I first picked up this book when I was a kid. I read probably only a few pages, then put it down again, thinking it was boring. I recently picked up the whole series of 4 books at the Blue Parrot (2nd hand book store) and decided to give them a second chance.
It`s the origin story of Ged, a Gontish kid who will (in later books) become an awesome wizard. He has issues with power and his peers- always wanting to be the best and most respected amongst them. That character flaw (uh, arrogance) leads him into a very difficult situation when his showing-off releases a Gebbeth demon from the other side, which will stalk him until it can suck out his marrow and take over his body like a zombie. If Ged wants to escape it`s clutches alive, he`s going to have to seriously man up.
On Maya mountain in central Japan there’s an old hotel famous in the haikyo scene for one particular setting- a silent corner room with floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s a desk and chair, the walls are brown and peeling, and the windows let in delicious warm light through the overgrown mountain forest outside. Photos of it can be found in many haikyo books and magazines.
Of course I wanted to get that photograph. Any completionist haikyoist in Japan needs it to round out his/her collection. So I went to get it:
3 shot HDR bracket with d90 and Tokina 11-16mm, with selective colorization in Photoshop.
2 weeks ago I was in Kansai for haikyo. I met up with Florian of the abandonedkansai blog and together we did a night explore of Nara Dreamland. It was awesome, and as you can imagine I was pretty tired after walking round the park all night. Anyone who goes clubbing and dances the night away will know what it’s like to have your energy levels crash afterwards. The best thing is to crawl into your bed and sleep.
I did crawl into a ride at Nara Dreamland for a 20 minute nap while Florian paced endlessly around. After that we were rushing about to shoot by dawn. Then we were out, both starving and thirsty, and headed for the train station. I was feeling totally haikyo-ed out and just wanted to go home. I’d scheduled myself for a night bus home, which was crazy- leaving Kobe at 10pm and getting into Tokyo at 8am. I had classes that day starting at 10am and going through to 9pm. I couldn’t face it, so I began to flip-flop, and think about foreshortening my trip and just heading home there and then.
“Is Maya really worth it?” I asked Florian, sincerely hoping he would say no and give me an out.
But he didn’t. He insisted it was worth it, that I had come this far, I should go just a bit further and I’d reap the benefit.
Well, phew, he was right. I managed to change my bus tickets to a shinkansen leaving at 6pm for not too much more expense, and already began to feel better. Little did I know the ordeals I’d yet have to face.
Selective coloring and crazy angle. Most shots in this set have a window in them.
So to the ordeals. Florian gave me the lay of the land. Go to the rope-way, climb over two dams, climb up a very steep trail, and you’ll be there. Don’t take the rope-way because it overlooks the Maya hotel and the guards will see you if you try to hop the fence. The hike will take about an hour going up.
OK, that sounds pretty easy. But I managed to stuff it up not once, not twice, but three times before I finally made it.
I got into Kobe around 9. I walked towards the ropeway for about 30 minutes. I found what I thought was the dam, and climbed over it. In this case I had to actually climb over it, but since Florian said it wasn’t easy, I thought I was on the right track. There was no trail but I kept on climbing up a dry and overgrown riverbed anyway. There was another damn, with a knotted rope hanging down over it, which I shimmied up. Harder than I expected with a pack on my back. Then I was at the back-end of a high-school grounds.
Hmm. I began to think I must be going the wrong way, but decided to just bull through. I walked round the side of the grounds and scrambled up another cliffy hill. At the top I finally found a path. Yahoo! I walked it for 20 minutes, only to discover it went in a loop around the school and led me nowhere. Ouch. I found the road going back down and set off to find another dam to climb. I’d already used up about 90 minutes of scrabbling and hiking energy, and was feeling beat.
The second attempt was more minor, but likewise strenuous. I found another dam, much taller, but could see no trail heading up. AgainI thought this was the hard bit that Florian had described, so looked for a way to climb it. It was next to a graveyard, where lots of Japanese folks were milling because it was a national day for visiting dead relatives (or something close to that). I walked to the edge of the graveyard and scrambled up a bit of scrappy ground, ignoring the eyes on my, and managed to heave myself over the dam.
Well, it was the right dam, and there was a trail leading up the mountain, but by taking that route up the dam I never saw the actual trail I should have taken. So instead of taking the fairly short hike up to the Maya hotel, I took a nearly two hour hike up the wrong mountain. About halfway up I began to have real respect for Florian and Mike who had come here before me. They called this a one hour hike?
