The third-tallest statue in the world depicts the "Buddha of Infinite Light," complete with observation deck in his chest.

This giant bronze Buddha, the third largest in Japan, is the last in an ill-fated series of statues.

This little replica of Lady Liberty provides a bit of NYC in a Japanese city.

These Japanese gardens are blankets of light for dark winter nights.

Elaborate series of tunnels where traces of mass suicide are still visible.

Giant sand sculptures of famous people and places are on display near the Tottori sand dunes.

The ruin of a Japanese love hotel almost completely overgrown with brambles.

A disconnected rotary phone for "calling" lost loved ones offered a unique way of dealing with grief in disaster-stricken Japan.

This town near Nagasaki is flecked with fruit-flavored bus stops.

Children's literature inside, forest all around.

As the aging humans of this Japanese village die off one local artisan is replacing them with eerie homonculi.

Sulphuric gases inhabit a beautiful Japanese island.

Each year this Japanese temple overflows with scowling, bearded good luck talismans.

An astounding annual light display honors the victims of one of Japan's most devastating earthquakes.

A real-life replica of a home from Hayao Miyazaki's beloved movie "My Neighbor Totoro."

This active volcano's siren song to suicide jumpers forced authorities to build a fence.

A remarkable lava formation encloses a line of Buddhist statues that can't be accurately counted, according to local mythology.

The Hanshin Expressway goes right through its 5th, 6th, and 7th floors.

The ruins of Japan’s premier water brothel.

A Catholicism-themed restaurant where sacrilege is on the menu.

A calico cat named Tama was the wildly popular Super Station Master at this train stop in southeast Japan.

Unusual hexagonal rocks formed by cooling lava named for their resemblance to traditional Japanese tatami mats.

The Buddhist temples of Yamadera, built into a mountain side, feature a viewing deck with sweeping views.

Closed for decades, this strange symbol of Japan's Expo '70 has finally opened its psychedelic insides to the public.