Places JLowdown Wants to Go

These gnarly desert trees produce the prized aromatic resin traded along the ancient incense trail.

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

A massive cave complex boasts some of the clearest water (and most charming bats) in the world.

An ordinary pond with fish from out of this world.

The only subterranean ping pong table in Atlanta.

Transport yourself to the 1980s era of video games at this themed restaurant and bar.

This historic hydroelectric power plant in Japan has been preserved and is open to the public.

Shells collected from over a hundred different countries line the walls, floors and ceilings of this fantasy museum.

This North Carolina museum is keeping the pinball craze alive, with a little Space Invaders on the side.

10,500 square feet of pinball housed in former dollar store and home to the last playable "Thunderball."

Where the "World Pinball Champion” is crowned.

What's believed to be the country's first shrine is, in Shintō mythology, the annual meeting place of the gods.

A striking, menacing sandstone peak towering above a landscape that's equal parts Mordor and the Moon.

This feline raises a friendly paw at drivers barreling toward the freeway.

This sprawling scenic burial ground is the final resting place of Japan's last shogun.

Twelve hundred stone carvings guard this off-the-beaten-path Buddhist temple.

The little-known final resting place of one of America's greatest writers.

On the Oregon coast is a natural hole that seems to be draining the sea.

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

A failed utopia, shut down by a more legitimate nation.

The smallest country in Australia is a principled little thing with a friendly emperor.

Six peaceful acres in a residential neighborhood dedicated to art and peace.

A peat bog in southern Sweden provides a cozy and photogenic home for junked Volvos, Saabs, and the occasional American muscle car.

The magical, mossy forest that inspired 'Princess Mononoke.'