Places tapia Wants to Go

Construction of Barcelona’s iconic (but controversial) church was finally completed in 2026—a century after the death of its architect.

A series of abstract, silly sculptures represent the works of a great modern classical composer.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

One of São Paulo's tight urban intersections has become a haven for graffiti artists ever since a single Batman started the trend.

A Nesting Doll of Churches.

This water goblin statue represents a 19th-century urban legend about a haunted canal that became a Japanese idiom.

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

Weighing nearly seven tons, this massive sculpture was carved out of 500-year-old wood and decorated with thousands of jewels.

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

Inside the columbarium, thousands of colorful, high-tech Buddhas guard the ashes of the dead.

One of the world's largest ancient burial mounds.

A moss-covered statue of a Japanese Buddhist deity stands at a quiet temple in downtown Osaka.

The sound of swaying stalks in this stunning grove has been named a governmentally recognized sound.

An LED art installation composed of 600 poles wrapped in kimono fabric.

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

Have a soak at this retro bathhouse, where you will find Japan's first electric bath, tiling from Spain, and wood carvings representing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

1,001 carved statues of the Buddhist God of Mercy, each with a unique face.

This Kyoto Starbucks takes coffee drinkers back in time.

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

Hidden behind a YMCA stands the remains of a ceremonial site that dates back hundreds of years, whose ground is still considered sacred to many Hawaiians.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

Grab a life-changing ham sandwich at this former horse butchershop.

This once-controversial and slightly confusing statue of Achilles was built out of captured cannons.

A measuring mishap led to these artificial stone ladies losing their stomachs.