The Kawaminami shipyard was opened in 1936 and went bankrupt in 1955. It had four huge bays and two large factory buildings. Through the war years it served as both a munitions factory, a drydock for construction of cargo ships, escort ships, and kaitens, and possibly also as a Prisoner of War (POW) slave labor camp. By some accounts up to 4000 POWs were forced to work here during wartime. The main factory hall. History on the place has been hard to come by definitively. According to official POW internment records, it never had POWs. According to other sites it …
Ruins of the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is an icon, a beacon-fire at America`s shore calling out to all and sundry- `come on in, there`s plenty of room!` To destroy her is to denounce the very idea of America, to throw that generosity of spirit back in her face and cry out `who needs you?` Aliens have done this a few times. Meteors twice. Global warming and global sanding have been involved also. In disaster movies the destruction of Lady Liberty has become something of a cliche, but that doesn`t stop it from being awesome. Read on for the gallery.
Top 5 Japanese Ghost Towns
Common wisdom about Japan says it’s a tiny island with a serious premium on space, leading to real estate prices in the cities higher even than the most exclusive blocks of Manhattan. The thought that there might be whole abandoned towns on this island seems a paradox- how could a country with so little space abandon anything? Well, they do. Most ghost towns in Japan are built around mines, like abandoned gold rush towns in the American West. When the mine seams gave out the jobs went away and the people left. Soon, the place was abandoned. Here are 5 …
Overgrown Toyota at Tama Lake
The last time I went to the Akasaka Love Hotel on Lake Tama was November 2008. Winter was just setting in and had not yet sloughed away the summer`s ripe vegetation, meaning that this gorgeous neglected Toyota was mostly buried in foliage. I took a few shots of it scraggled with greenery but they didn`t stand out. Now winter reveals its pale bones, most of them broken backwards and jiggling loosely on rusted hinges. A Toyota.
Ruin of a Japanese ‘kaiten’ suicide-boat base
Towards the end of World War 2 the Japanese military created and employed the `kaiten`, a manned suicide torpedo designed to blow up American ships with great accuracy. At that point in the War Japan had suffered severe losses, was experiencing rapid decline in its industrial capacity compared to the US, and American troops were closing in on the home islands. Surrender was out of the question, so Kaiten (along with kamikaze planes) were brought in to help tilt the balance. Kaiten facility observation point.
Ruin of a century-old Japanese prison
Kyu Nagasaki Prison was built in 1907, one of 5 `ultra-modern` Meiji-era prisons built throughout Japan.
Top 5 Ruins of the Sex Industry
In ruins the hidden secrets of sex are laid bare. All our most intimate truths come out in the wash. The den of our fornication will rot and mold will form on the sheets where we grunted out our last passions. Sex. In life, as in death, it’s a messy business. Here are five ruined dens of sex from around Japan. 1. The Akasaka Love Hotel ‘Love Hotels’ are a lot like roadside motels, designed with the express purpose of facilitating ‘relations’ between Japanese couples who still live at home, and have no access to a bedroom away from their …
All the Demolished Haikyo
Several times people have asked me to put up a list of demolished haikyo, to save other people the inconvenience of heading to them and finding them gone. Fair enough- I would certainly have appreciated that info myself. This page is open to being updated- so if you’ve got fresh info about demolished or altered or inaccessible haikyo- please let me/us know in the comments below. TOHOKU Kamaishi Mine, Iwate– Demolished, only foundations left (2007/08) Greenland Theme Park, Fukushima- Demolished KANTO Boyou Hotel, Chiba– Demolished (to my knowledge). Kappa Pia Theme Park, Saitama– Demolished (2007) Tai Hei Yo Cement Plant, …
Volcano Museum 3. Return in HDR
This was my second time to go to the Asama Volcano Museum. The first was on my first haikyo road trip back in 2007- back when I was packing only a cameraphone to shoot with and cared far more about the explore than I did about the photography.
Volcano Museum 2. History
The Mt. Asama Volcano Museum was a mould-breaking facility opened in 1967, offering insight into the life-cycle of the most active volcano in Honshu (the main island of Japan), and into the area of volcanic rock surrounding it known as Oni Oshi Dashi (exiled demons).