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

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

White beach sands made of the remains of tiny, star shaped creatures.

A calico cat named Tama was the wildly popular Super Station Master at this train stop in southeast Japan.

Shells collected from over a hundred different countries line the walls, floors and ceilings of this fantasy museum.

Largest graveyard in all of Japan surrounds a famous mausoleum.

Be a ninja - or just act like one.

The divine septet of Japanese fortune gods are rendered in 1,000 year old wood at this peaceful site.

Elaborate series of tunnels where traces of mass suicide are still visible.

A remarkable lava formation encloses a line of Buddhist statues that can't be accurately counted, according to local mythology.

Each year this Japanese temple overflows with scowling, bearded good luck talismans.

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

These Japanese gardens are blankets of light for dark winter nights.

Giant art made in Japanese rice fields.

Founded over a thousand years ago, this shrine is said to be built on the site of a warlord's harem prison.

Shrine dedicated to boars that is believed to cure foot and leg injuries.

The floats housed in this hall are more than 100 years old, and are brought out for an annual celebration.

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

This beautiful Japanese garden is a memorial to the samurai who literally wrote the book on business as martial art.

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

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

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

A sobering scientific reminder of the human damage caused by the advent of the nuclear age.

Constructed thousands of years ago, these stone circles offer incredible insight into the lives of the people who built them.