Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Kochi Shipyard

2026/08/12 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Almost 15 years passed between my first abandoned shipyard in Japan and the second one. That’s a really long time, considering that Japan is an island nation with a huge shipbuilding industry! And those places couldn’t have been more different…

My first solo trip to Kyushu is one I have very fond memories of as it included an exploration of the *Kawaminami Shipyard* as well as a day trip to *Ikeshima*, virtually unknown back then. Now the management of every overseas urbex tourist is sending their “L@@K what I found BY CHANCE” clients there as it is one of the low hanging fruits; you know, like *Kinugawa Onsen* and *Kejonuma Leisure Land* (those photos are from 2014, a few years before it became a tourist attraction…) The Kawaminami Shipyard was a really interesting exploration, despite being one of the more touristy urbex spots of its time. Mainly because it was used to build kaiten during World War 2 – basically the underwater version of kamikaze bombers; one-man suicide torpedoes.

No such reports about the Kochi Shipyard, which dates back to the year 1900. Commercial shipbuilding and repair only. And while the Kawaminami Shipyard went bankrupt for good in 1955, the Kochi Shipyard stopped all activities in spring of 1961 – only to be re-founded in summer of 1961 after being restructured by a company from Kobe. 25 years later, in September 1986, the shipyard closed for good. After about 20 years of decay the staff accommodations were demolished in 2013, followed by most of the factory site in 2018. In spring of 2024 yours truly showed up finally have a look; fashionably later, but better than never…
At first sight, the Kochi Shipyard looked like a dystopian nightmare. The former administrative building was 110 meters long, four storeys high (plus signage on the roof!), and just massive; like an outbuilding of the Ministry of Love from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Including some smaller building attached, the whole thing stretched to about 200 meters in total with only a few access points, all featuring the usual “Do not enter!” signs. Not to mention the concrete wall and the included massive metal floodgates. Part of me was really excited about the look of the place, part of me was devastated that it turned out to be an impregnable fortress.
10 minutes before my bus was scheduled to leave, I decided to have a quick look at the waterfront and maybe get a quick shot of the back of the building, despite the large fence. Towards the end of it, the road leading there was elevated to get over another one of those concrete walls with floodgates… and there it was: A hole in the fence, below street level and therefore out of sight of the main road. All the time I spent on the outskirts of the shipyard, being frustrated that there was no way in – and there it was, the way in! There also was a bit of activity on some of the boats, including a small yacht, so I was hesitant at first, but… it had been a really long time since I’ve explored an abandoned shipyard – and who knows if I would ever get an opportunity again, so I squeezed myself through the hole and past the thorny scrubs.
First I took a few quick shots of the waterfront, but then I quickly went a little bit further inland, away from the boats and the road – towards the main building, which looked a lot less threatening from the back, which probably actually was the front. Unfortunately it was completely locked and untouched by both vandals and metal thieves, so I guess all the signs on the other side fulfilled their purpose. Large abandoned industrial sites like that are rare in Japan, so I progressed slowly and carefully… and finally made it to some kind of large metal workshop, loose parts squeaking in the wind – a constant reminder to be extra careful. It was a windy day, so the sky constantly changed between sunny, cloudy, and light rain. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful solo exploration. A picture says more than a thousand words, so instead of dragging this out, I’ll leave you to almost 40k words worth of photos. Please enjoy! (And check out the links at the beginning for more seafaring explorations!)

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Factory, Haikyo, Japan, Kochi, Photography, Shipyard, Travel, Urbex | 7 Comments »

Forest Playground

2026/07/22 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Most neighbourhood playgrounds / parks in Japan are a disgrace! Some compacted dirt ground, possibly a small patch of gras, with good fortune a tree or two, maybe a swing and a climbing frame – on the compacted ground, not the gras! In most of Europe they would probably be considered a health hazard and closed for good. Of course there are plenty of good ones, too, usually as part of rest stops or sightseeing spots. But the vast majority of them are shite and not even worth going to for reading a book! Once a fee is charged, they can be downright spectacular though!

