A 56-foot tall statue of the god of fire looks out over Birmingham, Alabama.

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

The world's longest tunnel with an undersea section.

This bar is filled with Star Wars merchandise from around the world, all of it unlicensed knockoffs.

Japan's largest and oldest annual procession of floats, begun in 869.

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

An infamous house made famous by director Takashi Shimizu.

A 59-ft. robot statue looks over the citizens of earthquake-ravaged Kobe.

A railway station takeout shop sells boxed meals in containers shaped like trains and snowmen that hold the country’s abundant regional delicacies.

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

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

A King Kong-like gorilla hangs from the top of this commercial building in Tokyo.

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

This subterranean spot might be the epitome of Japan's baroque, retro coffee houses.

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

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

Thirty architectural gems from the 19th- and early 20th-century Tokyo were restored and relocated to this space.

A shrine contains nearly 200 statues of the Buddhist deity Jizo, dressed in bibs by parents who have lost a child.

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

Be a ninja - or just act like one.

Closed for decades, this strange symbol of Japan's Expo '70 has finally opened its psychedelic insides to the public.

Historical Japanese-Dutch relations are honored with haunted rides and flower fields in this replica town.

The Hanshin Expressway goes right through its 5th, 6th, and 7th floors.

The tallest bronze seated statue of the Buddha in Japan.