An anonymous urban explorer has been sharing photographs of the many abandoned places he has been investigating throughout Japan with 2ch – the photographs hauntingly depict some of the most quintessentially Japanese of places, such as faddish theme parks and love hotels, ravaged by abandon and neglect, and in many cases still housing strange oddities – in one case a stuffed mammoth…
He states that where possible he seeks permission from the relevant party before exploring any of these places – not a courtesy many western urban explorers are known to extend.
“First a famous place – a clinic in Gifu prefecture, still filled with relics from the war.”
“The Mochikura mine, deep in the mountains of Niigata prefecture – now more a ruin than a building.”
“The ill-reputed Keishin Hospital in Kanagawa prefecture. It’s not a very appealing derelict at all, is it? Fortunately, it’s finally being demolished.”
“Miyagi prefecture’s Kejonuma Leisure Land – with a Ferris wheel, a rare thing to see left abandoned nowadays. Unfortunately this place is rumoured to facing demolition too.”
“An arts-type kindergarten in Kanagawa. The graduation drawings left by its former pupils are particularly noteworthy.”
“Atop the mountains of Niigata lies a radio tower, famously haunted and used as a suicide spot. Apparently it was once a a radio relay station.”
“An abandoned Miyagi love hotel. Funnily enough, it’s still loaded with stuff…”
“Shizuoka prefecture’s Izushi Sports World. Unfortunately, it is being dismantled. The Izushi peninsula is actually packed with ruins.”
“The king of all ruins, Nagasaki’s Battleship Isle. As expected, it is on another level entirely. I took these a long time ago so the photos are quite small.”
“Niigata Russian Village. It even has a stuffed mammoth. In recent years the hotel part was half burnt down by a suspicious fire.”
“Shizuoka – a place nicknamed ‘Battleship Mansion.’ It has an incomplete, almost organic feel – I like it.”
“A Kanagawa lodging hall. A lovely place dripping with Showa period ambience.”
“The Niigata ‘White House.’ A haunted spot. The story is that an insane girl was kept confined here and eventually killed her family. She killed herself out of guilt. It may lack a little something as far as ruins go, but the barred windows give it an interesting atmosphere.”
“This part is known as the ‘Black House.’ It has a room with hooks. Not a famous place but I like it.”
“Niigata Children’s Village – the car museum. Until a few years ago the building was overflowing with cars.”
“A set of caverns at a Shizuoka graveyard. A man made the caverns into a haunted house… You may find these disturbing.”
“Sorry to frighten you for no good reason. The cavern was dug out for use as an air raid shelter in the war. It seems a man turned it into a haunted house and after he died it was left abandoned.”
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THAT is Japan's graffiti!? Deport your punks to the US, I'd love to see some of that work on my buildings...
That first clinic should be a museum...
Everything here should be a museum
The Mammoth skeleton should be *in* a museum.
I doubt it's an actual skeleton. It's most likely a cast.
Agreed, they wouldn't allow an actual mammoth skeleton to be laying in pieces on the floor...
I like pict 46, indoor explosion.
@ Diamond Dust 3 @13:52:
If you want, you can ride it, right now. Just get an old burlap sack, put it beneath you, and slide on down!
"Weeeee! Wooooo! Yahhhhhhhh!"
*crack* *snap* *crunch*
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" *bang* *thok* "-aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" *thud*
"Fuuuuuuuck. Call an ambulance. My insurance card is in my wallet. That was awesome, by the way."
Who was the fucking idiotic bastard that leave like trash a god damn mammoth? And those classics cars there, almost cry for them, fuck i cant go there and take them to a decent place and replace with the asshole that discard them impaled there.
I'm surprised some of the stuff is still there. I would have thought someone would have taken the cars even if they're just models.
I'm getting Higurashi vibes from #1-3 of those photos!
lets say that radio tower, i could dismantle it myself given the right tools, starting from the top and working down.
for the 20-40k in scrap alone, it would be worth it even if it took a few months of solid work to do.
and im not saying renovate the properties, i mean the items inside. depending on how old that shit is, you can get 100-300$ for something like that lamp, and up to 1000$ for that tv.
allot of that shit can sell for stupidly high prices, basically if you know the right people, turning a profit of double what you spend is easy.
now to those who say turn them into museums, fuck no, the items in them and possibly the rooms should be in museums, but the building itself? they are very old and possibly dangerous.
@alidan
I don't think you want to do that.
Considering the time, dismante cost, renovation cost and money you can get, I'd say it's not worthed.
I want to ride the water slide if it was active and running.
http://img3.sankakustatic.com/wp-content/gallery/cache/87319__468x_abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-042.jpg
I just feel so bad for those cars man they probably only need a few things and the could most likely run again. They water slides look cool. But some of those places looked pretty mess up and unsalvageable.
The train in picture #23 looks depressed.
Those are some exhibits there now aren't they?...
They really need to show some of these things off as exhibits...
