Daibutsu, Kamakura

Daibutsu, Kamakura
Daibutsu in Kamakura, June 2010. There were thousands of school kids visiting that day. It was still great fun.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Haikyo - Exploring Japanese Ruins

Haikyo is the name for exploring Japanese ruins or abandoned buidlings. I found some websites on this subject and the photos are pretty amazing. Whether it is due to the economic problems or the declining population, I think both, aparantly there are alot of abandoned places in Japan.

What is really weird is that alot of them seem like the people just left everything where it was and disappeared. In the U.S, if a business or whatever goes out of business, usually the contents such as furniture, etc. are sold. Maybe Japanese people do not prefer used furniture or other items.

Also in the U.S., these items would have been carted off by looters. I've seen some pictures of abandoned theme parks where there are still displays of samurai armor and other interesting and cool stuff. Why hasn't someone snagged that stuff?

Another crazy, crazy thing are the photos of abandoned medical clinics or hospitals. In some of the photos you can see what appear to be people's medical records as well as syringes, medical devices and chemicals. I can't believe they were just left there.

Below are some photos from this really amazing Japanese website on Haikyo. They are photos from an abandoned hospital. Some pretty creepy pictures.






Here is the outside of the hospital.






Here's what looks to me to be some sort of medical record. Crazy.






Looks like a dentist chair. Ouch.






An examination table. Whoa.








You can see from this picture that there is an active neighborhood right across the street from this hazard.






Another examination room.






More medical equipment.




4 comments:

  1. This is so awesome. Like modern tombraiding... I want to look for abandoned places!

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  2. Thanks for the comment John. Yes, it is amazing and crazy and I also would like to check some of these places out somday too. The website I found, although in Japanese, is really amazing. Especially the pictures of the amusement parks.

    I've seen pics of displays of manequins dressed in full samurai outfits. In the U.S., things like this would have long ago been looted.

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  3. Anonymous9:07 PM

    Hey Jon, glad you commented on my site cos that led me here- to this hospital, which I have also been to! I went in January, at night, with a not so good camera- but have been meaning to put up the best of the photos for a while. One of the amazing things about this lace was the high-quality grafitti all over it. Every room had a new work of art. I got photos but they're all with flash since I got there late. It was damn spooky walking around it in the dark. Anyway, I'll put my post up soon- michaeljohngrist.com

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  4. MJG, thanks for visiting. I commented on your site. I can't wait to see the hospital pics you took.

    ReplyDelete