The Forest Playground was part of the latter category, though I’m not sure if it was a direct or an indirect fee. I had seen the park on social media once or twice and thought it looked interesting, so whenever I randomly looked at GoogleMaps, I kept looking for what could be an abandoned outdoor playground on a forested slope. The thing is: Japan is a large country that mostly consists of forested slopes. The needle in a haystack comparison is a joke when put next to my chances of finding that playground! But… abandoned places in Japan seem to have the wonderful ability to find me, so after a few sessions on GoogleMaps a small miracle happened and I spotted what looked like a large playground on a forested slope. It was in the outskirts of a resort consisting of a hotel, a dozen holiday houses of various sizes for rent, an indoor sports center, a gateball hall, an athletic field, some tennis courts, a town hall, and three museums – all tied together by a large park. And the best of all: It was in day trip range!
The road leading up to the parking lot of the Forest Playground was blocked off by one of those accordion gates, a really low one, but there was plenty of parking in the vicinity. And most of the playground parking lot was actually covered with tree debris – looked like somebody was cleaning up the surrounding and probably stopped due to Covid. The whole thing was actually much larger than expected (since I’ve only seen a few photos of one small area), so we spent more than 3 hours exploring and documenting the place.
Next stop after the parking lot was the lower playground – a really nice, rather big playground at the bottom of the forested slope. From there were followed a nice path up to the goal of the Adventure Coaster… which wasn’t a (roller) coaster at all, but a dry toboggan run – or Sommerrodelbahn, as we say in German, a summer luge track. Right next to it: A small cable car for those too lazy to walk up the slope to the mountaintop area. Well, mountaintop… The height difference was maybe 60 meters. And we didn’t have a choice anyway, for obvious reasons. So we continued to follow the regular path, sometimes cobbled, sometimes asphalted. Next stop was the event square or rather event area, because nothing there was square – the area was actually a really nice and rather flowy brutalist outdoor… place, apparently for events, and with a nice view down into the “valley”. I love structures like that, so I very much enjoyed that part, despite the brutal humidity and rising heat of an overcast early summer / late rainy season day. Then we finally reached the mountaintop area with the start of the toboggan run, the upper cable car station, a rest house selling snacks at ridiculously low prices by today’s standards (softcream for 200 Yen, kakigori for 300 Yen, chicken pilaf for 400 Yen). Looks like the park was opened in the early 1990s and closed in 2003 – almost 20 years before I took some photos there. Well… some. I actually liked the place so much and it is that rare that I decided to publish a gallery consisting of 75 photos. By far the largest ever in Abandoned Kansai history – but history has shown that nobody cares about second parts and hardly anybody cares about revisits, so I can as well publish them all at once. Which brings us to the final part: The descent along the gigantic climbing contraption on the slope. Hardly ever was I that heartbroken to see something abandoned, because that thing was a work of art! As a kid I would have gone crazy, but even as an adult and despite its condition after 20 years without maintenance, I tremendously enjoyed the careful descent back to the entrance area.
The Forest Playground is without the shadow of a doubt one of my all-time favorite locations. Rare, unique, natural decay, great company, outdoors. It doesn’t get much better than that. Basically the *Viewpoint Playground* on steroids… but in a good way! 🙂


(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Chugoku, Haikyo, Japan, Okayama, Photography, Roadside Attraction, Travel, Urbex | 10 Comments »

Upside Down House

2026/07/15 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Let’s do a quick one this time since the last article apparently interested nobody… The number of comments has gone down significantly over the years. Blogs are a dying medium – but 0? That’s rare.
Well, whatever…
The Upside Down House, some strange structure welded onto a truck. Not sure if it was ever moved. Not with the staircase on the side, that’s for sure. The earliest StreetView is from 2013 and it was already abandoned back then. Quirky little thing. Enjoy.