By the top I was totally exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and my legs were shaking. So I had some sandwiches, a pineapple soft cream, and continued on.
It was another 30 minutes walking to cross to the peak of the correct mountain; Maya. From there I took the cable-car down halfway and sighted Maya.
Through the rope-way gondola, the Maya with Kobe behind.
Maya’s rooftop, looking down from the cable-car station. The hole in the red roof was made by a huge tire which, for a while was embedded there. Now it’s fallen through. What the heck would a tire be doing out there? I read (on Gakuranman’s blog) that it fell from a B-39 plane. Very cool.
There were ropeway workers everywhere though. I began to wonder if I would have to go all the way down and start over. Instead I took my heart in my mouth and ducked out through a bush, went down a scree slope, circumvented the ropeway station, and clambered up another scree slope, to be greeted by success, the Maya hotel!
Phew.
I was shattered, but feeling good. I had had a real adventure, going totally off the reservation, but finding my own unique way to the place. That’s one of the best things about haikyo adventure- one that I’ve often felt going by car simply bypasses. Making your way there is a huge part of it, even if half the time you were going the wrong way (see the Izu Small Pox Isolation Ward for another excellent misadventure).
So, I unpacked my camera and took my shots.
Minus the HDR.
Plastic chair, still classy in this setting.
I feel these windows are like a cinema screen, and we’re the audience.
Bridge heading up to the rope-way.
I wandered around in a fog of sweat and mosquitoes, at times popping my head out to peer up at the roof. I didn’t head up though, not wanting to be spotted from the rope-way.
Avenue along the big hall.
This red couch is also a popular shot, sitting in the big hall. It’s very out of place. A model photographer must have had a group of friends help him haul it up here. Or perhaps it was for a TV show?
Every window is overgrown. This is the mini onsen on the ground floor.
Reception desk.
One exterior shot, taken with the body of the hotel sheltering me from the rope-way above.
Phew, and that’s it. I feel exhausted just to recount the story. And now, where next? I don’t know, it seems I’ve covered all the haikyo I wanted to, except of course for Gunkanjima, and perhaps some mines in Hokkaido and some crazy hotel on Okinawa. Hopefully some more ruins will pop up their heads while I work on getting out to those most far-flung of places.
This week I went to the Tokyo Writer’s Workshop for the first time in years. I took with me 8 pages of the first Dawn book, plus its cover letter to agents, hoping to get advice on how to make both more eye-catching and intriguing. The feedback I got was incredibly valuable, and pretty darn surprising. In short, they really liked the 8 pages of actual story, but strongly disliked the cover letter.
That’s a big problem, because the cover letter is what agents and publishers see first. In some cases it may be the only thing they see. They may only read the first few lines of it. They may briefly skim it. If nothing hooks them, or if anything in fact turns them off, they toss the accompanying manuscript away unread.
Nara Dreamland is the epitome of many haikyo dreams; an abandoned theme park with all its roller-coasters and rides still standing. I’ve heard many stories of haikyoists arriving only to be either deterred by the cameras, sensors, alarms and fines, or actually physically expelled by the furious security guard. For my visit I decided to bypass those risks altogether, and entered by night.
Orion (you can see the 3 stars of his belt) behind the Dreamland castle. Buy prints here.
Nara Dreamland opened in 1961, inspired by Disneyland in California. For 45 years its central fantasy castle, massive wooden rollercoaster Aska, and corkscrewing Screwcoaster pulled in the big crowds. By then though it was outdated, and dying a slow death as Universal Studios Japan (built 2001) in nearby Osaka sucked all the oxygen out of the business. It closed its doors permanently in 2006.
Shooting north towards the moon (off to the right), with this side of the castle in moon-shadow.
I’ve wanted to go to a standing abandoned theme park since I started haikyoing. I tried site after site, only to be disappointed at each. One was in the process of demolition (Kappa Pia), one had only concrete slabs where the rides had once been (Namegawa Island), one was wiped off the map completely (Gulliver`s Kingdom).
Shooting south, with the moon at my back-left and lighting this side of the castle.
Then there was Nara Dreamland, which had lots of strikes against it; it was only recently abandoned so would have little decay, it had heavy security, and it was far away. So I put it on the back burner, thinking I`d get to it in time.
