Places mathildefournier2008 Wants to Go

This beautiful Japanese garden is a memorial to the samurai who literally wrote the book on business as martial art.

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

This ancient burial site was once thought to be the home of a race distinctive to Ainu folklore.

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

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

The site of Japan’s first archaeological excavation is also the birthplace of fingerprint forensics.

This historic castle is one of the oldest and most impressive in all of Japan.

A sculpture that resurrected the only tree standing following the devastating 2011 tsunami.

This incredible mountainside temple is home to intriguing statues of demon-like creatures.

Japan's largest and oldest annual procession of floats, begun in 869.

Visitors to this park are welcomed by an ancient Japanese megalithic tomb that dates back to the sixth century.

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.

Home to a legend of the supernatural raccoon dog, a rare wooden structure of Edo, and witnesses of the Tokyo bombings.

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

A glimpse into life in 1830s Tokyo, back during the heyday of the Tokugawa shogunate.

This shrine dedicated to a legendary swordsman has become a pilgrimage site for the ill and infirmed.

Nope, not the one in France. The only officially-recognized reproduction of Monet’s garden in Giverny is located in a remote corner of Japan.

One of the largest producers of MSG in the world welcomes visitors to its Kawasaki factory with an albino panda named Aji-Kun.

More than 300 years old, Kyoto's historic "teahouse" still operates as an invitation-only geisha club.

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

Narrow passes cut out of mountains surround the medieval capital of Japan.

This museum is dedicated to the cultural history of tobacco and salt, once monopolized in Japan.

This garden located inside a bamboo forest once belonged to a famous Japanese actor.

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