There’s been a lot of haikyoing action happening round the Kanto plain recently, with some new faces (to me) and new info on old locations- here’s the round-up:
Tokyo Times– Lee’s been busy since I last updated here, going to the Underground Vault I found at Yamanakako lake and solving its mystery with the revelation that it was a Sanyo Securities hide-away. He managed to identify one of the vault symbols in the banner of a Sanyo magazine left lying around- keen eyes! Though I think he told me it wasn’t actually him that spotted it. Very honest! After that, he went to a recently abandoned Love Hotel- still hoping to hear the location of it from him 🙂 (Lee….?)
Swifty– A chap called Edmund Yeo headed with some of his friends out to see the Hotel Royale and Sun Hills Car Park (these links to my posts). They reported, as others have recently, that the Hotel Royale is impossible to get access to. Sun Hills was fine though. He added some details on about Sun Hills, which either he Googled (more skilled than me) or read about it in a haikyo book I don’t have:
“[Sun Hills is] a ‘cursed’ hotel that was recently demolished. Its tale was a sad and tragic one. A hotel guest set the place on fire to kill himself and took down parts of the hotel. The owners, debt-ridden, and desperate by the damage caused, hung themselves in the hotel as well.”
Dark. I hadn’t known that when we were there. Edmund is also a short film director with some success- kudos.
Cousin Macho– Tom sent me the email that let me know about Swifty above, and also his own exploration of the Toyo Bowl in Kanagawa recently. He’s got his photos on Flickr.
Misuterareta– This was the first haikyo trip I went on with someone I didn’t really know. Paul and I hooked up over the net, and he suggested a shared haikyo. It was great cos he brought a location to the table I knew nothing of, and likewise did I. We had a good time chatting about the hobby on the long drive into Chiba- but you can read all about that on my post. Together we hit up the Namegawa Island Theme Park, I can’t even remember who tipped me off to it, and to the Yui Grand Love Hotel that Paul’s family tipped him off to.