When I wrote about the *Abandoned Japanese Sex Museum* in spring a lot of people seemed to enjoy my article – on Sunday I had the chance to visit the Hokkaido House Of Hidden Treasures, Japan’s other abandoned sex museum. It wasn’t bigger, but it was less artsy and a lot more explicit! This haikyo gave the term “ruins porn” a way deeper meaning…
“House of hidden treasures” – a Japanese euphemism to describe sex museums. In the 1960s pretty much every of the 47 prefectures in Japan had a sex museum, usually located in a small spa town somewhere in the mountains. Video did not only kill the radio star, it also made pornography widely available and started the decline of many sex museums – the internet finished the job 20 years later. Nowadays there are only a handful of sex museums in Japan (although you can barely call them museums as most of them are bizarre collections of art and what some weird people think art is…) and they are fighting for survival. The Hokkaido House Of Hidden Treasures (HHOHT) was no exception in that regard. Opened at a time when other sex museums started to close (1980), the HHOHT was equipped with the latest technology of the time (including a huge 3D pussy, created by a plastic, a gigantic lens and a mirror), but ran into financial trouble in the new millennium – closing was considered in 2007 (after lowering the entrance fee by 1000 Yen to 1500 Yen), but it seems like it was kept open for business until March of 2010, when thieves stole a Marilyn Monroe wax figure, a female wax figure with a snake around her neck, a belly dance doll and two travelers’ guardian deities. While most other sex museums get rid of their exhibits (by throwing them away or selling them) and then become another parking lot, the Hokkaido House Of Hidden Treasures became the haikyo Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures – one of two known abandoned sex museums in Japan.
Much to my surprise the HHOHD was quite different from the *Abandoned Japanese Sex Museum* in Japan’s south. Instead of featuring dozens of wooden and stone statues the Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures was stuffed with taxidermy animals – most of them copulating: Horses, elks, zebras, boars, lions, monkeys, all kinds of birds… I’ve never seen that many stuffed animals anywhere. And while most of the sculptures at this museum didn’t even seem to be made from real stone, all the taxidermy animals were real and in pretty good condition – if not for the sex part the museum should have been famous for its stuffed animals. But of course there was so much more to see: paintings, drawings, animatronics, a shooting game called “French Ponpon” (5 shots with a gun: 100 Yen), a huge vibrating penis to sit on, sculptures, shrines (dedicated to birth or equipped with penis shaped statues), and wax figures in a bizarre forest scene – starring a big red demon (with a surprisingly small dick) and a naked woman, being watched by horny, peeping or even mating animals. The most strange thing though was found on the basement floor – it appeared to be another shooting game. This time participants had to shoot “water” from a huge golden penis at a naked female doll. I’m sure when the Hokkaido House of Hidden Treasures was still in business it was all fun and games, but this time there was a victim. My haikyo buddy *Michael Gakuran* wanted to have a closer look at the naked woman and stepped into what seemed to be a concrete pool – except that the surface wasn’t concrete, but gypsum floating on top of the still intact pool; resulting in a mild shock and lots of wet clothes. In hindsight the water in the shooting game must have been colored white for a more “realistic” approach; a closer look at the female doll confirmed that assumption. (Luckily Michael’s equipment wasn’t damaged thanks to a water-proof camera!) Instead of going back to the car and changing clothes Michael dried himself and his stuff up as good as possible and continued shooting for 45 minutes with one bare foot! What a trooper, especially since the place was literally freezing cold. Most of the rooms had dripping water, and on the lower floor the water froze to icicles or drops on the ground! It was so cold I could see my own breath and after a while my fingers started to hurt – I can only imagine how Michael must have felt; who even refused to leave right away when we both heard some noise from the upper floor, followed by footsteps – because he hadn’t shot a pitch black room in the back yet…
The Hokkaido House Of Hidden Treasure was a massive location and a real photography challenge thanks to lots of dark areas, massive amounts of glass and really weird setups; not challenging but weird BTW was the sukiyaki and ramen restaurant above the museum – I left that part out completely as it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the sex museum itself. All in all Michael and I spent almost 5 hours at the HHOHT – more time than at any other place before except for the *Nakagusuku Hotel* in *Okinawa*. And it was well worth it – I barely ever shot as many interesting and unique photos before. I also recommend watching the walking tour I shot as it shows the setup of the museum much better than I could describe it with words and photos. Speaking of which – here they are…
(If you don’t want to miss the latest article you can *follow Abandoned Kansai on Twitter* and *like this blog on Facebook* – and of course there is the *video channel on Youtube*…)
Addendum 2014-07-11: According friends of mine the museum has been severely vandalized since I visited it – R.I.P.!