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, House, Japan, Photography, Travel, Urbex | 20 Comments »

Ghibli Ryokan

2026/07/01 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

There is probably no cheaper and more desperate cry for attention than slapping the Ghibli label onto something – and yet there have only been a few abandoned places I’ve been to that deserve this label more! 🙂

It was on a cold autumn morning when I found myself deep in the mountains of Shimane after a 5 hour long drive that started in the middle of night. If you would have told me that I was the first Caucasian to ever come through this little town, I wouldn’t have been surprised. I probably also was the second one when I came back almost 10 years later. Strangely enough those are the places where I feel comfortable the most. After almost 20 years in the big city I loathe places like Tokyo and Osucka more than ever, though that feeling caught me pretty quickly after moving to Japan. Unfortunately that’s where the jobs are, especially for foreigners, so the countryside as a place to live will have to wait until retirement… For now rural Japan is for the weekends – and by God, this was as rural as it gets. I actually had no idea where I was exactly until I paid attention to road signs on the way back since a friend was driving, but I was excited to be far away from grey skyscrapers and miserable suit wearers – and a bit disappointed when my friend pointed towards the rundown ryokan behind as. Apparently this was the main attraction of the day. Really? We must have passed about half a million abandoned places in those 5 hours. Did we really have to continue through the night to this one? Well, as it turned out, yes, we really did!
One thing I learned rather early on at the *Deathtrap Hotel* was that you never ever enter an abandoned building on a higher floor – you enter as low as possible, because otherwise you never know what’s underneath your feet. Much like the Deathtrap Hotel, the Ghibli Ryokan was built onto a slope – and my friend headed straight to the top for an easy entrance away from the “main street”. Well, his decisiveness implied that he knew that he was doing – and he learned it the hard way, as I found out later while exploring the building. At first we took pictures of the upper part, but when we made our way down, he told me: “If you want to go to the kitchen there on the lower floor, don’t take the small wooden stairs – go left and then right, and take the staircase that the guests used! The wooden stairs are not good anymore…” “How do you know?” “I crashed through them when I came here first. This is my third visit.” Well, there you have it…
The building itself, despite being pretty rundown, was just awesome to explore, because it wasn’t one of those generic hotels with a main hallway and rooms to the left and the right. It looked like it was expanded at least once, maybe two or three times, and you never knew what to expect behind the next corner… and there were plenty of corners! Probably more corners than rooms. One of which was the home to a large butsudan, a Buddhist altar usually found in private homes. Thinking of it, this might actually have been the private area of the ryokan owner… In any case, it was spectacular, and I’ve never seen anything like it before or after! Also really cool: The lobby and the bar of the ryokan, both Showa AF! Urbex at its best – time travel via natural decay. Well worth driving 5 hours there… and then back again.

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Haikyo, Hotel / Ryokan, Japan, Photography, Showa, Travel, Urbex | 2 Comments »

Kinugawa Onsen

2026/06/10 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Kinugawa Onsen is not abandoned. Kinugawa Onsen is also not a ghost town, despite what clickbaiters are trying to make you believe! Fact of the matter is: Kinugawa Onsen is one of the busiest onsen towns in all of Japan, attracting more than 2 million visitors per year!

