You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just another quaint Tudor house on a cobbled English street—wooden beams, leaning windows, and a heavy oak door that looks like it has witnessed a few centuries. But this half-timbered cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon isn’t just old—it’s iconic. This is the house where William Shakespeare was born in 1564. And today, it stands as one of the most lovingly preserved literary relics in the world.

Welcome to a place where the line between the living and the dead feels paper-thin. A place where mist clings to the rocky earth, the air stings with sulfur, and volcanic vents hiss like whispers from beneath the ground. This is Mount Osorezan, often translated as the “Mountain of Fear,” one of Japan’s most spiritual—and strangest—destinations.