Photo of the Day 462

Bioluminescent Organisms, Japan

Photograph by Paul A. Zahl

The transparent shells of tiny Cypridina hilgendorfii, found in the coastal waters and sands of Japan, hold a creature that emits a luminous blue substance when disturbed. During World War II, the Japanese harvested these creatures for soldiers to use when reading maps and messages at night.

(Photo shot on assignment for "Nature's Night Lights—Probing the Secrets of Bioluminescence," July 1971, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 343

Gulliver's Travels Theme Park, Japan, 2002

Photograph by Karen Kasmauski

A Lilliputian-like worker scrubs the giant head of Gulliver at Japan's now defunct Gulliver's Travels theme park in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Surrounded by the amusing and the mundane, Fuji—Japan's most sacred summit—manages to rise above it all.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Japan's Sacred Summit," August 2002, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the day 230

Artist Carving a Mask, Kyoto, Japan, 2004

Photograph by Justin Guariglia

An artist in Kyoto, Japan, carves a mask used in Noh, one of Japan's oldest theatre genres. The masks generally wear a deadpan expression. In Noh, the drama is conveyed through the music and the actors' symbolic movements.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Found in Translation," May/June 2004, National Geographic Traveler magazine)

Photo of the day 221

Bathing Snow Monkey, Japan, 1995

Photograph by Jodi Cobb

Japanese macaques, also called snow monkeys, live farther north than any other non-human primates. Their thick coats help them survive the frigid temperatures of central Japan's highlands. But when the mercury really plummets, they go to plan B: hot-tubbing in the region's many thermal springs.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Geisha," October 1995, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 213

Paragliders in the Clouds, Mount Fuji, Japan, 2002

Photograph by Karen Kasmauski

Paragliders float through the clouds that surround snowcapped Mount Fuji in Japan. At 12,388 feet (3,776 meters), Fuji is Japan's highest peak. But its relatively easy-to-scale flanks draw flocks of amateur climbers to its summit—some 400,000 every year.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Fuji: Japan's Sacred Summit (Except When It's Not)," August 2002, National Geographic magazine)