A network of sandy streets lined with verdant fukugi trees weaves throughout this tiny seaside town.

The iconic castle that withstood a magnitude 6.2 earthquake has become a symbol of resilience.

"The Dance of Fools" is Japan's largest dance festival.

Cherry blossom season comes early in this Japanese town where pink flowers line the streets and riverbanks.

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

A Japanese train station built around a 700-year-old camphor tree.

This giant seated Bhudda of Healing dates to the 1780s.

The Yonaguni Monument, a natural formation or the Japanese Atlantis?

The largest collection of model trains in the world is actually run using full-size locomotive technology.

With over 12,000 different species of plants, this botanical garden is Japan's oldest and most diverse.

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.

Devoted Buddhists can earn enlightenment in the next life by crawling through this symbolic nostril.

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

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

An astounding annual light display honors the victims of one of Japan's most devastating earthquakes.

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

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

The tallest bronze seated statue of the Buddha in Japan.

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

Go through the looking glass in Tokyo's Wonderland-themed shop.

Once a black market electronics marketplace, now an otaku shopper's paradise.

Starship-temple contains 400 tons of drinking water and offers free Japanese lessons.

Legend holds eating just one of these black eggs can add seven years to one's life.

A massive cave complex boasts some of the clearest water (and most charming bats) in the world.