When this massive wooden temple ran out of rope, they made one out of devotees' hair.

"Singing sands" and the world's largest hourglass reside near Japan's Kotogahama beach.

This garden located inside a bamboo forest once belonged to a famous Japanese actor.

The floats housed in this hall are more than 100 years old, and are brought out for an annual celebration.

A whimsical museum dedicated to the mischievous kappa, a mythical cucumber-loving water sprite.

Nope, not the one in France. The only officially-recognized reproduction of Monet’s garden in Giverny is located in a remote corner of Japan.

One in a pair of subterranean caves created by an ancient eruption of Mount Fuji.

An enormous pair of straw sandals woven in the traditional way—to keep demons at bay.

This temple is steeped in local folklore involving a teakettle and a raccoon dog.

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

A strange tribute to all the fallen souls of war.

The world's longest tunnel with an undersea section.

This museum is dedicated to the cultural history of tobacco and salt, once monopolized in Japan.

This bizarre residential building is the masterpiece of Von Jour Caux, the “Gaudí of Japan.”

Watch out for the two-story Godzilla made out of tires.

An eerie reminder to the horrors of World War II.

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

Japan's first automaton went missing, only to be revived by the Osaka Science Museum.

This ancient shrine has been rebuilt every 20 years since the eighth century.

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

A remote and slightly overgrown park filled with replicas of world landmarks.

Roots and stumps that lay inundated for two millennia are on display in Japan's city of three mysteries.

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

These wondrously illuminated caverns extend under the mountains of the Fukushima Prefecture.