Chiba – a road trip
May 2, 2010 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Armed with a regular and an infrared camera, I’ve met my friends at 2:30am for a road trip to Chiba.
4:59:36am – Sunrise in Chiba
Powerlines extending into the water
An inaccessible, forgotten plane bunker left over from World War II
Leaves take over the long closed Haikyo Hotel
A view to the other side
From time to time I have to remind myself where I live
Abandoned heavy machinery
Tree outgrowing its fenced jail
These bolts hold the bridge together
The pilot shows off some incredible maneuvers
A shrine in the infrared forest
Attempted self portrait while a Skorj walks nearby
The second death of the dinosaurs
December 20, 2009 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
The Kyouryu Park (Dinosaur Park) in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture in Japan, was one of the projects which relied on the short living Dinosaur trend and the expected visitors coming from Tokyo using the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, a tunnel/bridge combination crossing Tokyo Bay. However, using the Aqua-Line used to be very expensive, so it never caught on and lots of businesses on the Chiba side never saw an increase of visitors and had to shut down their operations.
These photos are taken at the day of the closure of the Dinosaur Park, but fortunately they could sell most of the Dinosaurs to companies, individuals and the Teine Olympia amusement park in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
The Rise and Fall of SSAWS
December 3, 2009 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
SSAWS, then the first and largest indoor ski resort in the world, opened July 15th, 1993 in Minami-Funabashi in Chiba, Japan. I remember that I read about it in a German magazine and was utterly fascinated with this construction.
Little did I knew back then that just 10 years later I will stand in front of its remains and photograph its deconstruction.
The SSAWS sign in front of the ski dome, December 2003
Also known as Tokyo Ski Dome, SSAWS, which stood for Spring Summer Autumn Winter Snow was one of these megalomanic $400US million dollar ideas born in the Japanese bubble with an totally unrealistic business plan, which was supposed to break even in 2018.
The remains of SSAWS, December 2003
The building was more than 100 meter high and more than 500 meter long, hosting three ski slopes with a 80 meter drop and a total length of 500 meter and allowed to ski all year round. Alone the cooling costs were astronomic.
In September 30th, 2002 it closed down for good and after a lengthy planning period the demolishing of SSAWS started in Autumn 2003 leaving the whole area covered in fine white dust for months.
In December 2003 I began to photograph the already started demolition and came back 2 more times, whenever time allowed.
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