A bovine sumo match in which both bulls live to fight another day.

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

A remote and slightly overgrown park filled with replicas of world landmarks.

Japan's largest collection of Western-style mansions in the port city of Kobe includes a recreation of Sherlock Holmes' 221B Baker Street quarters.

"Bug Bug" Land, a natural park for beetle watching, still hasn't fully recovered from Fukushima's nuclear disaster.

"The Dance of Fools" is Japan's largest dance festival.

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.

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

A collection of more than 1,000 teddies from nearly any profession.

An eerie maze of industrial factories looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi.

This little town supplies Japan with most of its calligraphy brushes, still made by hand from animal fur.

The giant figure on the back of this turtle-shaped temple actually hides a memorial pendulum.

This exacting restaurant will charge a fine for every grain of rice you've left behind.

For hundreds of years, participants in this Japanese festival have been making babies cry to ward off demons.

"Singing sands" and the world's largest hourglass reside near Japan's Kotogahama beach.

An infamous house made famous by director Takashi Shimizu.

A derelict New Zealand-themed amusement park in Japan.

An abandoned giant glass dome sits in the bay in “the Venice of the East.”

This bridge is so steep it looks like a rollercoaster.

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.

More tin toys than you can shake a clapping monkey at.

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

One of the largest producers of MSG in the world welcomes visitors to its Kawasaki factory with an albino panda named Aji-Kun.