Kyushu’s dying theme park- Ceramic Land
During Japan’s real estate Bubble in the 1980′s, theme parks were the investment to make. They couldn’t fail. Sink millions into expensive construction, land, and man-power, and ride the surging economy to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. All those decades of post-war militaristic industrialism had finally paid off, and people were finally taking more leisure time and traveling further afield to enjoy it- you couldn’t go wrong with a theme park.
Except of course, you could. The Bubble burst like an over-ripe peach and all the wacky ideas that before had seemed so bright- The Russian Village, Gulliver`s Kingdom, Sports World, now were black spots on the company ledger that had to be redacted from public view.
Glorious pylons in back echo the building`s form.
The hotel one man dug out of solid rock #2 interior
Takahashi Minekichi was a rural Japanese strawberry farmer with a vision. For 21 years he carved the beginnings of a grand hotel into the solid rock wall of a cliff face on his land, digging out the contours only he could see. He did it all alone, using only a chisel, until the day he died in 1925.
It was never completed, and no rooms beyond the lobby and kitchen/shrine were ever dug. No-one ever stayed there, but still it remains to this day, thoroughly fenced off and out of bounds.
Inside the Gan Kutsu cliff face hotel, grand staircase.
Baba’s abandoned curiosity shop
The old curiosity shop in Takadanobaba has been a mystery to me for a long time. I first spotted it passively years ago, before I lived near here, most likely on a trip to the Blue Parrot second-hand book store. It’s built in red-brick, or at least the facade is, and instantly stands out when surrounded by a street lined with featureless plaster-cement buildings.
It is obviously no longer in use, with papered -up windows, an overgrown window-box, and vines creeping down the sheet metal siding. Peeking inside through the veiled glass doors reveals dim shapes, one that looks like a spinning wheel, another a large statue. What was it, and when was it alive?
The Old Curiosity Shop of Takadanobaba.
The abandoned resort of Saurabol on Jeju island
Jeju island at the southern tip of South Korea is (apparently) famous for three things- wind, rocks, and beautiful women. I didn’t see many of the latter, but can attest to both of the former, plus a fourth- haikyo resort hotels. Without really going out of our way on a recent holiday there, SY and I stumbled across four abandoned resorts, two of them pretty grand. All of them had been deserted mid-way through construction, leaving only the bones of their underlying structure.
The Saurabol central entrance.
15 Abandoned Haikyo Phones
Even the seasoned haikyoist is wary of haikyo phones- they are one of the myriad unseen dangers of haikyo. Alongside other well-known hazards such as poisonous mushrooms (don`t eat them!), yakuza packing hand-guns (don`t antagonize them!), and saprophytic organisms clouding parasitcally around dead bodies (don`t disturb them!), abandoned phones have the power to kill. They are Frankenstein`s monsters that can rumble to life (dialling tones!) at the most unexpected of times. Imagine walking into a morgue, starting an autopsy on a cadaver, then having that body leap up and start strangling you. *shudders*
A dead phone should stay dead.
1 – My first effort at selective colorizing.
Haikyo Deflation Spiral
If you`re into haikyo, you`ll probably already know about Haikyo Deflation Spiral. If you don`t, let me introduce you. It`s one of the top sites on the web for Japanese ruins. Compared to all the other Japan ruins sites (twodogs, ruins-site, etc..) it`s very easy to navigate, with very simple posts for each location visited. The site runner is Hiroyuki Tsuzuki , he`s a visual arts designer around the same age as me- 30. I don`t think he has a book out, but since he`s stopped updating his website I guess he`s working on material for one. He also has a monthly column in Metropolis, one of Tokyo`s free English language magazines.
A cool hotel, another cool hotel, and Gunkanjima.
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