Places liviawascher Wants to Go

Home to a collection of drums from around the world that allow visitors to play a tune.

The 650 red and white Japanese plum trees of this Tokyo neighborhood blossom each spring.

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

This cozy café is housed in a repurposed pharmacy originally built in 1927.

Although it has never been a secret ninja base, this shrine still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

Japan's hottest hot spring has a memorable name.

The floats housed in this hall are more than 100 years old, and are brought out for an annual celebration.

This ancient shrine has been rebuilt every 20 years since the eighth century.

A small island with no monkeys but plenty of military ruins.

The only natural gorge in metropolitan Tokyo, with lots of greenery and ancient burial chambers.

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

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

Perhaps the world's cheapest vending machines.

Enormous underground chamber built to detect 'ghost particles' of the universe.

A Buddhist temple to honor insects that died for science.

Inside the columbarium, thousands of colorful, high-tech Buddhas guard the ashes of the dead.

Reportedly 1,400 years old, this may be the first of the Fiji Mermaids.

A bibliophile's heaven that contains hundreds of bookstores, offering over a third of secondhand books for sale in Tokyo.

The 10,000 Torii shrine.