Places samireland Wants to Go

The largest of the Fuji Five Lakes is home to an impressive swan population—some real, some with paddles, and one with an observation deck.

As the aging humans of this Japanese village die off one local artisan is replacing them with eerie homonculi.

This active volcano's siren song to suicide jumpers forced authorities to build a fence.

This brothel-turned-restaurant features plenty of surprises and elaborate, extravagant architecture.

The divine septet of Japanese fortune gods are rendered in 1,000-year-old wood at this peaceful site.

This adorable birdlike police box is designed based on a play on words.

This town near Nagasaki is flecked with fruit-flavored bus stops.

Sidle into a side alley for a taste of sumo wrestlers' traditional hot-pot soup, in a tiny restaurant founded by a former competitor.

Each year this Japanese temple overflows with scowling, bearded good luck talismans.

Rows of stone statues are dressed up to mourn children that are lost before birth.

You can still find treasures on the pebbly beaches of one of the world's oldest jade-producing areas.

The small candy-colored ride is the last rooftop Ferris wheel in Tokyo.

A 17th-century Shinto shrine that is home to statues of Mickey Mouse and Pikachu.

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

These Japanese gardens are blankets of light for dark winter nights.

The tallest bronze seated statue of the Buddha in Japan.

If you forgot something to read during your trip to Tokyo, this hostel has you covered.

The largest volcanic caldera in Japan holds an entire city in its maw.

For hundreds of years, participants in this Japanese festival have been making babies cry to ward off demons.

A flight of this "ghost staircase" has 40 steps on the way up, but only 39 steps on the way down.

White beach sands made of the remains of tiny, star shaped creatures.

This bar is filled with Star Wars merchandise from around the world, all of it unlicensed knockoffs.

This sawtooth mountain range still bears the strangely lovely marks of its history as a medieval quarry.

Closed for decades, this strange symbol of Japan's Expo '70 has finally opened its psychedelic insides to the public.