Curious onlookers have suspected this strange structure is a secret government base.

Museum dedicated to the largest battleship ever built.

"Excuse me sir, your submarine is blocking my building."

A sad reminder of the World War II bombing stands largely unnoticed on a street corner.

This gnome sculpture and his wonderous hat forces train passengers to do a double-take.

Believed to hold the remains of Japan's most infamous fox spirit, this stone is said to kill those who dare approach.

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.

The statue's head is one of the few fragments of the original Urakami Cathedral to survive the atomic bomb.

Stone slabs along the coast warn of Japan's tsunami-ravaged past, often marking the highest point of a wave's reach.

This enormous "shamoji" means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate.

Although it has never been a secret ninja base, this shrine still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

This mysterious medieval grotto holds a grid of sacred wells of unknown purpose.

A rare example of an ancient Japanese hill castle believed to be the fortress of a legendary demon.

Near the mouth of the Yodo River, this museum offers visitors six floors of hands-on learning about Osaka's raw sewage.

A hole-in-the-wall antiquities museum in one of Tokyo's most popular megamalls.

Inspired by the famous sculptures on Easter Island, this head serves as a popular meeting spot by Shibuya Station.

More than 300 years old, Kyoto's historic "teahouse" still operates as an invitation-only geisha club.

Home to the world's oldest wooden building.

Turn around and stick your head between your legs for the best view of this tree-covered sandbar.

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

A Japanese shrine to dolls.

Have a soak at this retro bathhouse, where you will find Japan's first electric bath, tiling from Spain, and wood carvings representing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

"The Dance of Fools" is Japan's largest dance festival.

One of the world's largest ancient burial mounds.