@Anon 15:35 Maybe i should grease myself up like willy from simpsons
http://media.industrygamers.com/editorial/2009/07/simpsons%20grease%20me%20up%20woman.jpg [http://media.industrygamers.com/editorial/2009/07/simpsons grease me up woman.jpg] then slide down.
god if i had the money to buy ony of those places i would pick them appart and sell everything of value.
old unrotted wood sells for allot,
the glass and mirrors can sell too.
alot of the older movable architectural things would fetch a LARGE sum.
get that love hotel, rip out all the fabric, and replace and refurbish it, and resell it to a new one, for a reasonable sum
that radio tower alone could get 20-40grand off selling it all as scrap alone.
id keep the jars for myseld though, as i like the look of them.
These pictures look like a glimpse of what the world will look like after an apocalyptic event. Looks pretty promising ^__^
that choo choo train looks sad ;_;
Some of those buildings are obviously about a hundred years old or more. They should be made into museums, for sure.
Especially that hospital and the kindergarten. The children who made those portrait are probably parents now themselves. Those snapshots of the ruins of their past memories is too poignant for me to adequately describe with words alone.
Maybe I'm just being too sentimental? o_0
can I live there? one of those places? is the chief a kappa?
a f*cking elephant statue? Really? xD
better save it for horror movie or zombie
House of the Dead base on this areas.
it would be awesome!
This article is so great!
That cavern is so epic.
Who would bring you your food? Or pay for your Internet access?
Welcome to NHK :p
There are lots of places that have potential, for a NEET or Hikikomori Reclusive Colony.
Imagine we can actually have a place of our own to be ourselves and as ronery as we please - where nobody can piss and moan about our Hikikomori ways.
Just have the Militant Otakus in the penthouse units to snipe any nosey reporters and we'll be fine.
That would be an otaku wonderland and the bath houses would be filled with carnal flamboyances.
^_^
Although, I would probably ban any guys running around in sailor suits w/ mini skirts.
Beautiful.
I somehow have the feeling that most of Japan will look like this after the Manga/Anime Ban has come into effect.
Oh, the foreshadowing... Q_Q
It leaves an ambient, almost empty feeling. For some reason an echo comes to mind when I see these.
These pictures remind me of all the abandoned buildings featured on the English Russia photo blog. One of the most amazing being the bomb testing chambers where bricks were literally melting from the walls and ceilings.
English Russia is a great site, I like the "Creepy Children’s Playgrounds".
The Leisure Land (pics 18-24) reminded me of Pripyat... *shivers*
great now we are fucked
(why?... "abandoned" the picture reminded me of the thing like, you saw it.. you will have now nightmares or will get cure for it.. or die in sometime.. >: D)
While I understand where you're coming from, I disagree.
It should be in a museum, or else these stuff would just rot away, without anyone giving a damn. But for me, I don't need them to be in a museum, because it loses it's mystical aura to it.
I love abandoned buildings, it's so fascinating. I love how items are there, created by humans, but then suddenly it's abandoned, like it's there for nobody and it never served a purpose.
If these things get into a museum, it would just be crowded every day, and everything would be just as sterile as hell, like any other object from our every day life.
These are more sad than creepy or even historic or anything. Just shows how badly neglected some parts of Japan truly are. It seems every major nation has at least a few areas of utter neglect.
This kind of derelict places : I'd like to make it a horror game setting(like Silent Hill) settings :)
honestly speaking I would actually love to explore those areas myself never know what kinds of treasures are to be had :3
http://img3.sankakustatic.com/wp-content/gallery/safe-ix/abandoned-places-of-japan-urban-exploration-095.jpg
HEY LOOK! A FREE CONDOMINIUM FOR (illegal) FILIPINO IMMIGRANTS!
@ anon 8:27
hey wait a minute guys I think this anon is onto something here :3
LMAO, comment of the day!
Why hello there. I'm a legal Filipino immigrant. How nice to meet you!
lets fix that, "HEY LOOK! GO FUCKK YOURSELF!"
All shades of creepy, amazing, and down right cool!
Gotta say like whoever did the exploring.
Looks like the kind of place you would get random monster encounters in.
don't forget to equip your equipment and make sure you have potion in your itemlist xD
in that case I might need to hire a Felyne to accompany me on my Journey there
The photographer is amazing.
Ive seen this guys photos before. Its called Haikyo which means ruins. Exploring old abandoned buildings and leaving them as you found them, no souvenir hunting. If this was in the US these buildings would have been totaly looted and defaced by assholes and druggies. They've have been left pretty much untouched for 30 or more years. Saying "only in Japan" in a definite positive in this case.
So the graffiti(no, not the ones in the abandoned kindergarten) on the walls in some of these pics aren't vandalisme?
Any valuble items in any abandoned buildings in ANY part of the world WILL BE TAKEN. What makes you so sure there wasn't any before this photographer came to these places?
Research more on abandoned building photographers around the world(Europeans for example) and read their blogs on how they do their work if you wanna gain some credibility.