This ancient burial site was once thought to be the home of a race distinctive to Ainu folklore.

The statue's head is one of the few fragments of the original Urakami Cathedral to survive the atomic bomb.

The cutest shrine in Kyoto is dedicated to bunnies.

This incredible mountainside temple is home to intriguing statues of demon-like creatures.

One of Kyoto's oldest food establishments has supplied soba noodles to temple priests and the Imperial Palace.

Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan.

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

Birthplace of the Tendai sect and home to the marathon monks.

One of the bloodiest and most important battles in Japanese history is recreated with kitschy concrete statues.

A monk-run winery inside a Buddhist temple celebrates Japan's crown grape varietal.

Legend says the goddess this shrine honors curses any couples that pass by.

Weighing nearly 7 tons, this massive sculpture was carved out of 500-year-old wood and decorated with thousands of jewels.

Blowtorches, tuna, and a jolly, chain-smoking proprietor mark this beloved street-food stand.

Japan's hottest hot spring has a memorable name.

A statue of a mischievous raccoon towers over this city park.

Constructed thousands of years ago, these stone circles offer incredible insight into the lives of the people who built them.

The world's longest tunnel with an undersea section.

What's believed to be the country's first shrine is, in Shintō mythology, the annual meeting place of the gods.

When this massive wooden temple ran out of rope, they made one out of devotees' hair.

A 14th-century European chapel sticks out of the facade of a Japanese hotel.

One of the tallest statues in the world, and the tallest statue of a goddess in Japan.

These Japanese ruins have been brought back to life with elaborately recreated buildings.

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

Japan's first automaton went missing, only to be revived by the Osaka Science Museum.