The bartenders at this crime-fighting theme cafe are actual private detectives by day.

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

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

A restaurant modeled after feudal Japan, where the waitstaff are trained as ninjas.

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

Go through the looking glass in Tokyo's Wonderland-themed shop.

Once a black market electronics marketplace, now an otaku shopper's paradise.

Colloquially known as “piss alley,” this narrow street filled with tiny bars and barbecue stands looks like it was pulled straight out of “Blade Runner.”

Two adjoining collections of 19th-20th century physics apparatuses and instruments.

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

Tokyo’s only Vaudeville-cuckoo clock–steampunk-Victorian curio cabinet time piece.

If Hello Kitty were Mickey Mouse, this would be Disneyland.

A taste of the macabre Tokyo's ritzy shopping district.

A 20-meter (65-foot) robot towers over Tokyo Bay.

A patch of contaminated land reclaimed as a scrappy sculptural oasis.

One of the world's richest men bought this former paper factory and transformed it into a mall.

One of the few remaining American elm trees in New York’s Tompkins Square Park was the birthplace of a new religion.

More than 250 sakes are available in an izakaya hidden in the basement of a Midtown office building.

Make a tough dinner decision: Octopus wasabi roulette or bull penis?

Manhattan’s Battery Park has a whimsical carousel full of spinning, glowing fish.

A Pythagorean funhouse that tries, successfully, to prove that math is the coolest thing ever.

This interactive gallery makes you feel like you've stepped into a fantasy world filled with whimsical monsters.

Volunteer-run library dedicated to exploring five decades of activism history.

A charming "tea atelier" hidden away in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.