Asylum Haikyo Article

Mike GristHaikyo, Haikyo in the Media 7 Comments

The US men`s magazine Asylum is currently running an article introducing haikyo to their readers, written by me. It’s a top 10 of all the best `ghost towns` in Japan, and is the first of what could be several articles on Japan`s ruins on that site.

Asylum is a popular online magazine catering to culture-savvy young men. They generally run articles about weird stuff and hot laydeez. Apparently they surpass Playboy.com, Maxim.com and many others, with 31 million page-views by around 2 million readers per month. Wow.

This article has been in the pipeline for about 4 months, waiting for its air date. I`m excited its finally live, and want to welcome anyone coming from there to check out this site.

It`s easy enough to navigate- all the ruins can be found in the ruins galleries. If you`re interested in my fiction, it`s in the library. If you like what you find, why not subscribe by RSS or email for updates in the future? Thanks.

Comments 7

  1. So did you get any money from this one Mike? And did they seek you out, or did you go to them with the idea?

    I was confused as to whether Asylum is only an online thing, or is there an actual magazine? Did you get a copy/copies?

    Was surprised to hear that they surpass both Maxim and Playboy. Are you sure about that? Hard to believe as I’ve never even heard of Asylum before but Maxim and Playboy are practically household names. Maybe they’re new?

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  3. Hi Michael,

    I found your blog from the Asylum article and I just wanted to thank you for those incredible photos and descriptions of the Japanese ghost towns. I actually wrote about Gunkanjima, the “Battleship Island”, ghost town way back in ’04 when I stumbled upon some photos of it: http://wing70301.xanga.com/94442730/item/

    I absolutely love Japan and had stayed there for six months last year. I’m hoping to move back, but I will definitely use your site as a guide to some amazing out-of-the-ordinary sightseeing.

    I had one burning question as I was reading your post. How safe is it to travel to one of these places by yourself? Looking at the pictures reminded me of post-apocalyptic ruins overrun by bandits and crazy people that will gut you for your money. Are my assumptions correct? Have often have you come across people in these abandoned towns?

    Thanks again for sharing this amazing article. I’ll definitely be crawling through the rest of your blog to find out more! Great work!

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    David- Thanks a lot!

    MMDF- I`m so glad you like the site, hearing comments like this make it all doubly worthwhile, thanks. As to the question of safety, well, I think haikyo are safer than ruins in many other countries. Only one or two I know of are/were populated by homeless or gangs. The biggest dangers are those intrinsic to the places themselves- the fact they`re falling apart. Also getting caught by police or security could be a problem, though not one I`ve had any ill effects from yet.

    Locohama- Thanks! Here`s hoping 🙂

  5. Thanks Michael for the article and photos, especially of the Keishin hospital. Noticed you have videos of some of the other ghost towns — do you have any of the hospital?

    Would you know of any tourist-friendly haikyo guided tours?

    Discovered your blog from the Asylum article and really enjoying your stories so far. (fyi: every page seems to skip to the comments section when browsing with Google Chrome. Firefox seems fine).

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