My day off -or- How to find a Haikyo
February 21, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 2 Comments
How does somebody whose entire livelihood depends on taking photos or consult other people how to take, sort, organize, transfer and process photos relax? Correct, by going out and taking more photos…
Today I decided I needed a break and did something I used to do quite often years ago…pick a random train station, step out and walk around. So far I was never disappointed, I always found something amazing and unique to photograph.
At first I stepped into my local train and passed some stations, until the car looked like this.
After I was alone, I left the train at the next stop, which already appeared like a ghost station. In fact, the area was so abandoned, the only people I saw where naked boys playing flute on the street and the occasional grandmother on a bicycle. How suspicious must I have looked with a big camera dangling around my neck in the middle of nowhere?
While walking down the street, I was thinking about a friends tempting offer to make a photo trip to visit a huge car junkyard in the USA as I suddenly found…
…a car junkyard in my very own backyard, just a few stations from where I live.
Just me, old cars and the occasional grandmother on a bicycle.
Oh, this is not an American car, but in fact a very, very rare find: A Mitsubishi Debonair Saturn 6, first generation! Obviously inspired (cough, cough) by American cruisers of the 1960s, this car has an interesting background.
The Mitsubishi Debonair is a four-door luxury car, introduced by Mitsubishi Motors in 1964 to serve as their flagship passenger vehicle in the Japanese domestic market. Three distinct generations were available during its 35-year production run until it was discontinued in 1999. The first and second generation models were used by senior level executives of the Mitsubishi Group and affiliated companies, or essentially a Mitsubishi senior executive company car made by the motor vehicle division of Mitsubishi (from Wikipedia and more info here).
To find one here, in pristine condition between all the other junk cars was quite a surprise.
Just next to it was this van, followed by a covered Porsche in unknown condition.
The entire collection I found can be seen below.
After this highlight, I walked some more and finally found a small abandoned factory Haikyo. But it got already late, so I leave the exploration of this place for another day.
And all of this just a few stations from where I live since years! I had no idea…
I love photographing old, rusted out junkers, especially if they’re cool old cars. Unfortunately, in America junkyards are fenced off, probably because they’re considered eyesores and also because they’re not safe for people to wander around in. Sometimes you find a car in a backyard or in a field somewhere, but most junkyards are large operations. Definitely not on the metro routes!
Japan is different ;)
Basically ruins (this includes these cars) have no value in Japan, so they kinda disappear out of sight for most people. Thats why you can find these places in good shape (if you don’t count natural decay) – they don’t even are a target for vandals. They simply don’t exist.
Lately these places become more popular due to some publications, which is good and bad at the same time – they now attract a bunch of explorers who are less interested in documenting the beauty of natural decay of man-made objects, but start to actually vandalize these places. Thats life I guess.