This public bathroom takes the form of a 19th-century lighthouse that once stood on the spot.

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.

This monument gives insight into how lost children were found in Edo-period Tokyo.

An old-fashioned school with interesting grounds and deep history, including the original Mito Castle gate.

These ordinary blocks of stone are the last surviving remains of Tokyo's infamous red-light district.

The only Edo-period ferry that is still in operation in Tokyo today.

Ward off bad luck and fill your bottle with "the most watery water" at this little roadside shrine in Yonezawa.

These medieval stone-cut Buddhist statues may protect visitors from being fired.

An isolated "phantom bridge" doomed to crumble into ruin.

Plagued with warts? Leave a frog at this small shrine in the city of Tosa, and you may be cured.

A lesser-known sister to Paris's world-famous museum, located within a Buddhist sculpture paradise.

This infamous execution site inspired the beginning of Japan's modernization in the late 18th-century.

Though it won't take you far, the wood train housed at this station is the last of its kind in Japan.

The largest of its kind in Japan, this century-old wasabi farm is also known for its appearance in an Akira Kurosawa film.

Running through lush forests and across the Tadami River, this train line offers breathtaking views of rural Japan.

Composed of scrap metal, a pair of platform-length murals chronicle Japan’s history, from the Big Bang to the development of modern Tokyo.

The site of Japan's first major environmental disaster.

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.

A hole-in-the-wall antiquities museum in one of Tokyo's most popular megamalls.

A site where ten to twenty thousand Edo-era prisoners were put to death.

This small park holds what remains of a former prison and execution ground.

The "largest bathroom stall in the world" offers a unique pit-stop experience.

Access to this hidden site of a 14th-century mass suicide is prohibited, unless it is to pray for the dead.

A kitsch shrine dedicated to the ogre-slaying folktale hero born from a peach.