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.
Chernobyl: Fukushima In 25 Years?
2011/03/12 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai
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Abandoned Kansai 
Dear Sir, Im curious if you know who actually owns Nara Dreamland, or any of way contacting them? As this is the site with most info on it
Nara Dreamland is owned by the Japanese supermarket chain Daiei – this is their contact data to my best of knowledge, although I doubt they will respond to English e-mails: 4-1-1 Minatojima Nakamachi,
Chuo-ku, 650-0046 Kobe, Japan – Phone: +81-78-302-5001.
Glad to hear that you are safe Florian and I am looking forward to the return of Japanese-based ruins even though the Pripyat posts were well written, in depth and interesting 🙂
Thanks a lot for your kind words, Leni – it’s always good to hear from a regular reader! I actually have about 30 unpublished Japanese locations by and some of them are really stunning and barely known to the internet. I’ll continue by publishing the color set of the Tokushima Countryside Clinic, then I’ll finish the rest of the Shikoku trip before putting up stuff like a love hotel, a huge ferris wheel, a ski resort and a drained dam.
Florian – excellent guide to this amazing city, truly well structured and riveting – thanks for sharing it with the rest of us who will never get to go anywhere near it. It’s one thing to read a “Wiki” entry on a place, but quite another to read through this guide of yours, which really brings a dead town to life (sounds strange, I know, but you get my meaning!).Take care in the future. Hwrgy
Thanks a lot for your kind words! Visiting Chernobyl was a great experience and I’m happy that I was able to process it in a way that other people can enjoy it, too.
I am so jealous of all your rambles through the haikyo of Japan…but thanks for sharing the lovely images and videos!
It’s my pleasure! Japan is indeed a wonderful country to do urban exploration, but I guess many places are. Central Europe would be a great base, too. Or Eastern Europe… I wonder if there is an urbex scene in Eastern Europe.
I am sure there is. Actually, I should scan and send you my ancient (college days) photographs of an abandoned (spelling?) brewery in northern Philadelphia. I lived in Japan as a middle schooler so not much urbex going on for me then but I love the various Japanese language Haikyo publications that are available. Happy exlploring!
Hey Elizabeth,
Yeah, I guess urban exploration in general took off a couple of years after the internet – now it was a lot easier to find out about abandoned places, especially in other countries. And the success of digital photography helped a lot, too. 10 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to do what I do now…
Since you are still interested in the topic – why don’t you pick it up as a hobby yourself?
I stumbled across this after finding a post ’10 scariest places to visit’ and I searched for the amusement park, now several months ago I was on a post ‘abandoned amusment parks’ and came across it there, read a lot about it, and a lot about some others, creeped myself out because reading about those things at 10pm in a very old cottage that makes noises in the night, not clever at all, but out of all the things I have read, and looked up, this has to be the best, the detail is amazing, the photos are fantastic, and you totally sucked me in, I have learnt so much from reading about your trip, I would love to go there one day, it is now in my list along with auschwitz and going back to belgium, but just looking at those pictures and reading what you have written really saddened me, thinking about al those people who suffered and all those children who never got be a ‘normal’ child, it breaks my heart, the kindergarten, and the cots in the hospital really just made me drop, also the children on the bridge when the disaster happened, I just welled up.
sorry for ranting a bit, but I just wanted to say that this is fantastically written with so much detail, and the photos are spectacular,
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts! I love this kind of feedback as it shows me that I can touch some people with what I do and this blog is not always consumed like a flyer somebody hands you in a shopping mall. The trip to Chernobyl was a very personal vacation and even after almost three years I often think about it.