Places mossenmoons Wants to Go

A total of 999 stairs lead visitors through a massive hole in a mountain known as the Gateway to Heaven.

This abandoned fishing settlement may well be the greenest village in the world.

This vertical pinnacle in China was the inspiration for the floating mountains in the movie “Avatar.”

A part of the world's largest marsh seems to be growing bright red Martian grass.

A fifth-century temple improbably built into the side of a cliff.

On the outskirts of an opal-mining town, these baths fed by a massive underground aquifer are a natural spa.

The ruin of a Japanese love hotel almost completely overgrown with brambles.

Okinawan dining in a twenty foot tall, man-made tree house overlooking Naha Harbor.

The ruins of Japan’s premier water brothel.

This ruined Japanese stripclub sits half burnt to the ground.

This “peasant café” in the middle of Tokyo re-creates the atmosphere of the Japanese countryside.

A tiny collection of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, open only when the owner feels like it.

The abandoned Japanese amusement park once loomed as a dystopian Disneyland.

The only thing sweeter than the potatoes is the canine proprietor of this roadside stall.

This faux-seedy Japanese arcade is made up to look like a maze of alleys straight out of a cyberpunk dystopia.

Originally built circa 13-14th century, this “snail well” was a resourceful means to draw water in a region where the soil was mostly loam.

Home to 800-year-old zen basin, a 400-year-old pilgrim’s path, and a century-old industrial grotto.

An eerie cluster of medieval cave-like tombs carved out of a cliff, hidden in a historic mountain pass.

This glass-themed tourist park in northern Japan feels like taking a step back in time.

This traditional Japanese shrine is dedicated to four Shinto deities.

This unusual "magical shrine" honors a legendary raccoon-dog god that stowed away to Japan from some far-off land.

A narrow, dead-end alley hides with a small fox shrine and the untold history of Yokohama's historic red-light district.

One of the only two archaeological sites in Japan to feature petroglyphs, which some believe to be a long-lost writing system of the gods.

A long-worshipped mountain, considered a "power spot" and suspected to be an ancient pyramid by some.