3 discoveries
A sulfur-belching volcanic wasteland Buddhists call the gateway to the afterlife, scattered with stone cairns, red pinwheels spinning for dead children, and a milky-blue 'lake of paradise.'
Stone ramparts crown a mountain ridge in Hyogo, and on still autumn dawns a sea of cloud rises around them until the ruins seem to float — Japan's real-life 'castle in the sky.'
A whole city gathers on a riverbed each September to share a single pot of taro-and-beef stew — a SIX-metre cauldron stirred by a construction crane, cooking 30,000 bowls of 'imoni' for everyone who shows up.
