noelmotel's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Tokyo, Japan

Akihabara Electric Town

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

The Firefly Squid of Toyama Bay

Bioluminescent firefly squid light up this Japanese fishing port.
Takehara, Japan

Okunoshima

Japanese island famous for poison gas and fluffy bunnies.
Tokyo, Japan

The Giant Ghibli Clock

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

Tōdai-ji Daibutsuden (The Great Buddha Hall)

This massive wooden building contains a giant Buddha, healing pillars, and tame deer wandering the grounds.
Yamanouchi, Japan

Jigokudani Monkey Park

Hot springs monkey spa in the middle of Hell's Valley.
Ishinomaki, Japan

Cat Island

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.
Lima, Peru

Brain Museum

Tucked behind the Institute of Neurological Science down a decrepit street resides the largest display of human brains in Latin America.
Nazca, Peru

Nazca Lines

A set of ancient drawings in the desert of Peru that are so massive, many of them can only be fully seen from the sky.
Bomarzo, Italy

The Monsters of Bomarzo

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.
Bastrop, Texas

The Gas Station

The pit stop from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" now serves beef and pork barbecue, not people.
Lisbon, Portugal

Museu da Marioneta (Museum of Puppetry)

This museum contains a vast array of puppets and marionettes from all over the world, featuring incredible works by Portuguese creators.
Naples, Italy

Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.
Brussels, Belgium

Musée de la Médecine

Medical history with an amazing, if frighting, collection of wax diseases on display.
Ilidža, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo War Tunnel Museum

This museum preserves the hand-dug tunnel that kept Sarajevo afloat during the Serbian siege.
Brussels, Belgium

The Musical Instrument Museum

Three floors of musical instruments coming from all corners of the world and hundreds of years of musical history.
Al Madam, United Arab Emirates

Buried Village of Al Madam

An abandoned desert hamlet swallowed up by sand.
Namibia

Kolmanskop Ghost Town

The remains of diamond fever taken over by the desert.
Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Chichicastenango Cemetery

One of the world’s most colorful cemeteries, where each pigment is symbolic.
Vienna, Austria

Clock Museum

A small museum filled with over 1,000 clocks, and one particular clock calibrated to run until the year 9999.
Helsinki, Finland

Fortress of Suomenlinna

This irregularly shaped sea fortress has defended not one but three different sovereign states.
Helsinki, Finland

Götan Maailma

A lovingly curated curio shop in which the taxidermy wear newspaper party hats, and peanut shells are spread across every surface.
Helsinki, Finland

Bad Bad Boy

This endearingly discomfited urinating statue commemorates the sneaky pees had by us all.
Budapest, Hungary

Mátyás Fountain

A triumphant marble and bronze fountain depicting a 15th-century Hungarian king and his hunting party.