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Throughout Japan’s long history there have been many ups and downs. All across the country are various cities, mega-projects, or attractions that have been abandoned to the wilds. One site meow.fr has tried to document these decaying wastelands.
Gunkanjima, Hashima Island
Gunkanjima, Hashima Island is located near Nagasaki. A coal island on top of a mine a few kilometers from Nagasaki, it was actually damaged in the Atomic Bomb blast. When the mine was operational thousands of people lived on the island in tightly packed apartment buildings in one of the densest population centers in Japan.
Long since left to rot, the island is actually forbidden to enter but of course “where there is a will there is a way” and here are some pictures by some people who snuck onto the island.
Nara Dreamland (奈良ドリームランド)
In 1961 Disneyland opened a theme park, Nara Dreamland, near Nara Japan. It survived almost four decades before shutting its doors in 2006. Meow.fr broke in and took some images that were later HEAVILY colorized.
Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine
The Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine has a history of 1300 years penetrating the hallowed depths of the netherworld. Closed in 1978 it is probably your one stop for all cancer needs but that didn’t stop some crazy kids from breaking in and taking some pics.
Osarizawa Mine was discovered in 708. Mitsubishi managed it from 1889.It produced 4.4tons of gold,155tons of silver and 300,000 tons of copper until its closure in 1978.Now a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation opens for public for sightseeing.
Gamer vs Ruin Porn
Meow.fr also has another site called haikyo.org (Japanese for ruins) that has some AMAZING pictures of more decay and some great interviews with other ruin navigators!
If you like this try these:
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| Japanese Donut Heads | Cute vs Sexy | The best Star Wars behind the scenes yet | Making Friends in Japan | The architectural greatness of Watanabe-San |
Gaijinass 
Interesting.
It reminds me, a bit, of “Batemans” post “Haunted Tokyo“.
This would be a worth while, and visually aggressive thing to spend time posting on. Would also make a pretty badass camping expedition.
That site has some great stuff on it.
There is an old abandoned island out this way called Okunoshima I think. It used to have a factory there which made mustard gas and other chemicals in the war. Some of it is open for access though and I think it may even have a small museum too. It is also infested with a large rabbit population.
Bit of a tangent, but I watched an interesting doco on the Vice website about Detroit and the abandoned buildings there, there were some great buildings out there too, including the old central railway station, which you could tell had a really lonely vibe about the place, even from the video. I don’t know why people abandoned the trusty railways, it was like they were advancing civilisation one sleeper at a time, all to be abandoned for asphalt.
There are tons of old abandoned houses in the countryside near here, a friend of a friend is the owner of one, which is a great big old house with the metal top on the roof and everything. Hasn’t been lived in for over 20 years and pretty derelict, but you can tell it was a nice place. Has those massive awesome planks of wood which are basically a shaped tree, which are good for years, but the rest is trashed. Used to have an old dentist surgery on the side too, but all the equipment was moved when they moved out. Was thinking about buying and fixing it, but it would cost about 100 to 200 grand to get it back to its original condition. I need a better paying job. It is right on the side of a mountain with a small farm and the neighbour’s place has been consumed by trees. I could fulfill my hermit dream quite easily there, living off the odd translation job and the yuzu and kaki trees in the yard. Would be better than hearing my neighbour coughing and sneezing of a night time though.
I’m all about older properties. But they have to be legitimately old. Really built to last.
When I was a kid I grew up on Military bases, and if you go looking, with no fear of arrest etc, there are some really bizarre areas to be found.
Pretty sure I’ve seen that VICE documentary too. I don’t know if it was VICE but I’m in love with the term I first heard from them, Ruin Porn. I can’t find the video now but here is a VICE article talking about how there is a whole industry of people going to Detroit to photograph the urban decay while totally omitting that there are new buildings and building projects going on too.
Hmmm still can’t find that video maybe I’m mixing it up with this Johnny Knoxville docu?
You’re right it’s the island where they made the poison gas in WWII is called Ōkunoshima (大久野島)
That full pic of the dilapidated wooden coaster is awesome…like should be a bg image in a game world…awesome.
That said…
It just dawned on me that bombing it with napalm would create a spectacular bonfire….but I digress 😉
Ahh pallet fires. Brings me back to my youth.
Thanks a lot for the mention to my website. No mention of Matsuo Mine though? It’s one of my favorite place. Also, please don’t miss the website http://www.haikyo.org, I put all my explorations there (and keep the best ones for meow.fr). Thanks again mate 🙂
No problem! Did you do the photos for Ikumi too? Those kick ass. Might have to put them into this post!
Which photos for Ikumi? I took a few pictures of her, but they’re not online, except that one, with the pig skeleton 🙂
Very CYBORG. Just sayin’….bet Ikumi can’t do this.
Great yet another site to be addicted too… Damn it Yos. Frikin cool. Wonder what it would take to be able to film movies in these places? A lot of old abandoned hospitals get used for movies. Cyborg…I love that movie…Never saw the sequel. For some reason this post makes me think of the abandoned house that was on the block when I was a kid and still living in the city. The floor had caved into the basement.
They used an abandoned building in the woods for most of “The last enkai party: banquet of the beasts” that low budget movie has some great perts.
parts… not perts…dont drink and type, or is it drink more then type?
This post has forced me to download Cyborg. Damn you all.