Places sarahvjanet Wants to Go

It specializes in outsider art and artifacts of secret societies.

This beautiful grotto is one of those places where you can't believe you're just outside Austin.

This quirky little private museum is home to more than a thousand stones, carved by nature, that resemble human faces.

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

An eerie reminder to the horrors of World War II.

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

Roots and stumps that lay inundated for two millennia are on display in Japan's city of three mysteries.

Approximately 300 million years ago, a massive coral reef existed in what is now the largest limestone cave in Japan.

Hidden by the roadside in the Iya Valley, this gem brings together folk monsters and the region's unique geography.

Stuck in a bygone era, the oldest subterranean shopping street in Japan hides beneath the popular Asakusa district of Tokyo.

After being lost for decades, this striking mural depicting the atomic bomb covers the wall of a busy Tokyo metro station.

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

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

Steaming blood-red hot spring from hell.

Giant sand sculptures of famous people and places are on display near the Tottori sand dunes.

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

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

A steaming, boiling hellscape sources Hokkaido's thermal baths.

A remarkable lava formation encloses a line of Buddhist statues that can't be accurately counted, according to local mythology.

Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.

Unusual hexagonal rocks formed by cooling lava named for their resemblance to traditional Japanese tatami mats.

Japan's largest area of "pink moss" turns the hillside bright pink every spring.

A King Kong-like gorilla hangs from the top of this commercial building in Tokyo.

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