The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

This tiny museum hidden above a restaurant houses thousands of modern and traditional kites.

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

This former crime corner has been turned into an eclectic community center.

A roadside spring pooling in an old bathtub where anyone can stop and sip.

This unauthorized stone mermaid was secretly carved out of public stone before being permanently preserved.

Visiting this cacophonous collection of vintage novelties is like stepping into the mind of a crazed toymaker.

Recognized the world over as the home of the McCallisters in the 1990 movie "Home Alone."

This historic house museum that celebrates one of the world's most influential social reformers is also one of the most haunted locations in Chicago.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."

Former meatpacking facility turned vertical farm and sustainable business complex.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

This urban drawbridge gained eternal pop culture fame when the Blues Brothers jumped it while it was raised.

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

What may be America's largest classic video game arcade lurks inconspicuously in a Chicago suburb.

This lovely tree was a thank you gift from the man known as "Public Enemy No.1."

Once part of a dam servicing an early 19th century grist mill, the tucked-way falls are a tricky-to-find urban oasis.

A model of a dinosaur that was named for Andrew Carnegie stands outside the museum that also bears his name.

These Great Lakes sea caves accessible by boat in the summer turn into temples of ice reachable by foot in the winter.

Amateur taxidermy museum known for its large collection of white squirrels.

A house and yard adorned with bizarre concrete sculptures in a Milwaukee suburb.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.