Believe me, I get it. Kinugawa Onsen has a lot of abandoned buildings, quite a few of them prominently along the banks of the river Kinu (or kinugawa in Japanese, hence the name). But despite what urbex tourists from both overseas AND Japan want to make you believe: The town is far from being abandoned! Quite the opposite, it’s actually one of the most successful onsen in Japan – just not among foreign tourists, despite being only a short train ride on the Tobu line away from UNESCO World Heritage site Nikko, which is usually swamped with white tourists. But Nikko is often done as a day trip from Tokyo, so why venture even further into the countryside, away from the perceived safety of the Shinkansen lifeline?
Anyway, Kinugawa, plenty of large abandoned hotels – yeah, but mostly in the very northern part, around Kinugawakoen Station. The Takimi Bridge, a suspension bridge offering stunning views, and the surrounding area is where probably 90% of the abandonment photos are taken, because it’s such a low hanging fruit where every dummy with a smartphone can take decent ghost town photos and bait some clicks on social media. The next bridge just 500 meters down the river, Kurogane Bridge, already marks the border between closed Kinugawa Onsen and bustling Kinugawa Onsen – looking north, most buildings on the right side are abandoned, but most buildings on the left side are still in business! Looking south you almost exclusively see large modern hotels along the river. A view most “explorers” leave out, because it doesn’t fit their narrative. From here it’s 400 meters to the Fureai Bridge with the Demon Steps and about a kilometer to Kinugawa Onsen Station – and if you stay within that kilometer radius of Kinugawa Onsen Station, the town looks basically like any other successful onsen place. Sure, there are some signs of struggle, Japan has a tendency to abandoned the old in plain sight just to line up for the new right next to it, but it’s far from the horrible wasteland social media clickbait wants to make you believe.
If you want to be an urbex tourist yourself, no matter whether you have 1 follower or 1 million followers, by all means, go to Kinugawa Onsen and take the same photos as everybody else from the Takimi Bridge – but please, spend the night in town and tell the whole story. First hot spring found in 1691, at first exclusively for feudal lords and Buddhist monks, from the late 19th century on (after the Meiji Restauration) open to the general public. Increase of popularity after the 1920s, when the area was connected to Tokyo by rail. Extreme boom during the bubble era in the 1980s (more than 3 million visitors per year), steep decline after the bubble burst (hence the abandonment in the north, where there were only hotels and not much else, while the area around Kinugawa Onsen Station had all kinds of attractions and entertainment) – now consistently more than 2 million visitors per year, making Kinugawa Onsen one of the biggest and most successful onsen towns in Japan.
All the photos in the gallery below have been taken from public ground. Abandoned places, especially hotels, can be found without looking for them, but I advise you against entering them for several more than obvious reasons. In addition, the town seems to be aware of its reputation, and I’ve seen several police cars casually roaming the streets. “But none of your photos have people on them. Kinugawa Onsen is not so busy after all, eh?” Yeah, there are no people on, because I went there on a Sunday afternoon when most of the Tokyoites that came for the weekend were already on their way back to the big bad city. In addition to that there was a steam locomotive about to leave, so the Kinugawa Onsen Station area was super busy – and I didn’t take any photos there, because Japan has extremely strict privacy laws I just don’t want to deal with. It’s also the reason why I waited several minutes to take photos at the Demon Steps, because I just don’t take pictures with people on if I can avoid it.

Oh, but if you are interested in other urbex places for tourists, *please give this Special a chance by clicking here*.

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Hotel / Ryokan, Japan, Photography, Restaurant, Spa / Onsen, Tochigi, Travel, Urbex | 1 Comment »

Non-Urbex: ALFA-X (Class E956, Experimental Shinkansen)

2026/05/30 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Usually I don’t post current photos, because… well… there is no urgency to urbex and my kind of photos actually age rather well, because… well… they don’t actually age, while the locations keep on doing so.
Today I was sitting in a Shinkansen waiting to continue my travels (spring exploration season is basically over, it’s already hot and humid in parts of Japan!), when all of a sudden a gray Shinkansen pulled up next to us. Its destination? Test Run. Now that’s unusual… Half asleep I grabbed my camera and took a photo without paying attention to the settings  – so of course it turned out to be way too dark. (In moments like this I wish I’d had a smartphone and let that damn thing do all the work…) That’s when the realization kicked in that this might be a really rare sighting, so I got off the Shinkansen I was on, not knowing when it or the gray one would leave, to take some more photos – and I once again was made aware why I like taking pictures of abandoned places so much: no time pressure, no movement, plenty of opportunity to check the results before moving on. Of course I had none of these luxuries in this situation, because both trains were about to leave and neither would wait for me. So my apologies that the results are not exactly great. Most photos are too dark and/or blurry, either because I was moving or because the gray Shinkansen was…
BUT… It turns out that the photos are worth publishing anyway, because afterwards I learned from the almighty Google that the model ALFA-X ” is a one-of-a-kind prototype and is virtually impossible for the general public to ever see” “Catching a glimpse of the ALFA-X is considered a major highlight for railfans. It serves as the physical test-bed for Japan’s future high-speed fleet (expected to debut commercially around 2030).” ” It is not part of any passenger or commercial schedule. It only runs trial test runs on select nights or early mornings, usually once or twice a week.”
I guess I was really lucky, because I saw it neither at night nor early in the morning. According to the photo time stamps, it took about four minutes for ALFA-X to stop and leave. When I took the photos I had no idea what I had in front of me, but some of the greatest moments in life are in hindsight, so I am glad I took those pictures – and I hope you’ll enjoy them, too, especially if you are a railfan / gunzel / densha otaku / trainspotter!

