Meguro Parasitological Museum: Catch the bug

The people who created the Meguro Parasitological Museum -- the only museum in the world dedicated to bugs -- want you to embrace our fellow life-forms, not fear them. More than 50,000 people visit the museum every year, to admire hundreds of parasites stored in jars of formaldehyde.

Pride of place is given to a tape worm that grew to a length of nearly nine meters inside the gut of a Yokohama man who had eaten the wrong trout (the really wrong trout if you ask us). Other attractions include malarial parasites and blood flukes, while the museum's research and publications cover everything and anything about parasites.

Don't miss the Meguro Parasitological Museum shop, where you can purchase T-shirts with gruesome bug designs and key rings containing parasites. These are the perfect present -- or the worst present ever -- depending on the recipient.