Deep in the forests of Saitama, past the main temple grounds of Ne-no Gongen Tenryuji, massive white hands rise from the earth like something divine…or freshly buried. The palms are wide enough that several people could stand inside them, fingers curved as if reaching. Their surface is smooth, almost too perfect against the rough bark and moss around it. As you approach, mist sometimes drifts under the trees, silence deepens, and the hands feel less like art and more like a presence. Ne-no Gongen Tenryuji is a functioning temple, but the hands steal the attention. Up close, they’re both unsettlingly human yet monumental – a symbol of comfort that somehow feels like it could close around you.

Getting there: From Ikebukuro Station take the Seibu Ikebukuro Line to Hanno Station. Then change to the Seibu Chichibu Line and ride to Shomaru Station. From there you can either hike, or take the local community shuttle service for just ￥500 yen one way. Make sure to call ahead.

Hidden in the hills of Ito, Maboroshi Hakurankai is part museum, part fever dream. It’s a maze of mannequins, taxidermy, Showa-era erotica and decaying pop culture relics. The space feels stuck between time periods: half post-war nostalgia, half Lynchian nightmare. Wax children stare from broken classrooms; skeletons wear wigs. It’s the kind of place that starts off funny, then quietly gets under your skin. You’ll laugh, then leave uneasy.

Getting there: Take the Odakyu Line to Odawara Station. Then, take the JR Tokaido Line to Izu-Kogen Station on the Izu Express Line. From there, take a bus to the museum – getting off at Umenokidaira.

Right down the road from Maboroshi, ‘The Suspicious Boys and Girls Museum’ is the former’s more mischievous but well kept-sibling. It’s stuffed with uncanny childhood memorabilia – old school posters, faded propaganda, cracked dolls, and relics from Japan’s post-war innocence that somehow don’t feel innocent anymore. This place looks like a candy-coloured trap, and it feels like walking into a dream that ends very Hansel and Gretel.

Getting there: Take the Odakyu Line to Odawara Station. Then, take the JR Tokaido Line to Ito Station. From there, take a bus to the museum – getting off at the Ikeiriguchi bus stop. 

Japan’s deepest train station feels almost like an initiation ritual. To reach the platform, you descend nearly 500 steps into a dim, dripping tunnel known locally as the ‘Mole Station’. The temperature drops, the sound dulls and, halfway down, your phone loses signal. When the train finally arrives, its lights slice through total black – a moment that feels staged for a horror game. The return climb is quiet and claustrophobic, the kind of exhaustion that borders on trance.

Getting there: From Shinjuku Station take the Shonan-Shinjuku Line to Takasaki. From there, change to the JR East Joetsu Line to Minakami, transferring to the local line straight to Doai Station.