This traditional Japanese-style house doubles as one of James Turrell's colorful works of art.

This mountain's identity is stuck somewhere between a nightmare and a scenic tourist attraction.

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

A rare festival blending religion, blacksmiths, vagina dentata, sex workers, and the straight-up facts of life.

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

This pair of small sea rocks has been "wed" using rope and ancient Shinto tradition.

Starship-temple contains 400 tons of drinking water and offers free Japanese lessons.

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

Legend holds eating just one of these black eggs can add seven years to one's life.

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

A 20-meter (65-foot) robot towers over Tokyo Bay.

A 70-foot-deep ice cave formed by lava from Mt. Fuji on the edge of Japan's "Suicide Forest." 

Open-air museum with an elaborate sculpture garden, stretching for over 70,000 square-meters.

This spa theme park lets its guests take a dip in pools of coffee, wine, or ramen broth.

If Hello Kitty were Mickey Mouse, this would be Disneyland.

The original "capsule building" is a masterpiece of Metabolist architecture.

Tokyo’s only Vaudeville-cuckoo clock–steampunk-Victorian curio cabinet time piece.