Abandoned Robot
April 12, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 3 Comments
Robots are already such an old hat in Japan, that you can sometimes find old, already abandoned robots on the street.
Abandoned Robot
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…
Greenland – An abandoned amusement park in Fukushima, Japan
February 1, 2010 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Almost to the day 5 years ago while driving around in the North of Japan, I noticed a roller coaster and a ferris wheel on a hill just next to the main street. This was the second time I found an abandoned amusement park by chance.
Greenland was built in 1973 but had to close a short time later. Eventually it reopened in 1986 and closed its doors forever in 1999. Since a removal of all the rides would cost quite a bunch of money, the management decided to let nature do its work, turning Greenland into Rusty-Brownland.
Where once hung a painting…
January 31, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 1 Comment
Where once hung a painting…
…is now a hole with a romantic view.
A place to die – the Sakai Hospital Haikyo
January 29, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 3 Comments
I found the Sakai Hospital by chance while driving around in the Nagasaki Prefecture. Its clearly visible from the street and – as a neighbor explained – abandoned since 1970.
But from the inside its practically unvandalized and in rather good condition after all these years…probably because it was one of the most scary places I ever visited. The Sakai Hospital was a “Hospital for the Aged” and looking inside, it was pretty self-explainable what this means: It was a place to die.
Bats surrounded me while I took pictures and the neighbor told me later that he would never go inside because of the snakes and the ghosts…ouch. Maybe this explained also the dead cat I found inside. Click here to read more…
Japan’s smallest Haikyo
January 26, 2010 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Japan’s smallest Haikyo
Build in the early 1970s and not in use for almost 20 years, this round, once pink mini-building is now left to rot in somebodies garden somewhere in an undisclosed location not too far from Tokyo.
The sad story of the dead dog
January 25, 2010 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Once upon a time after a successful Haikyo trip me and my fellow friends went for late lunch before we wanted to drive all the way back to Tokyo. Since the area we went to was practically completely abandoned, there was not much of a choice of restaurants. So as soon as we saw a sign promising Ramen, we stopped. We were not the only guests, the place was already packed with at least 50 Bōsōzoku, which didn’t make me less hungry. Sitting down and studying the menu card, an older woman – visible stressed of the rather loud Bōsōzoku – took our order, mumbled an apology while subtle pointing her chin in the direction of the other room and left. We prepared ourself for a long wait and browsed through our photographic loot of the morning as I noticed a strange smell, which I could not really find an origin for. Then one of my buddies got up, took his camera and took a photo of a small, sleeping dog just behind me. I didn’t noticed the dog before and was surprised that he could sleep in this noisy restaurant.
But something was strange. I took a longer, closer look at the dog and realized that it’s a dead, stuffed dog – and the origin of the smell. It looked already rather used and I wondered how I could fall for it – then I realized that the dog was “sleeping” between 2 bowls with dog food and water – just as he would be alive. Ugh.
The dead dog
After we finished our meal, we left as fast as possible to get out of this place, probably before we were able to discover other, mummified secrets in the closet.
And in my next installation of the strangest places I ate Ramen in, I will talk about the Ramen restaurant in Tochigi where I had the pleasure to eat while 100 of dead pickled snakes watched me from their jars…
Japan’s most ugly bridge
January 5, 2010 by Juergen Specht · 6 Comments
Ladies and Gentlemen, and now I give you (drum rolls rolling) Japan’s Most Ugly Bridge:
Japan’s most ugly bridge
Gomi-Yama: Climbing a Haikyo of the special kind…
December 29, 2009 by Juergen Specht · Leave a Comment
Sometimes you can find a dirty little environmental secret right in public. This is Gomi-Yama (Japanese as in: Gomi=Trash and Yama=Mountain), an abandoned garbage mountain towering over Yokohama.
Idyllic placed right next to a school and a children’s playground, this trash deposit place in Hodogaya near Yokohama accumulated a lot of trash until it reached a peak of about 150 meter.
Another Haikyo: Gulliver’s Final Resting Place
December 23, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 4 Comments
One of the most interesting Haikyo (=abandoned places or ruins in Japanese) was the entertainment park “Gulliver’s Kingdom”. I was lucky enough to spend a day in the abandoned park before it got demolished and replaced with a golf course.
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