Once a safe haven for locals engaged in blood feuds, this 400-year-old fortified tower is now a museum showing what life was like for those lying in wait within its walls.

The ghost town where the villagers refuse to leave.

The site of a famous samurai duel.

The largest volcanic caldera in Japan holds an entire city in its maw.

A serene mountaintop temple complex featuring one big, bronze Buddha.

These medieval stone-cut Buddhist statues may protect visitors from being fired.

Visitors to this temple are greeted by a massive collection of wooden dolls said to bring good fortune.

Perhaps the world's cheapest vending machines.

This brothel-turned-restaurant features plenty of surprises and elaborate, extravagant architecture.

A museum dedicated to the history of Tokyo's often-overlooked working-class district.

An anthropological theme park that depicts the cultures of around 20 different countries.

The largest of the Fuji Five Lakes is home to an impressive swan population—some real, some with paddles, and one with an observation deck.

Reportedly 1,400 years old, this may be the first of the Fiji Mermaids.

A World War II evacuation tunnel turned into a history display of Croatian state and people.

This only museum in the world dedicated solely to mushrooms.

This scale model of our solar system hid in plain sight for years before a physics team sought out all the planets.

This Croatian fairytale castle is slowly falling apart thanks to years of neglect.

A statue of Paulina Hermann, the eccentric noblewoman known as the "mother of cats."

A tribute to an iconic act of defiance from the Croatian War of Independence involving a small car.

A self-proclaimed libertarian micro-state on a tiny bit of disputed territory between Serbia and Croatia.

One of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters is still used today, but for less brutal events.

A chain of 16 wondrous lakes formed as a result of the gradual dissolution of soluble layers of bedrock.

Large, airy hallways hide within an impenetrable fortress that beckons urban explorers.

This picturesque medieval monastery guards a small trove of historic treasures.