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Asia, Japan, Non-Urbex, Photography, Transportation, Travel | 1 Comment »

Minami Royal Country Club

2026/05/21 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

Just a short one this week, because I am super busy…

The Minami Royal Country Club was established in 1998 with 18 holes as a par 72 course with a rating of 68.1 (whatever that means…) – apparently it was designed by William Edgar “Bill / Billy” Dunk, an Australian golfer who won more than 100 tournaments, including two on the Japan Golf Tour. The course fees were as follows:
Weekday price: 9,580 Yen
Holiday price: 18,190 Yen
Weekday caddie price: 13,550 Yen
Holiday caddie price: 19,450 Yen
As you can see on the few photos – we came too late, which is what usually happens when it’s about abandoned country clubs in Japan. You are either too early and the place doesn’t look abandoned / isn’t accessible… or you are too late and all you find is a solar park. But it was late in the day anyway and we saw a promising nagashi somen restaurant on the way (which turned out to be wonderful!), so in the end it was still worth driving halfway up a mountain in the Gifu countryside… 🙂
This article? Not nearly as good as the nagashi somen! I am aware of that. But the previous location was pretty spectacular, and you can rest assure that I have still dozens more on my pile of unpublished places. So the next one will be better at worst and spectacular at best! *And if you click here, you will be linked to a much better abandoned country club you might have missed when I originally posted it!*

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Photography, Sports, Travel, Visited in 2017 | 1 Comment »

Konami Sports Club Kansai

2026/04/29 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

I still remember very well when I first heard about this spa/gym being closed about 12 years ago. My first thought was: This will be a great abandoned place one day! My second thought was: Konami will never allow that to happen! I guess I was wrong… and right… within seconds. It’s actually a pretty spectacular abandoned place now – and one of the worst at the same time!

