Okinawan dining in a twenty foot tall, man-made tree house overlooking Naha Harbor.

A bovine sumo match in which both bulls live to fight another day.

This temple is steeped in local folklore involving a teakettle and a raccoon dog.

These seven moai figures are the world's only sanctioned replicas of the Easter Island originals.

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

This bridge is so steep it looks like a rollercoaster.

A small island with no monkeys but plenty of military ruins.

A small Japanese village claims to be the final resting place of the son of God (and God's other son's ear).

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.

A strange tribute to all the fallen souls of war.

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

Founded over a thousand years ago, this shrine is said to be built on the site of a warlord's harem prison.

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

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.

Burial mound for the ears and noses of thousands of mutilated Korean soldiers.

A disconnected rotary phone for "calling" lost loved ones offered a unique way of dealing with grief in disaster-stricken Japan.

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

This little replica of Lady Liberty provides a bit of NYC in a Japanese city.

Elaborate series of tunnels where traces of mass suicide are still visible.

This giant bronze Buddha, the third largest in Japan, is the last in an ill-fated series of statues.

The ruin of a Japanese love hotel almost completely overgrown with brambles.

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

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