of the steel industry.

It's been called “Detroit’s largest art object.”