An enormous pair of straw sandals woven in the traditional way—to keep demons at bay.

Near the mouth of the Yodo River, this museum offers visitors six floors of hands-on learning about Osaka's raw sewage.

Established over a thousand years ago, this family-run teahouse continues to serve skewers of sweet rice cake to this day.

Mythical beasts symbolizing the city of Tokyo guard a historic bridge.

Watch out for the two-story Godzilla made out of tires.

A 14th-century European chapel sticks out of the facade of a Japanese hotel.

A 17th-century Shinto shrine that is home to statues of Mickey Mouse and Pikachu.

Hidden by the roadside in the Iya Valley, this gem brings together folk monsters and the region's unique geography.

Japan's first automaton went missing, only to be revived by the Osaka Science Museum.

A bibliophile's heaven that contains hundreds of bookstores, offering over a third of secondhand books for sale in Tokyo.

This subterranean spot might be the epitome of Japan's baroque, retro coffee houses.

Japanese island famous for poison gas and fluffy bunnies.

This “peasant café” in the middle of Tokyo re-creates the atmosphere of the Japanese countryside.

The tallest city hall in the world offers an excellent bento box.

This 14th-century temple is also known as the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" for its gorgeous gilded reliquary hall.

After being lost for decades, this striking mural depicting the atomic bomb covers the wall of a busy Tokyo metro station.

A moss-covered statue of a Japanese Buddhist deity stands at a quiet temple in downtown Osaka.

This bar is filled with Star Wars merchandise from around the world, all of it unlicensed knockoffs.

A train ride to the middle of nowhere gives its passengers some of the most iconic views of Japan's seasons.

The cutest shrine in Kyoto is dedicated to bunnies.

This tiny museum hidden above a restaurant houses thousands of modern and traditional kites.

One of Kyoto's oldest food establishments has supplied soba noodles to temple priests and the Imperial Palace.

Discover the past, present, and future of packaging in this unique Japanese museum.

This sprawling scenic burial ground is the final resting place of Japan's last shogun.