I’m sure most of my audience knows Konami as a great developer of video and arcade games in the 1980s and 90s, to some extent in the 2000s and past that, too. Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Silent Hill, Contra, Dance Dance Revolution, classics like Gradius and Frogger. When Konami developed the Diet Mode for Dance Dance Revolution, they partnered with a company called People, which itself was a subsidiary of Nichii, later renamed to Mycal, before finally bought and absorbed by Aeon. People ran gyms and other fitness facilities, some as designated operator for a few municipalities all over the country. In 2001 Mycal sold People to Konami (or rather the subsidiary Konami Sports) and their fitness clubs were rebranded to Konami Sports Club. When Aeon took over Mycal in 2009, the Konami Sports Clubs in Aeon malls became Aeon Sports Clubs – for reasons I still don’t fully understand, but as you can see, the whole situation is rather complicated, both regarding the facilities and the corporate structures.
I actually was a member of Konami Sports Club for about 5 or 6 years from 2007 on – and mine was basically a gym with two studios for classes and a large indoor pool for laps. So when I first heard about this soon to be closed gigantic fitness club with more than half a dozen studios and a spa area, I couldn’t believe that it actually was a Konami Sports Club; now that I’ve done all this research, I assume it’s one of those rather fancy People locations Konami took over in 2001.
Anyway, the Konami Sports Club Kansai was closed in August 2014 and at first I was eager to have look, but given that the chain was still active and that Konami was involved, I was convinced that the building would either be used in a different way or torn down. Initially I thought about it once in a while, but then I simply forgot about it…
Until 6 weeks ago or so. In March a bunch of urbex tourists from overseas with a huuuge following across all kinds of social media accounts (several with +500k followers each on Facebook alone!) published a dozen or so photo sets and videos of their tour through Japan. Now, I never hid my disgust for those locusts ever since the *Nara Dreamland* days and it only got worse since one of them dragged the *Billionaire’s Mansions* from their cozy shadowy place into the spotlight right before the pandemic hit – I wrote an article *about them being vandalized* in 2023, but the situation has gotten so much worse since then. They are basically a pile of trash now. I’m not saying that those urbex tourists vandalized these places, but the Japanese urbex scene is rather small and secretive, so when some money driven, management organized, international self-promoters with millions of followers draw that many eyes on a location, including locals of course, it’s only natural that it gets a lot more visitors all of a sudden. Despite the rumors, some Japanese people actually understand English – and even worse: While those urbex tourists are all high and mighty about not revealing places while in their home countries, they apparently couldn’t care less when in Japan. “Sorry, we don’t reveal location names!” Dude, you have the logo with the name of the place on two or three of your photos! There are stores visible in the background! Yes, YOU can’t read Japanese and YOU are too lazy to run your photos through basic Google functions, but there are about 127 million people who can speak Japanese and potentially billions who are familiar with the internet, especially now in the days of smartphones and AI… FFS!
Anyway, one of the locations the urbex tourists presented was a really cool gym/spa facility. They didn’t reveal the name on pictures in this case, but the building looked strangely familiar and there were big company logos visible in the background. I started to google one and their locations, when it hit me suddenly: That Konami Sports Club! This could be the Konami Sports Club from back in 2014! 30 seconds later I had the location confirmed and an urgent exploration scheduled. Why did those morons not reveal the name of this place? Because it closed in August 2014 and by March 2015 Konami had the branding removed from the building! I’m not sure who owns the building now, but of course a company like Konami didn’t risk to be associated with a large abandoned fitness club. The tourists probably didn’t even know that it was a Konami Sports Club, because as it turned out, the facility was basically empty. All the training machines were gone, all the equipment was gone. The star was the building, which I am totally fine with. The location should always be the star of urbex… and if only the building is left, so be it. Unfortunately the building wasn’t just empty, it already had been vandalized, most likely by metal thieves and bored local youth. Japan is in steady decline, vandalism and graffiti become more common by the month. With the vandalism came the water and with the water came the mold. As cool as some of the photos of this set look, it was a really nasty, uncomfortable exploration, especially since I went in the afternoon on an overcast and slightly rainy day – and I’m glad that I didn’t wait till August… Not much else to say about this solo exploration though. Empty, spectacular building, nasty conditions. I wish I would have not forgotten about the place and gone there right after the metal thieves swept in, probably sometime during the pandemic or just after Japan opened the floodgates.
Oh, and in case you wonder why I’m rather open with pictures and information about this place now: Last weekend, about 4 weeks after my initial exploration of the Konami Sports Club Kansai, I went back with an old urbex buddy for a quick look to show him around. Turns out that the place had gotten a lot worse in the month that had passed. We could smell the mould and decay from the street as there were more windows broken. There was more graffiti everywhere, there was a lot more vandalism – and as a result whole areas were flooded. Only a few centimeters, but it’s not the kind of water that you want to be exposed to or even touch. I guess I wasn’t the only person after all who recognized the place based on a bunch of shitty flash photos taken with mobile phones. (I don’t know a single even somewhat serious explorer in Japan who doesn’t use a proper camera…) So why wait with an article? I don’t reveal much of the surrounding area, the full real name or even a pin on a map… If you are good enough to find the place based on my article and you really want to go: Be my guest! Enjoy your lung full of black mould air and shoe full of still water…

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Kansai, Photography, Sports, Travel, Urbex | 5 Comments »

Black Mirror Hotel

2026/04/15 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

9 years ago I did an amazing Hokkaido road trip with one of my best buddies. We explored some spectacular famous locations (*Glückskönigreich*), we explored some spectacular not so famous locations (*Hokkaido Ski-Jumping Hill*), and we explored some completely obscure locations where a single photo made the place spectacular – like the Black Mirror Hotel!

