The Kyoto International Manga Museum showcases more than one hundred plaster casts of the hands of famous manga artists, each signed and displayed together with an original drawing.

Top row: Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of Mobile Suit Gundam | Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, character designer and author of Gundam: The Origin | Kunio Ōkawara, mecha designer of the original Gundam (RX-78). 
Middle row: Monkey Punch, creator of Lupin III | Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, known for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Spirited Away | Motoka Murakami, author of Jin.
Bottom row: Fujiko Fujio, creator of Ninja Hattori-kun and Kaibutsu-kun | Tsukasa Hōjō, creator of Cat’s Eye and City Hunter | Kenshi Hirokane, author of Shima Kōsaku.

Joan Miró, Painting, 1953. 
The National Museum of Western Art, built in 1959 in Tokyo by the Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier and since enlarged, houses a powerful painting by Joan Miró. Its red disk refers visitors to the symbolism of the rising sun, emblem of the national flag of modern Japan.

Monumental stairs. Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist Temple, Kyoto. 
The selfie is an essential act of modern tourism, especially in Japan. You can rent a traditional kimono for a costume visit to historic gardens and hire a photo team to capture the moment, or photograph newlyweds in a public garden.

Yayoi Kusama’s yellow pumpkin. Naoshima Island.

Chichu Museum. Naoshima Island. 
Photo sequence on the spiral ramp of the underground courtyard designed by Tadao Ando.

Selfie in rented kimonos. Tenju-an Garden, Nanzen-ji Buddhist Temple, Kyoto.
The three-part bridge is designed to encourage visitors to pause and meditate.

Laughter of the newlyweds with their photo team in a public park. Naoshima Island. 

Pokémon Gengar plush. Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo. 
Crowded day and night, Shibuya Crossing lies between a major subway hub and the nightlife district, surrounded by the lights of colossal buildings constantly under reconstruction and bustling shopping malls. People from all over Tokyo come here to feel a bit like they’re in New York, and to take a selfie in front of the statue of Hachiko, the dog who, a century ago, returned every morning for years to wait for his late master.

A team of Sumo wrestlers waiting for a taxi. Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo.

Hazardous crossing running a red light. Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo. 
A scientific study revealed that 2.1% of people in Japan cross at red light, compared with 41.9% of those in France.

Former Blast Furnace 5. 
Landscape architect Peter Latz, nominated for the 2025 Europa Nostra Award, is the designer for the major post-industrial, multi-functional urban park project Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, created on the site of a former ironworks.

Cosplayers and their photo team in the former Blast Furnace 5. 
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.

Cosplayers and their photo team in the former iron ore and coke silos. 
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.

Former railway viaduct along the canal. 
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.

Metal skeleton of the furnace cooling towers at Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund.
Renamed Urban Industrial Heritage Park, this former coal-to-coke large processing site will serve as the centerpiece of the 2027 International Garden Exhibition (IGA) presented as Dortmund's Gardens of the Future.

Large industrial steam-driven piston compressor DEMAG, 1928-1939. 
Compressor Hall, Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund. 

Heavy tools and spare parts for the maintenance of the large steam-driven piston compressors. 
Compressor Hall, Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund. 

Open door of a coke oven gas treatment unit. 
Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund.

Villa Hügel, Essen.
Built in 1873 at the heart of a vast wooded estate overlooking the Ruhr River, this colossal private palace of several hundred rooms stands as a monument to the power of the Krupp steel dynasty.
The reception desk of the Villa Hügel is dominated by the large equestrian portrait of Bertha Krupp and Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, shortly after their marriage in 1906. 

Villa Hügel, Essen.
Intersected gazes through the bronze legs of Friedrich Alfred Krupp, 1854–1902.