The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

A working miniature city designed to teach kids about safety and presumably city planning.

An eccentric home stands out in an otherwise average neighborhood with mosaics, mini topiaries, and kinetic sculpture.

The floats housed in this hall are more than 100 years old, and are brought out for an annual celebration.

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

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

A rare festival blending religion, blacksmiths, vagina dentata, sex workers, and the straight-up facts of life.

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Japanese national treasure originally built in 593 CE.

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

A Japanese concept restaurant that feels like a party thrown by the monsters in your closet.

This historical theme park celebrates all things noodle.

The 10,000 Torii shrine.

This massive wooden building contains a giant Buddha, healing pillars, and tame deer wandering the grounds.

This spa theme park lets its guests take a dip in pools of coffee, wine, or ramen broth.

Hot springs monkey spa in the middle of Hell's Valley.

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.

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

Serving you alcohol with a side of insanity. Also, costumes!

An ordinary pond with fish from out of this world.

Japan's corrupt-mental-institution themed restaurant offers diners a chance to eat inside of filthy cells.

The original "capsule building" is a masterpiece of Metabolist architecture.

This faux-seedy Japanese arcade is made up to look like a maze of alleys straight out of a cyberpunk dystopia.

A taste of the macabre Tokyo's ritzy shopping district.