Imagine temples so magnificent, the world couldn't let them drown. That's the story of Abu Simbel—two ancient temples carved into a mountainside that were rescued from the rising waters of the Nile, block by massive block, and reassembled like a giant stone puzzle.

In the heart of Nagano, where winter drapes the land in quiet white, lies a lake that carries a divine footprint—or at least, that’s what generations of believers have whispered. Every January or February, when the surface of Lake Suwa freezes just right, something extraordinary happens. Great cracks zigzag across the ice, rising like a frozen wave from shore to shore.