Sidle into a side alley for a taste of sumo wrestlers' traditional hot-pot soup, in a tiny restaurant founded by a former competitor.

A thick blanket of beautiful pampas grass cloaks this unique Japanese landscape.

A natural wonder with mythological ties to the local Ainu tradition.

A bibliophile's heaven that contains hundreds of bookstores, offering over a third of secondhand books for sale in Tokyo.

It's bad manners to eat and drink on the subways of Tokyo, unless the train is this bar. 

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

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

A network of sandy streets lined with verdant fukugi trees weaves throughout this tiny seaside town.

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

This sawtooth mountain range still bears the strangely lovely marks of its history as a medieval quarry.

This sprawling scenic burial ground is the final resting place of Japan's last shogun.

Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.

A steaming, boiling hellscape sources Hokkaido's thermal baths.

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

This retro underwater observation tower would make the perfect lair for a sea-loving villain.

Unusual hexagonal rocks formed by cooling lava named for their resemblance to traditional Japanese tatami mats.

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

The 43-mile route crosses through six islands with gorgeous views of the Seto Inland Sea.

A Japanese corporation has turned this small island town into living modern art gallery.

One of the first hotel rooms in a pod.

Meet the world's longest tapeworm in a collection that really gets under your skin.

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

Steaming blood-red hot spring from hell.

With over 12,000 different species of plants, this botanical garden is Japan's oldest and most diverse.