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.
Ruins of Tama Lake 4. Black and White
The Ruins on Tama Lake changed little since the last time I came to visit. Perhaps the wooden huts of the Red Blossom restaurant have canted a little further towards collapse, and the walls of the Akasaka love hotel were holed and splintered a little more. A new fence has gone up, with warnings of CCTV cameras watching 24/7. Wires dangle from the mock cameras, now only effective as scarecrows to the masses.
Red Blossom huts slide down the hillside in slow motion.
Hotel Queen Haikyo
The Hotel Queen is another abandoned love hotel on the banks of Lake Tama. I first saw it the first time I went out there to shoot the Akasaka and the Red Blossom about 2 years ago. At the time it looked semi-abandoned, with a chain roping it off. I tentatively strode over the chain only to be blasted by a motion sensor alarm. I froze like a deer in the headlights, saw a nearby open door, shoes on the ground beside it, and decided not to push my luck any further. I cycled off, heading for the real meat.
Little dude models for us in the complex office.
Remnants of the US Air Force Base in Tachikawa, Japan
The abandoned US Air Force (USAF) base in Tachikawa is a bramble-choked memento from the early days of Japanese/American war and peace. It was annexed by the USA shortly after World War II, in co-operation with the still-active nearby Japan Army (SDF) Base, then abandoned in the 1970`s as the Vietnam war came to a close. Its three huge chimneys are still visible from the exterior, brick-red and lined up like masts on a rudderless ship, slowly sinking deeper into the smothering sea of green jungle. Its airstrip now swims with weeds, and bamboo forests have grown through the foundations where buildings once stood, patrolled by old men on bicycles keeping a watchful eye on the 10-foot perimeter fence.
Storage bunker, one of the few remaining structures on base.
Ruins of Tama Lake 3. Overgrown Toyota
The last time I went to the Akasaka Love Hotel on Lake Tama was November 2008. Winter was just setting in and had not yet sloughed away the summer`s ripe vegetation, meaning that this gorgeous neglected Toyota was mostly buried in foliage.
I took a few shots of it scraggled with greenery but they didn`t stand out. Now winter reveals its pale bones, most of them broken backwards and jiggling loosely on rusted hinges.
A Toyota.
The lonesome haikyo bridge at the heart of Tokyo Bay
Months ago now I ventured out on a slow work day to meet fellow haikyoist and photographer Adrian Tan. He had the low-down on a haikyo in central Tokyo, something fairly unusual to stumble across, and rarely worth going to once you do- as city center ruins are all very much alike, and very much alarmed and guarded. Standouts like the New Sky Biru (also a tip-off from Adrian!) are the exception rather than the rule. But when he suggested going to shoot a haikyo bridge, my curiosity was definitely piqued.
Haikyo bridge, Toyosu. Not HDR.
Recent Comments
- Cool list Michael. I really like the bac...
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on Ruin of a Japanese WWII Shipyard
Extraordinary photos. Thank you. - Michael LuwishWell, I'm impressed. I came for the ruin...
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