GUEST HAIKYO – Okinawa’s Rekio hotel

This is the second part of Paul’s Okinawa explorations, see part one here.

Day Two

The Rekio Hotel was built around the time of the Okinawa Ocean Expo. In that decade there was a boom in hotel construction, hoping to cater for the influx of tourists. Many people did come, but not enough to sustain the hotel’s business long-term. Demolition costs for the hotel are said to be too expensive, and the current owners / shareholders can’t sell it … leaving it in limbo.

My map work was for finding the Rekio Hotel was incorrect, but its prominent position in the skyline made it easy to track down. The road leading up to the ruin was deserted but not closed off. A nice little opening in the fence to crawl through, and I was in. The hotel was now ‘open-plan’ in most areas … meaning no walls, no windows. And with a strong wind a-blowin’ this place was the very definition of a deathtrap. As Rekio now offers guests numerous opportunities to plunge to their doom, I have to say – be careful if you’re visiting this ruin.

There’s no one guarding the hotel full-time. But there is a patrol car which routinely goes by and checks to see no-one is inside. The speedy patrol car caught me by surprise the first time, spotting me on the second floor. Sure enough the car u-turned at the end of the road and returned a minute later, pulling up outside the entrance.

I really wasn’t in the mood for a game of cat and mouse. Hidden behind a pillar, I was out of sight while the guards scanned the area. They gave up their search in a few minutes. I was safe, but really didn’t feel like I could take my time anymore. As you can see the inside of the hotel was pretty much destroyed. I explored each level quickly, finding only rubble, broken kotatsu and childish graffiti.

The swimming pool didn’t look too inviting.

I made my way up to the roof catching as many of the rooms as I could. It’s always very satisfying getting to the very top of a ruin. I was pretty well exposed to people in the surrounding areas, time to get out of there.

To find out more about Paul’s haikyo adventures go to his Misuterareta site, or see all the photos from this explore in his article here. Thanks Paul!

See more Japanese ruins (haikyo) in the galleries:

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You can also see a curation of world ruins in the ruins gallery.