Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for March, 2011

The Tokushima Countryside Clinic (徳島田舎診療所) – In Color

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Hospital, House, Japan, Shikoku, Tokushima, Urbex, Visited in 2010 on 2011/03/30| Leave a Comment »

Okay, after quite a few articles about the Zone Of Alienation it’s about time to go back to Japan. I’ll return by posting the previously announced color set of a location I already described before the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special: The Tokushima Countryside Clinic. I went there in November of 2010 and wrote a long article about it in December. Please *click here to read what I had to say* and enjoy the same pictures as below – just in black and white. (Next week I’ll continue with another location from my Haikyo Road Trip To Shikoku – an abandoned indoor waterpark, which is quite a rarity in Japan!)

Read Full Post »

Zombie Novel Cover / The Gopher Illustrated Preview & Pre-Order

Posted in AK In Other Media, Urbex, Zombies on 2011/03/29| Leave a Comment »

Do you like zombies? Are you able to read German? Then maybe you should have a look at “Untot: Dämmerung”, a free novel by the aspiring German author Andreas Stetter. First published in serialized form on his blog “Wissen statt glauben”, Andreas decided to release a PDF version once he wrapped up the story. But of course every decent PDF needs a cover – and that’s when yours truly came into play. Andreas asked me for permission to use one of my photos as the basis for the cover of Untot: Dämmerung – and of course I happily granted it, especially after I saw what his buddy Stefan did with the shot I took at the Hospital #126 in Pripyat. If you don’t like zombies, don’t know German or just hate reading in general… at least have a look at the cover – it’s really nice!
BTW: Do you remember the little article about the second issue of The Gopher Illustrated, an art magazine that will feature some of my pictures, I wrote back in November? Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day either – but you can finally have a sneak peak *here* and pre-order it *here*. (And yes, the sneak peak includes a couple of pictures I took – some very old ones actually.)

Read Full Post »

Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Apartment Building at Lazarev Street 1/14

Posted in Abandoned, Europe, House, Kindergarten / Nursery, Map, Pripyat, Ukraine, Urbex, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/03/17| 7 Comments »

After sunny visits to the Jupiter Factory and the Kindergarten “Golden Key” we had some time left before we had to leave the Zone Of Alienation, so Maxim suggested to go to another rooftop. Of course he had to guard the car again, so Sebi, Michi and I went up on our own.
The construction of this building in the city center close to Lenin Square was interesting in that regard that for the first couple of floors the staircase was inside the building, but for the top half we had to go outside on a balcony and then get in again to climb more stairs. Quite weird… and nasty when it was raining, as we experienced on the way down. Furthermore I’m sure sooner or later one of those balconies will crumble (hopefully at a moment when nobody is standing on it) and then the floors above won’t be accessible anymore. Considering the state of the building in hindsight I’m actually not sure if I would go up there again – especially since the roof had huge puddles of water, which I’m sure contribute to the demise of the whole construction. The view was stunning though, no matter in which direction we looked. Seeing how the kindergarten was indeed swallowed by nature was as impressive as seeing the Amusement Park, the Palace Of Culture “Energetik” and Lenin Square at the same time. On the way down I took a quick minute to have another look at some apartments and actually found one with some interior left – in bad shape, but nevertheless interesting. When I left the apartment house at Lazarev Street 1/14 I saw a graffito on a wall at the building next to it – the black show of a girl… and the last photo I took in Pripyat.
Although now as I am writing these lines most nuclear experts agree that what happened in Chernobyl and what’s going on in Fukushima these minutes have barely anything in common, it’s still a weird feeling being only 550 km away from the events that shake the world these days. And I’m actually kind of glad that this is the last entry of my “Chernobyl & Priypat” special. I seriously hope Fukushima will turn to the better and that you, dear reader, will continue to follow this blog when I’m going back to my main topic: abandoned places in Kansai and the rest of Japan.
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)

Read Full Post »

Chernobyl: Fukushima In 25 Years?

Posted in Chernobyl, Japan, Power Station, Pripyat, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Urbex on 2011/03/12| 12 Comments »

It’s a weird situation. Here I am, living in Japan, writing a series about Chernobyl 25 years after the catastrophe – while the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is getting out of control. I actually don’t have anything to add to the discussion as the media and their experts are all over the topic anyways. But since I got many, many messages, not only from family and friends, but also from readers of this blog, I just wanted to say that I wasn’t affected by the quake directly and that my thoughts are with the people suffering from the aftermath of this disaster – especially with everybody involved in trying to save Japan and the rest of the world from another nuclear catastrophe.

