Japanese national treasure originally built in 593 CE.

Japanese island famous for poison gas and fluffy bunnies.

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

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

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

This massive wooden building contains a giant Buddha, healing pillars, and tame deer wandering the grounds.

Devoted Buddhists can earn enlightenment in the next life by crawling through this symbolic nostril.

The sound of swaying stalks in this stunning grove has been named a governmentally recognized sound.

The quintessential Japanese rock garden has existed for more than 500 years.

This neighborhood thoroughfare is haunted by dozens of homemade monsters.

The 10,000 Torii shrine.

When this massive wooden temple ran out of rope, they made one out of devotees' hair.

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

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

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

A bronze statue dating back as far as 1252, still has remnants of gold on its right cheek from ancient gilding.

This little replica of Lady Liberty provides a bit of NYC in a Japanese city.

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

A taste of the macabre Tokyo's ritzy shopping district.

This Buddhist temple is home to the graves of the Japanese national legends, the 47 Ronin.

Once a black market electronics marketplace, now an otaku shopper's paradise.

After a profound show of devotion for his master, a dog becomes the symbol of loyalty for an entire nation.

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.