The abandoned Okayama Hospital is a place of many names. Okayama Countryside Clinic (like the *Tokushima Countryside Clinic*) would have been an appropriate name, too, but Japanese blogs usually call it the Setouchi Clinic – which I think is a rather risky name as, in my humble opinion, it gives away too much about its location…
I was trying really hard to write an entertaining text about the Okayama Hospital Haikyo, but sadly there is little to nothing known about the clinic – and the current humid heat here in Osaka (up to 37°C and up to 84% humidity) didn’t exactly help either. Judging by the mansion-like looks of the estate it must have been built during the Meiji or Taisho era – a traditional Japanese style complex with massive boundary walls. I don’t know when the clinic was abandoned, but I guess it was about 20 years ago. Overall it was in good condition, but nature was claiming back the living room and I saw a decently sized hole in the floor of the reception – probably a previous explorer crashing through the wooden planks.
The owner definitely moved out, but left behind quite a bit of both medical as well as everyday life items. Since I visited the clinic, well hidden by a completely overgrown garden, on a rainy summer day, it was quite uncomfortable to explore – not nearly as bad as the mosquito ridden hellhole known as *Doctor’s Shack*, but still bad enough. It obviously also affected the lighting in the clinic, so I decided to publish this set in monochrome. For some reason monochrome works well with abandoned countryside clinics. (If you watch the video and think “But the sun is shining outside!” – yeah, for about ten minutes while I was there… and then for the rest of the day right after I left the clinic!)
Since the weather is killing me and there is not much to say about the clinic anyway, I will keep it short this week – overall it was a good location with some neat little details (I love the clock, the two phones and the katakana eye test!), but the *Tokushima Countryside Clinic* is still unrivaled when it comes to abandoned village doctor houses…
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Abandoned Kansai 
Even better in black and white. Great mood of loneliness, melancholy and decline in those frames. You did an awesome job, Florian.
Thanks a lot! I had extremely high expectations on the clinic. Sadly the photos didn’t turn out as well as I hoped they would, so I had quite a hard time with the selection. The more I am happily surprised about the positive feedback!
I agree with macingosh….monochrome enhances the air of abandonment, desolation and melancholy. Great post.
Thanks, Sue! Usually I don’t do any post-production, so I am always having a hard time even pushing the monochrome button, but it just felt right in that case, especially on photos like the one with the baby scale.
This has a real Zen like feeling about it. Probably because the architecture is more traditionally styled.
The house was actually pretty neat, I loved the open ceiling to the second floor. It must have cost a fortune a century ago!
Great set of photos! For some reason everyone is notoriously secretive about this place, but I’m glad to see your foraging paid off and you were able to find and visit it! Definitely on my list for the next time I’m over in West Japan :).
Thanks a lot, Michael! The clinic was good, but IMHO it didn’t live up to the hype.
BTW: Already August and we still haven’t explored together this year… time to meet up, my friend!
Autumn would be good perhaps! Let’s get planning.
Gorgeous! I like the eye test, too.
Thanks a lot, Helen! The eye test was the photo I wanted to take. I saw it on another blog and I knew I had to take my own version. For that alone it was worth the drive on a humid day…
Wow what a great place, this was not abandoned 20 years ago, more like 50 years years ago. the kitchen is a give away still designed like daidokuro, yet this guy had the money to plug in a washing machine and a gas rice cooker that look strangely out of place and look like they didn’t get much use before it was abandoned. Japan is full of places like this, I’ve driven though entire towns where 60% or more of the main drag is boarded up and abandoned, dozens of hotels in the mountains even in Tokyo city, houses, clinics, gas stations, car yards, hole in the wall restaurants, businesses of every kind. Not just closed down and cleaned out many look like your clinic. Like they’d waked out to buy something and never returned. All the paraphernalia of every day life still neatly arranged ready for the next meal …..
Hey John,
Usually I am not a big fan of exploring abandoned private homes, most of them are in really bad condition anyway, especially the single houses along countryside roads, but those old doctor’s mansions are just amazing. Most of them have been torn down – and the few that were converted into museums always look a bit sterile to me. So being a bit of a history geek, I am always grateful to get a glimpse at real life as it happened 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago…
I know what your mean, I enjoyed your video, it was like walking into a parallel universe where time had been frozen at the moment the last occupant had started to pack. Not like a museum where things are shown in an overly romantic pastiche. I love history too and feel privileged to see it in place like that, i wonder how many lives had been weighed on those scales, Thanks for posting it up !
Thanks for watching the video! Not a lot of people do… except for some videos that do really, really well for unpredictable reasons.
I actually have three more of the clinic:
1.) 2F, main building (makeup mirror, …)
2.) 1F, side building (abandoned art)
3.) 2F, side building (transport box, …)
Recently I only put up the best video of a location as it takes so much time to upload the stuff – and then just 50 people watch it… or parts of it…
Are the others at your YouTube site? I noticed I can’t link through to YouTube from the video I can only watch the embed ….oh BTW. I loved the monochromes it was fun picking them out in the video. I’ve only just started using WordPress and it feels a bit clunky on my iPad …
Sorry found your YouTube link through Facebook I see there not as yet …., I ‘ ll enjoy what’s there though, thanks Florian !
Yeah, I am sorry – pretty much all the videos I publish on Youtube I also link here…
This is amazing. I always thought there was something cool about abandoned places, especially ones that still show proof of the owner’s existence. The clinic is in surprisingly good condition considering…
But maybe I’ve also played too many video games. For some reason this seems a great setting for a horror game or a mystery game where you need to collect clues.
Also, I’m a bit superstitious so you have to excuse me for asking, but aren’t you afraid of taking home a ghost or something?
Hey renmi,
I actually don’t believe in ghosts – otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do urban exploration on a regular basis. I’ve been to so many places where people died or got seriously hurt. If I would believe in ghosts it probably would drive me nuts…
And I totally agree, some of the places I’ve been to, including this one, would be perfect as settings for video games, but for some reasons a lot of creators are very secretive about their inspirations and they would never reveal their sources, despite the fact it would be free PR for both their games and a couple of lucky urbex pages. (For example the last Bond hideout being inspired by *Gunkanjima* was good for everybody – the movie, the tour boats to Gunkanjima and probably some urbex blogs, too!)
Wonderful set.
Thanks a lot!
Awesome stuff, love the black and white pics, perfect for the subject matter.
Thanks a lot, James! A couple of photos would have looked “monochromish” anyway due to the lighting and the objects there – and it worked well when I converted the photos taken at the *Tokushima Countryside Clinic*.
Nice piece! The photos remind me of the hospital from the drama ‘Machi isha Junbo’.
Thanks, it was a lovely little place to explore, one that really felt like a time travel.