Addendum 2015-08-18: I revisited the sex museum in late 2014 and wrote an article about it – Hokkaido House Of Hidden Treasures Revisited (The Rape And Death Of An Abandoned Sex Museum)
Nice writeup! And incredibly quick too! I finally arrived home this morning at 1.30am, after barely returning the rental car in time and rushing to the airport. Sod’s Law that the plane was delayed 40 minutes anyway, meaning I missed the last part of my connecting train home and had to walk 30 minutes…
Oh, and some bad news. While my weatherproof camera survived my fall into that pool of water, my most expensive lens attached to the camera did not. No idea if I can get it fixed yet. If not, I think I top the list for most expensive visit to a sex museum :(.
Hey Michael,
Yeah, I was kinda bored on Sunday evening after I went to the tourist information to get my Monday straightened out (I had to take a bus to the glass blowing thing and even the TI needed 15 minutes to figure it out!), so I wrote the article right away while the memory was still fresh – and thanks to the 6 a.m. routine you introduced me to I was up early this morning to get the photos and video ready for the blog. (My plane was delayed, too, and when I arrived home my laptop was finally dead after six years… I’ll have to buy a Japanese one now or be without a home computer for a month.)
I’m terribly sorry to hear that your lens seems to be damaged! The dip you took came so unexpectedly… I guess neither of us had a chance to react properly. Good luck, maybe you can get it fixed!
And I still can’t believe that you shot parts of the lower floor with one bare foot, although I’ve seen you doing it!
Well, it was either barefoot or in a squelchy shoe. I don’t know about you, but I find wet shoes to be a horrible experience!
Sorry to hear your computer died. I take it you have the data backed up? As you’re busy at work anyway, you can probably live with work computers for a month though, right? If not, you’ll probably struggle to find a replacement computer that doesn’t have a Japanese keyboard…
P.S. My website is now at gakuran.com :).
I think I would have gone to the car to get some dry socks – or call it day.
Yeah, the sensible data is backed up. I guess I’ll get a small notebook type of computer that’ll do for me.
Oh, and I’ll change the link right away – congratulations on the new URL!
awesome pics. I love them all. Nice shots . thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your kind comments!
you are welcomed
Good write up man! You said that you “heard some noise from the upper floor”, was it possible that security or homeless inhabitants casing the grounds? From my research of reading up on haikyo, it can be a haven for homeless or other strange characters. If I were to go into HHOHT alone, I would be terrified
Thanks a lot!
The noise from the upper floor could have been anybody – the owner, security, the police, some homeless guy, other urban explorers. We left through another exit and didn’t see anybody from the outside, so we’ll never know. Homeless people are not that common at abandoned places in Japan, although the restaurant floor (I only mentioned in my report) had a room where somebody lived – not sure though if before or after the place was abandoned.
Wow, that place looks incredible! Wish I’d known about it before we travelled to Hokkaido!
Sadly it’s not a tourist attraction (anymore) and not the most comfortable place to visit… and hardly known to the internet – I guess even Japanese people don’t dare to enter abandoned sex museums.
Hey!
Really nice work. Thank You for stopping and passing by blog. surely you having fun and lot of more creative stuff over here.
Have a Good Day!
You write about a fascinating rather specialized and unique topic. So do I… 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
🙂
Excellent blog. 😀 I’ll keep following it for ideas next Japan trip. Really well written and entertaining.
Thanks a lot, much appreciated!
Hokkaido my favorite place in Japan.Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it. Everything and everybody is so much more relaxed and nice than in Tokyo or Osaka…
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, too!
Hi, Florian, thanks for visiting my blog. I love your photos.
Thanks a lot, much appreciated!
Lolz~ It really doesn’t seem to be a museum so much as a collection of lude stautes. Not that I don’t find it extremely intriguing! I heard of one in Oita near where I live, but apparently that one’s been closed down as well.
Yeah, the one in Beppu closed just a couple of years ago. Not sure if it is abandoned, if they emptied it or if it was demolished…
(Really nice area BTW. I went to Oita in spring and I have only fond memories of that trip!)
Agreed! I love Oita~ 🙂
If that place was in Europe or North America, I doubt they would just leave it to rot. Auction? e-bay? Many of the articles would score top prices. I prefer it the way it is in Japan, but I was just thinking out loud…
Oh, I totally agree. Of course it’s kinda sad that beautiful, unique items are fading away, but that’s the decision of the owner. At least nobody steals the things or vandalizes them. I’m sure though that those taxidermy animals are worth a fortune!
I’ve been there. What a place.
Definitely one of the most unusual places I have ever been to.
Did you go there before or after it was closed?
It must have been after because all I remember is quiet and small groups of tourists walking around and giggling.
Excellent. Surreal. Bizarre. Great work – it was interesting to note just how common sex museums are throughout Japan because I don’t think we even have one in Britain despite its (secret) history of vice.
Thanks, Alex! Sadly those museums were popular – I don’t know exactly how many are left these days, but I’d guess maybe half a dozen. Two of them abandoned… The rest just closed and disappeared.