Well, that time arrived. I had the weekend, I had a fellow haikyoist who knew the park’s layout well and had himself been expelled by security once (Florian of Abandoned Kansai), and I had the inclination, so we set it up.
The castle is at the center, with the Screwcoaster to its left and the wooden ride Aska at bottom right.
I arrived in Nara by Shinkansen a little after midnight. The streets were quiet and calm as we walked the 30 minutes to the Dreamland site. Both of us were pretty excited. There was always the possibility that the security guard might do night sweeps. There was still the threat of fines, motion sensors, alarms.
Access was easy. I changed into my ninja outfit (black jeans and black shirt), and we were in.
Googlemaps of Dreamland. Most striking is the oval-ish central fountain.
There’s something very ethereal about an empty theme park by moonlight. It’s not something you’re ever likely to see for yourself, and it`s very difficult to capture in photographs. There’s a stillness, an aloneness, that creeps into you. As Florian and I split up to explore separate sections of the park, I wandered in a kind of daze, drinking it in.
Of course I was reminded of my first ever night haikyo, at Sports World. There’s the excitement, the adrenaline pushing against growing exhaustion, and that unreal feeling of having briefly slipped through the cracks and found a place apart, somewhere that time forgot and left behind.
I love that feeling.
Boarded-up buildings and Orion.
Entry by night definitely made up for the general lack of overgrowth. Usually in a haikyo a large part of the appeal comes from the untouched nature of an all-new enivronment. It`s exploring, in this case the world built by nature in the places we once owned.
With Dreamland there wasn’t so much of that, as 4 years is not a long time for nature to run rampant. But going in by night made it a foreign land. That, combined with unlimited access to the rides, rails, and behind the scenes places, made this a stellar explore.
Screw Coaster and the Pole Star(?)
We wandered around for hours, occasionally pausing to snap long-exposure shots of the stars, rides, and castle. I climbed up Aska (the huge wooden coaster) a little, dropped my flashlight as I went over the fence, and spent 10 minutes scrabbling amongst the brambles to find it. Occasionally I`d see a flashlight go by and wonder if it was Florian or a security guard.
Shooting within the wooden coaster Aska. The stars are blurry because they`re moving through my long-exposure time window.
By around 5am I was pretty shattered, so curled up in the bucket seat of a kids ride and napped for about 30 minutes. When I woke up everything was blue, and the sun was coming up.
This is where I napped.It wasn`t very comfortable.
I`ve rarely been awake for many dawn-rises in my life, so just took people`s word for it when they said `dawn is the best time for photography`. It certainly wasn`t true of the first 30 minutes of dawn at Dreamland. For all that time, as we rushed around feeling knackered and worried about the security guard, the light was blue and cold and really unpleasant. After that 30 minutes though it began to warm up, and I got some nice sunrise shots through the rides.
Some weeds are beginning to sprout through the tarmac. Give it 10-20 years and it`ll be gorgeous.
Screwcoaster`s double corkscrew and the sun.
Screwcoaster cross-over.
Towards the entrance and the the sunrise.
Main street sunrise.
After that it was a question of re-exploring the areas we’d already seen by night. I walked around the front area and took in the train station entrance (for delivering people from the far car park).
Train Station with 1961 branding.
Train Station in blue-ish color.
Main entrance to the Main Street. Black and white because it was too blue-ish to rescue.
I walked the wooden coaster Aska to its highest peak and looked down on the park.
Aska resting silent. I wonder if this huge tarmac space before it would have had tents and stalls. Otherwise it would have surely seemed quite empty then too.
Within Aska.
Aska swerves.
Shooting up.
Ride, and Matterhorn-like mountain off in the park.
Florian taking shots of Aska.
Apparently this ride was awesome when alive, and got great air. I thought about climbing down, but it was really too steep.
The most overgrowth anywhere in the park. I lost my flashlight for 10 minutes in all that foliage at night.
Say cheese.
I was on top of the big one.
I went into the GALLANTRY shooting gallery, which was quite pathetic inside. In the dark I suppose its crapness would be less obvious.
GALLANTRY shooting gallery. It looks awesome, right?
Hmm. Surely better in the dark.
Awesome!
I saw the Jungle river Cruise and its sinking boats. I wish I could have gotten over to them, but the bridges were all down.
Jungle Cruise.
Lilting.