The Black Mirror Hotel was actually a rather small, completely trashed, run-of-the-mill abandoned hotel in the outskirts of a large city in Hokkaido, 4 kilometers away from the next train station, no bus stop nearby. It is absolutely beyond me why anybody would build accommodation like that… or why anybody would stay there. Upon entering I also wondered why anybody would explore the place, because at first sight it really was the worst kind of abandoned places there is, combining pretty much everything I dislike about urbex. But we made it all the way to central Hokkaido, so we could as well have a closer look. Trash, vandalism, mold. Misery within seconds. Towards the end of the trip or late in the afternoon instead of early in the morning, first location of the day actually, I probably would have left after a few minutes, but… again… we traveled all the way to central Hokkaido. On the ground floor I found one of those mechanical boxing toys – one of the figures looked like an in-shape version of the orange peril, who had just become president for the first time and was years away from bombing girls’ schools in Iran, so I had a giggle about that.
The upper floor also was in bad shape, though not as horrible as the ground floor. At one point I found myself in the door frame of a room and I thought it might be cool to take a photo of a TV in one of the corners… or rather alcove. Imagine the following setup: I was standing at 6, the TV was at 3, facing across to the room towards 8 – the upper half of the dial gone. I put my tripod on the ground, pointed the camera towards the TV, probably knee-high, took a photo, and then moved on. The shared baths weren’t anything special either, most rooms were trashed by vandals and/or metal thieves, so after a little over an hour we finally called it quits and moved on to the next location.
It wasn’t until a few days later back home, when I had a closer look at the photos I took on a larger monitor, that I realized that there was one special gem amongst the hundreds and hundreds of photos I took on that trip. This photo of a TV wasn’t just a photo of a TV – it was a perfect black mirror shot! On the screen of the TV you could see a reflection of the room with the tatami mats, cushions, a round lacquer box and several other items – everything extremely well-framed. It almost looked like as if the TV was running, but of course it was off. Till this very day I consider it one of my best photos, even though or maybe because there was so much luck involved. On a sunny day the room would have been too bright. On any height other than the lowest, the tripod would have been too tall. Any angle other than the one I pointed the camera at by chance would have changed what’s visible on the TV.

The Black Mirror Hotel was one of the worst locations I’ve ever explored – but it gave me one of the best photos I’ve ever taken!

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Hokkaido, Hotel / Ryokan, Japan, Photography, Travel, Visited in 2017 | 3 Comments »

Nara Dreamland By AI Is Exactly As Bad As It Sounds!

2026/04/13 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai

AI slop just hit a new low! This ‘blogger’ talks about “Real abandoned places” in their profile on Facebook and then creates/publishes atrocious AI pictures of ‘Nara Dreamland’, even claims “I got through a gap in the perimeter fence alone before demolition began.”
You did jack, mate! You sat in your parents’ basement, farted towards your computer running some AI abomination – and it vomited some pictures for you that look nothing like Nara Dreamland…
Pages like that should be banned on all platforms! At least be honest about it and don’t lie! It’s not like there’s a lack of real Nara Dreamland pictures. By the time it got demolished, everybody and their dog has been there.
I tend to stay away from drama, especially urbex drama, both international and domestic, though a lot of things could be said about a lot of people – but this case is borderline stolen valor! What a terrible waste of electricity and oxygen…
Here you can find all my Nara Dreamland material. 100% real, 100% shot on DSLRs, 100% without any enhancing post-production:
https://abandonedkansai.com/special-nara-dreamland/

(*Like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* or *follow us on Twitter* if you don’t want to miss the latest articles and exclusive content – and subscribe to the *video channel on Youtube* to receive a message right after a new video is online…)

Posted in Abandoned, Amusement Park, Haikyo, Japan, Kansai, Nara, Photography, Travel | 4 Comments »

Older Posts »

  • Privacy