A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

Granny Smiths and Fujis can both be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild.

More than 10,000 small mirrors cover the curved surface of the world's second-largest solar oven, located in a remote village in Uzbekistan.

One of the most ethnically diverse spots on the planet.

Former island in the Aral Sea used to be a top-secret Russian bio-weapons facility.

The demolished ruins of a poorly located Japanese Love Hotel.

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

A cool dive bar, off the beaten track.

A beautiful work of art designed to impress the Allied Forces.

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

Daikon radishes are offered to the Japanese Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu god Ganesha at this historic hilltop temple.

Visitors to this park are welcomed by an ancient Japanese megalithic tomb that dates back to the sixth century.

This shrine dedicated to a legendary swordsman has become a pilgrimage site for the ill and infirmed.

Sidle into a side alley for a taste of sumo wrestlers' traditional hot-pot soup, in a tiny restaurant founded by a former competitor.

For hundreds of years, participants in this Japanese festival have been making babies cry to ward off demons.

A museum dedicated to the history of Tokyo's often-overlooked working-class district.

Oddly touching memorial to a little-remembered nuclear tragedy.

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

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

Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan.

Serving you alcohol with a side of insanity. Also, costumes!

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

A Buddhist temple to honor insects that died for science.