History in Japan

This frenetic mural recalls an annual festival that once took the city by storm.

Once known for its eerie appearance, this semicircular monument is all that remains of a Tokyo industrial icon.

Open since 1690, this former teahouse makes “strength mochi” based on the centuries-old recipe.

The legendary Japanese filmmaker’s tombstone is marked by a single letter meaning “nothing," and bottles of sake.

Buried nine feet under, these houses are preserved as a stark reminder of the disastrous 1991 Unzen eruption.

Hundreds of statues of Buddha’s disciples meditating, napping, sneezing, and picking their noses.

This abandoned railroad got a new life as a scenic promenade cutting through the city of Otaru.

This cozy café is housed in a repurposed pharmacy originally built in 1927.

It is believed that this Buddhist temple stands right on the gateway to the underworld.

Tatar Russian in origin, the largest mosque in Japan is now an Ottoman-style Turkish culture center.

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

An eerie reminder to the horrors of World War II.

The site of Japan's first major environmental disaster.

A wooden prison doesn't sound like a good idea, yet this abandoned 1950s detention center still stands today.

This water goblin statue represents a 19th-century urban legend about a haunted canal that became a Japanese idiom.

This often-overlooked monument was crafted in the shape of the iconic samurai coin to honor an Edo-period mint.