Comments on: Ruins of the Queen Chateau Soapland, HDR

By: MJG

MJG — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:20:03 +0000

Thanks so much! I had to check who Tony Montana was (*shame*), but saw some shots of his house in Wikipedia, and yeah, looks like he’d be right at home here.

By: Swan

Swan — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:15:39 +0000

Wow, that’s insane. It reminds me of Tony Montana’s house. Really. Amazing. Great photos.

By: The Envoy

The Envoy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:29:52 +0000

Is it just me or are all three girls on the wall having their periods at the same time? Interesting place.

By: MJG

MJG — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:51:28 +0000

David- Sad ruins true, sad as a kind of failure, passage of time, loneliness. This place has more of a ‘haunted by unhappiness’ feeling to it. Not just the usual time and neglect stuff, but a hangover from the days it was alive. Well.
Thanks for the tip on the link, I knew it was supposed to go somewhere.

J-eye- Cheers on the photos, I tend to agree with you on the style of these, I’ve been into HDR and wide-lens stuff recently, as they’re new additions to my tool box. Probably from now on they’ll integrate a bit more evenly in with the other styles.
Driving license? Go to it! Sometimes still check your site, but nothing gone up for ages.

Locohama- Ha, a soapland aficionado! Welcome. Cheers on the photos.

Gassho- Thanks, and I appreciate the suggestions. To get to that detail on the past is probably possible, with some research, I’m sure you’re right, I just think it would be probably more effort than it was worth to fetch it. I try where I can to get info from the net, or even security people or neighbours at the locations themselves, but to get beyond that, local libraries, newspapers, I think would require many hours of effort. That said I would like to gather some ghost stories set in haikyo, would be an interesting read.

By: gassho

gassho — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:10:33 +0000

Often really enjoy your haikyo experiences! Towards the idea that they may end up in bookform at some point, what I often would like to know more about is that actual site and it’s history. You cover the actual experiencing of the haikyo so beautifully… and yet I’m often left with a wish for more concrete details of the location (ie, link to google maps, etc) and actual historical detail (ie, dates, people)… surely some of it would be discoverable. Best of luck with finding a publisher… I think Kodansha would be a good fit.

By: Locohama

Locohama — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:07:13 +0000

Wow, would have loved to have gone there in its heyday. soaplands are great! Oh well. Great pics! Especially the queen of (I think) diamonds.
Keep up the great work!

By: thejapaneseeye

thejapaneseeye — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:26:49 +0000

as with the comment above it is interesting to see where you are aiming for your work and hopefully that you can eventually get something in print. Most of the books I have seen on this subject fall in the photography category and some text, most of which relates to history and I wonder how much interest this may have to non-Japanese readers. As I read over your article, I thought about who worked there and wondered whether this be more of a selling point for haikyo, a kind of voices of the past ( i remember reading a japanese site with an interview of a worker from Nichistu) – although I guess the logistics of this maybe tough!

Your photos have got much better since the first visit, although you seem to be doing a bit too much of the HDR and wide angles a little bit (the stairs from the top HDR is excellent). What ever happened to your natural light shots (?).

Will have my license from next week so hopefully should have some posts up soon!!

By: David Meyer

David Meyer — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:34:11 +0000

A sad place, indeed. But I think that enhances the haikyo experience. Are there any happy haikyo?

I appreciate this article for the insight it gives into what you are trying to do with your hobby and this site, Mike.

The link to your earlier article is missing in the paragraph below the photo “Ladies with crude graffiti”.