Places luka1154cb Wants to Go

The former site of Fukuoka’s legendary ramen joint works hard to guide customers to the “original” original.

Giant animal sculptures are created with the rice straw leftover from the fall harvest each year.

Founded in 1880, this humble brewery still practices a disappearing technique of sake-making.

This enormous monument is one of the most iconic structures in Tokyo, rudely nicknamed "The Golden Turd."

A restaurant modeled after feudal Japan, where the waitstaff are trained as ninjas.

Colloquially known as “piss alley,” this narrow street filled with tiny bars and barbecue stands looks like it was pulled straight out of “Blade Runner.”

Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan.

A tiny kissaten coffeeshop with expertly crafted coffee in an antique setting.

A monk-run winery inside a Buddhist temple celebrates Japan's crown grape varietal.

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

Try maple leaf tempura at the trailside shop that brought it back from oblivion.

Enjoy traditional Louisiana-style gumbo and the spirit of Southern hospitality 7,000 miles from New Orleans.

Home to a garden of poisonous plants and the only legal cannabis and opium farms in Tokyo.

Japan’s tallest Godzilla statue contains a piece of the original 1954 film within its base.

A taste of the macabre Tokyo's ritzy shopping district.

Legend holds eating just one of these black eggs can add seven years to one's life.

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

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

Enjoy a flaming concoction steeped in steampunk, magic, and alchemy at this experimental cocktail bar.

Sip “liquid cuisine” made with meat, vegetables, and insects.

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

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

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

An unlikely hit, this museum is dedicated to the inventor of instant ramen and cup noodles.