Read Full Post »

Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Kindergarten “Zolotoj Kluchik” (Golden Key)

Posted in Abandoned, Europe, Kindergarten / Nursery, Map, Pripyat, Ukraine, Urbex, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/03/10| 3 Comments »

While we were exploring the Jupiter Factory the clouds broke up and the sun came out, changing the atmosphere in Pripyat from gloomy-spooky to “Let’s enjoy a picnic on this wonderful day!”. Sadly none of us brought any food, but I guess there wouldn’t have been time anyways – “Zolotoj Kluchik” (Golden Key), one of Pripyat’s many kindergartens, was waiting for us…
Although quite close to Lenin Square, Golden Key was surrounded by apartment buildings and at the time of our visit, in late August of 2010, mostly overgrown – we even had to push the green aside to get into the building. A building that was in terrible shape.
One of the staircases was blocked by… I actually forgot, some kind of construction that once was screwed to the wall. The place was seriously vandalized, dilapidations were visible everywhere and I’m sure the mold does one last thing to make this kindergarten one of the next buildings to collapse. Dripping water was audible in a lot of rooms and I generally had a bad feeling about the Golden Key. Furthermore I was getting pretty tired, so I was slowly moving from room to room, taking pictures rather randomly here and there.
I remember taking the picture of a doll in one of the rooms, but it was not until I saw it on a computer screen that I realized how powerful the subject was: A naked plastic doll with grey hair, the arms connected to the body only by a thread, wearing a gas mask. Obviously set up by some really weird photographer – a week ago, a month ago, a year ago? Who knows… The scene was definitely staged, but not at all shocking – not anymore, not after 1.5 days in the Zone Of Alienation. Same with the tea party and the rotten piano for kids. Just the metal tank and truck… I knew that picture would look good! Although I actually didn’t realize there was a gas mask lying in the background when I pushed the shutter release.
I strongly recommend visiting the kindergarten early on a tour, not in the evening of the second day – it was an awesome location I didn’t fully appreciate when being there and I’m really happy how good the pictures turned out to be. But I didn’t even take a video. So we left the Golden Key after just half an hour – and at that point Sebi and Maxim were sitting on the sunny terrace for 20 minutes already…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*. You can *like Abandoned Kansai on Facebook* and *follow this blog on Twitter* – and of course there is the *video channel on Youtube*…)

Read Full Post »

Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Jupiter Factory

Posted in Abandoned, Chernobyl, Europe, Factory, Map, Military, Pripyat, Ukraine, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2010, Zone Of Alienation on 2011/03/02| 9 Comments »

“The next location will be even better!”
Those were the words Maxim used to lure us away from the absolutely amazing Hospital No 126. We hopped into the van and drove to the other end of Pripyat to see… an abandoned factory. Wait. What? A factory? Seriously? A factory? Better than a hospital? No way!
Please don’t get me wrong: The Jupiter Factory was awesome! I’ve never been to an electronics factory that big. But in the end it was just a factory… one of the most common abandoned places in the world. And not even nearly as fascinating to me as Maxim hoped it would be. But I’m not into First Person Shooters whereas a lot of people visiting the Zone Of Alienation are. And for them the Jupiter Factory is one of the highlights since it was a setting in the game “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat” by GSC Game World – one of the most popular FPSs of the last couple of years.
We entered the Jupiter Factory, one of the biggest employers in Pripyat, through the main gate and passed by some administration buildings. Since the site is located at the western city limit of Pripyat nature is taking over the area rather quickly. The streets on the premises were partly overgrown with climbers, some of them even seemed to be some kind of grapes. None of us tried them though, for obvious reasons.
The assembly halls were absolutely impressing – huge constructions with all kinds of machinery still in there. The walls displayed dozens of warning posters and the workbenches were covered with tools and instruction manuals. But like with so many other places in Pripyat there is hardly any reliable information about the Jupiter Factory. It’s known that the plant produced tape-recorders and other consumer products under the label “Mayak”, but of course there are also unconfirmed speculations. Rumors about secret military research and stuff like that in underground laboratories. But since the basement is flooded nowadays it only adds to the mystery…
Which makes me wonder why nobody really tried to write a comprehensive book about Pripyat, at least not in English. Every tiny town in Europe has a local historian that knows every little thing about the surrounding 25 km2 – but Pripyat? It’s surprisingly hard to find reliable information about the city… (I’d love to do it, but with no knowledge of Russian / Ukrainian I don’t think I’d get far.)
Anyways, if the Jupiter Factory would have been my first urbex exploration ever I’m sure I would have been completely blown away and could have spent hours there. Even now that I’m back home I wish I had a place like that nearby. It would be worth to write several postings about it and I could come back at different seasons and during different weather conditions. But when I explored the place I was rather underwhelmed, especially since I had to leave the hospital in a hurry…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)


Read Full Post »