Abandoned ferris wheels usually come with abandoned theme parks. But when I visited *Expoland* in Osaka the ferris wheel was just demolished. And so were the giant wheels in all the other *abandoned amusement parks* I visited – except for the *big wheel in Pripyat* – which was actually pretty small… So usually the ferris wheel is one of the first things to be demolished when an amusement park closes – to be re-built at another park or to be sold for scrap metal. Not in the case of Igosu 108…
You might have seen photos of this abandoned ferris wheel at other blogs and you might ask yourself “Why is Florian calling the ferris wheel ‘Igosu 108’ – it says びわ湖タワー (Biwako Tower) in huge letters right in the middle of the thing and everybody calls it that way when writing about it?!”. Well, my Japanese might not be the best, but just because something is written somewhere doesn’t mean it’s the name of the place. And in this case it isn’t. The name of the ferris wheel is Igosu 108 – the name of the surrounding amusement park, now mostly gone, was Biwako Tower. To be more precise: The name of an observation tower, now gone, was Biwako Tower. This tower was 63.5 meters high and had a rotating observation platform that went up and down to give visitors a spectacular view across Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan. Biwako Tower was built in 1965 and extended to an amusement park in 1967. In addition to the observation platform there was a small ferris wheel, a rollercoaster, a pachinko parlor, water bumper car and several other small rides. But that’s not all! Biwako Tower also included an onsen (hot spring / spa) and a wedding hall – plus the usual array of restaurants, shops and stuff like that. Thanks to free parking and no entrance fee Biwako Tower was hugely successful and attracted up to 50.000 people a day!
In 1992 the last attraction was built – now the last one standing: Igosu 108 (イーゴス108). I can’t say for sure, but I guess the name is a combination of sugoi (すごい, meaning “great”) backward and 108 – the height of the ferris wheel, at the time the largest ferris wheel in the world. It was soon considered a landmark of Shiga prefecture and Lake Biwa, but couldn’t stop the downfall of Biwako Tower. Speaking of which: Since the ferris wheel was higher than the name-giving attraction Biwako Tower was transformer into a bungee jumping platform.
On August 31st of 2001 Biwako Tower finally closed its doors – just half a year after Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka. Most of Biwako Tower was demolished in late 2003 / early 2004 with the exception of Igosu 108. Some small attractions survived partly (like a fortune teller booth, Fantasy Land and Bumper Boat), but the rest was transformed into big supermarkets and other stores, their parking lot replacing the pachinko parlor. Two sources claim that Igosu 108 still has an owner who announced in 2007 that the ferris wheel will re-open in 2008, but that never happened. According to them an operator puts Igosu 108 into motion once a month to make sure that everything is still working.
Having visited what’s left of Biwako Tower in December of 2010 (together with Damon and Andrew right after leaving the *Love Hotel Gion*) I kinda doubt that claim. While the outer part is easy to access Igosu 108 is protected by a typical Japanese orange site fence. The noisy kind that doesn’t have a door to let people in and out easily. I didn’t have a closer look at the controls of the ferris wheel, but the whole place looked quite rusty and run-down. To reactivate Igosu 108 you would need way more than just a bucket of paint and a “Reopened!” sign…
(If you don’t want to miss the latest postings you can *follow Abandoned Kansai on Twitter* and *like this blog on Facebook* – and of course there is the*video channel on Youtube*…)
Addendum 2013-11-28: Igosu 108 was dismantled in autumn of 2013…
-
- Igosu 108
Abandoned Kansai 
Ah, I remember my visit here last December. I had a sprained ankle and had to do the whole thing limping on the way back from a weeklong conference I had in Shiga. Also met a female explorer from Hong Kong! Quite a nice little place actually. The blue skies made for some great pictures.
The atmosphere there is absolutely fantastic. I was lucky with the weather, too – but I think the place must be gorgeous to shoot under any conditions: sunshine, rain, snow, …
Since you’ve already been there I’m looking forward to your article about the place! Reminds me that I still have to write about our exploration of the Maya Hotel. That was like 15 months ago!
Haha, what a surprise. I dont remember it being that huge – first spotted it in 2006 and ended up in the adjoining shopping complex by chance about a year later. She is a real beauty 😉 and so are your pictures
Thanks a lot! Igosu 108 was a great model and offered countless interesting angles. The weather was nice, too, so the whole exploration was a very pleasant experience.
That is a nice wheel. I am wondering if it is still standing? I tried to find it on Google Earth to no avail, using those pamphlet photos from takis as a guide. A point in the right direction would be appreciated.
AFAIK the wheel is still there, but I haven’t been in the area for almost a year.
I found it! I was looking around the wrong bridge. Doh.
Enjoy your visit – and isn’t it rewarding finding places yourself? 🙂
Definitely !! Out in the wild is even better.
Down here in Perth, we don’t have a lot of interesting Haikyo like Japan. My first visit was to an abandonned half built mansion in Mosman Park. The owners were an Indian couple, supposedly mega wealthy, who part owned a fertilizer plant. This mansion is probably the biggest house in Perth and has massive domes on the roof, like a temple. They ran into financial trouble, usual story, the banks moved in, they fled the country leaving the house unfinished and owing money to the builder. The builder shut down work and it is standing unfinished. It will probably be demolished and the large land area split up.
I got some photos for posterity.
visited it this january, still there, bright and shining. or, rather… well, nm. true mention, the remains of this park are in quite great condition after all these years and it was nice to be there.
I’ve seen it in the distance from the top of Mt. Hiei recently – it’s a beauty and I’m glad that they didn’t demolish it.
it is now demolished
That’s really bad news – but thanks for letting me know!
For a different perspective, here’s a picture of me on Igosu 108 back in 1997.
I don’t have picture of the ferris wheel on its own in its fully-operating glory, but you can see it in the background of this picture of the Dragon Coaster.
The view from the top was pretty amazing!
Thanks a lot for sharing those photos! Pre-internet stuff of now abandoned places is so hard to find, yet so interesting!
Hi. I have done some researching and can’t find where the ferris wheel is now. Does anybody know?
I did some research, too, and it’s in Da Nang, Vietnam – the new name is Sun Wheel and it can be found here: 16.040469, 108.228605
EDIT: This was my source – http://oo24n.jp/archives/19687573.html