I checked out the water park, which looked pretty much as it would have 4 years ago when still open. Most interesting was the clock that told the correct time. I guess the park still has power.
6:15
I investigated the cable-car ride through the Matterhorn-like mountain. Some good shots of heavy machinery.
Mountain. A coaster ride goes round the outside, while the cable-car goes through.
Ah, some good overgrowth here too.
Love this color. Is it rust? Could it have rusted so quickly?
Shooting towards the mountain.
Waiting cable-cars.
Most of the buildings and indoor rides were sealed up. I could have broken in, but there was no point- I could see through the windows of most, and it was obvious they were only empty shells. I meandered through the park a final time picking up any extra shots that stood out.
Fantasy castle by day.
Beautiful sky.
And, this is Napoleon. There wasn`t any obvious reason why he should be there. He was opposite Abraham Lincoln.
Merry-go-round.
Horse-head triptych.
Please keep arms, legs, and head within the car at all times.
Around 7am-ish I headed out, to wait for Florian who was still stalking around shooting like crazy.
Some Dreamland walkthrough video:
After this I headed over to Kobe to hike up a mountain and shoot the famous ruined Maya Hotel. I`ll post the convoluted story of how I over-hiked by about 3 hours (on 30mins sleep) next time.
I’ve also since added a Dreamland: Heyday article, featuring photos from visitors to Dreamland from across its 45 year lifespan. If you’d like to see the place only a few years after it was opened in 1961, take a look.
Hanultari was our second abandoned resort on the Korean island of Jeju. We saw it while cruising to Ilchulbong volcano crater in a taxi, barely peeking through the mist. After climbing up the crater, which was completely covered in mist and thus invisible to us, we got our driver to take us back to the ruin. He stood by his taxi and watched (probably a bit bemused) as we clambered the hotel`s half-built skeleton and took photos of each other posing.
Unfortunately, the mist and my old Powershot camera combined to make most of the pictures pretty awful. Here`s a few I can stomach to show you.
Thick mist, and lots of contrast added to try to bring some of the detail out of the soup.
Recently I’ve been looking to borrow quotes. None of the sources are from authors still living, indeed most of the people I’m looking to borrow from have been dead for hundreds if not thousands of years. They include passages from the Book of Revelations (up there with Ecclesiastes as my favorite Bible book), quotes from ancient translated Indian caste law, quotes on Medieval law from various British kings, quotes on social ills by Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero, etc…
I just wrote the final scene for the first part of the first Dawn book, and I’m feeling euphoric. I want everybody to read it right now and be moved! It may only be redraft, but its a complete redraft, a ground-up re-write that I’m feeling very good about. It follows the principles I talked about in Writing Blog #1 The Dungeon Master’s Screen- all of the stuff that before had been potential on the page; back-story and summary, is now written large and dramatic, with acres of conflict, emotion, and irreversible change.
The rest of this (short) post will be me talking about that.
No, not the game. This particular Monkey Island (‘Sarushima’ in Japanese) is located off the coast of Yokosuka near the mouth of Tokyo Bay, and during World War II served as an artillery battery and first point of defense of the Japanese homeland. After the war the anti-aircraft guns were removed, a ferry service began, the beach was opened to tourists, and walking trails were prepared around the various defensive bunkers carved into the rock. Now it’s a great spot for a BBQ and some sun-bathing.
Long walkway troughs cut through the jungle and rock.
I`m a fan of convoluted narrative styles. I like stories that are chopped up and remixed, especially those chopped and remixed on the basis of character. LOST did this over 6 seasons, Magnolia did it in a 3-hour movie, Orson Scott Card did it between Ender`s Game and Ender`s shadow, David Gemmell did it across fantasy eras.
The effect is always epic. We begin to see the threads that make up not just one person`s life, but the whole tapestry. We glimpse the arc of the world of these characters, and while we`re with them we get to see the whole in a way we never can in life.
Camp Drake was a joint US Army/Air Force base in Saitama, active until the 1970`s. It contained a hospital which handled troops coming out of Vietnam and also a communications array. Now about half of it remains, an overgrown jungle with only a few remaining buildings set back behind several layers of fencing. The other half has been eaten up by parks and a junior high school.
I first picked up this book when I was a kid. I read probably only a few pages, then put it down again, thinking it was boring. I recently picked up the whole series of 4 books at the Blue Parrot (2nd hand book store) and decided to give them a second chance.
