These unconventional "tub boats" let locals row around the island's turbulent coast.

A monk-run winery inside a Buddhist temple celebrates Japan's crown grape varietal.

People from around the world visit the shrine of Japan’s legendarily loyal dog.

For centuries, this gold mine was the powerhouse behind the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Inside the columbarium, thousands of colorful, high-tech Buddhas guard the ashes of the dead.

A King Kong-like gorilla hangs from the top of this commercial building in Tokyo.

This ordinary set of steps is a must-see destination for fans of a certain romantic anime.

Transport yourself to the 1980s era of video games at this themed restaurant and bar.

Haunted house kitsch meets Japanese folklore at this theme bar where patrons can “die” and have their own mock funeral.

This volcanic island in the Pacific just keeps growing and growing.

A giant rooftop ride with unbeatable views of Matsuyama city, the nearby mountain ranges, and the Inland Sea.

Japan's hottest hot spring has a memorable name.

Rows of stone statues are dressed up to mourn children that are lost before birth.

A deserted island in southwest Japan that once sheltered persecuted Christians.

What's believed to be the country's first shrine is, in Shintō mythology, the annual meeting place of the gods.

A museum in Hokkaido is housed in a former high school. On its grounds a marker shares the awakening of a man who longs to be reunited with his soulmate in the fictional world of Kcymaerxthaere.

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

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

The cemetery houses the remains of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, one of Japan's most famous novelists.

Legend says the goddess this shrine honors curses any couples that pass by.

The statue's head is one of the few fragments of the original Urakami Cathedral to survive the atomic bomb.

This adorable birdlike police box is designed based on a play on words.

The world's largest radiation field is probably our best bet for irradiated vegetable superheroes.

This enormous "shamoji" means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate.