The underground vault the cult forgot

April 24, 2009 · Posted in Haikyo, Vaults, Yamanashi · 19 Comments 

The underground vault haikyo in Yamanashi is one of the strangest abandoned structures I’ve yet explored. A double-doored double-walled walk-in safe with triple combination locks buried in a man-made mound in an unpopulated and obscure part of the Japanese countryside. Now its thick and weighty doors hang open and loose, and there’s nothing in the vault but for 5 odd logo/symbols on the wall, and no other clue as to its purpose but for the dedication in kanji on top of the dome- ‘in memory of our ancestors’.

underground-vault-7002

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The apocalypse seed vault on Svalbard island

March 16, 2009 · Posted in Ruins, Svalbard, Vaults · 24 Comments 

The Global Seed Vault on Svalbard archipelago way up near the icy North Pole is not in Japan, nor have I ever been there. It is however a very cool post-apocalypse place, an insurance policy for the Earth and human-kind in the event of rampant global disease or massive nuclear fallout, and as such belongs on a site mostly about ruins as much as anything.

The entrance.

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Kaze no To and Umi Hotaru, Tokyo Bay

February 3, 2009 · Posted in Haikyo, Tokyo-to, Vaults · 15 Comments 

From the 25th floor lobby of the Dentsu HQ in Shiodome there’s an awesome view across Tokyo Bay, taking in Hamarikyu gardens, Odaiba, the Rainbow Bridge, and in the distance, fogged by pollution and heat distortion- a weird-looking dome-shaped structure out in the middle of nowhere.

tokyo-bay1

Weird dome, at 200mm zoom from the edge of Odaiba.

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