The most beautiful abandoned looking hotel I have never entered – this title goes to the Hachijo Royal Hotel, once the biggest hotel in all of Japan. I went there twice, at sunset and the next morning just after sunrise, both times I ran into several people, both times I had a feeling that this hotel wasn’t really abandoned… and I turned out to be right. Half a year after my visit several Japanese explorers changed their reports about the hotel, some of them apologizing – apparently they had been contacted by the current management…
In the past two years more and more allegedly abandoned hotels on *Hachijojima* popped-up on Japanese urbex blogs, and when I decided in early 2014 to have a look myself, I went there with one very specific picture in my mind: the front of the Hachijo Royal Hotel, the first photo of the gallery at the end of the article. Sadly none of those blogs did much research on the hotel’s history, so I had to dig a little bit deeper, like so many times before…
The Hachijo Royal Hotel was opened in 1963 – eight years after the former military airport on Hachijojima was turned over to civilian control and four years after the local tourist office was established. At the time the biggest hotel in all of Japan (according to one of the people I spoke with) the owning company celebrated their then-president Eiji Yasuda with a statue of himself in the vast park of the resort. Tourism on the Izu Islands was booming back then, especially on Hachijojima, since the government nicknamed it the “Hawaii of Japan” in an attempt to give the island a positive image and the population of Tokyo a warm place to visit. That couldn’t have sit very well with Okinawa back then as all they got were quite a few American military bases; something they are not really happy with till that very day. Nowadays Japanese people prefer to go to Okinawa or the real Hawaii. Most likely due to Hachijojima’s lack of sand beaches and spare time offers other hiking, surfing and diving – resulting in a steep decline of tourism on Hachijojima. In 1996 the Hachijo Royal Hotel reopened as the Pricia Resort Hachijo… as in Pricia Resort Yoron on one of the Okinawan islands. The Pricia Resort Hachijo closed in August 2003 and re-opened on June 1st 2004 as the Hachijo Oriental Resort, which is still written on the main entrance, the road sign and a car with license plates parked on the premises. In 2005 “Trick the Movie 2” was shot at the hotel, the sequel to a movie, based on a three season long Japanese comedy drama TV show. It seems like the hotel was closed again around that time, which is just proves how quickly places decay when they are refused any maintenance, especially on an island surrounded by saltwater.
I first arrived at the Hachijo Royal Hotel in the afternoon of a gorgeous spring day. This was one of the last big ticket items I really wanted to explore in Japan, so I was quite nervous when I approached. Thanks to Google Street View I knew that I would be able to get close to the hotel without jumping any fences, but I also knew that there would be a barber shop near the back, just across the street. To fill some of the blanks, I first approached the area that the Street View car couldn’t access – and of course the first thing I saw were two cars with license plates parked directly in front of the main entrance, a Suzuki Carry kei truck a little further in the back. Darn! Would my exploration end 30 seconds into it? Luckily it didn’t. I kept myself together and walked up to the cars, prepared for some small talk with an owner, security guard or some construction workers. Turns out the whole thing was a false alarm – all cars had flat tires, some were rusty beyond repair… and the kei truck was labelled Blues Mobile; very funny! I had a look around and it seems like the Hachijo Royal Hotel consisted of two parts. The main building with its amazing back towards the waterfront – and a White House style annex building opposite the main entrance. Following a couple of dozen photos, I started the obligatory video tour, when suddenly a huge roar was thundering down the coastal road, apparently a couple of bikers, also enjoying this warm spring day. Okay, second attempt, starting next to the White House annex. A minute or two into it, I just arrived at the main entrance, an old guy walking his cat size lap dog showed up in the background, so I stopped filming and approached him with a smile, again ready for some small talk. Sadly the guy seemed to be in a very bad mood (no surprise, I would be embarrassed, too, being seen in public with a dog like that…) and literally tried to shoo me away; which actually pissed me off quite a bit, because Senior McLapdog obviously had about as many rights to be there as I had; at least I tried to be a friendly person. Long story short, I pretended to go away, but ran into him again as I need to go back to take the video I wanted to take. After a while he finally left, but I wouldn’t have been the first vengeful person to call the police, so for the next hour or so I made sure to stay on public ground; after I took the video, of course.
The back of the hotel with its amazing gigantic and partly overgrown pool area as well as a huge park was mind-blowingly beautiful and all I hoped it would be – strangely enough it faced the main road, so the back of the hotel was the front… or vice versa. Anyway, I took some shots and after I was pretty confident that the police wouldn’t show up any time soon… I was approached by another elderly on his bike, telling me about the history of the hotel. 10 minutes later, the guy was finally out of sight, I walked up to the hotel. Up there were some outdoor showers, another (small) pool, a few European style statues, at one point in time probably water fountains, and a back entrance, blocked from the inside with a large rusty sickle! When you think you’ve seen it all… It was getting dark pretty quickly and I didn’t bring my tripod, so went for a stroll along the coast and for dinner at a sushi restaurant, serving flying fish, amongst other local delicacies.
Right after I woke up the next morning I went back to the Hachijo Royal Hotel. Different light from a different direction… but pretty much the same amount of people passing by. Heck, nobody was getting in or out, but the area was as busy as a beehive! After a friendly morning talk with a female dog walker I took some photos as the seriously damaged tennis courts before heading back to the “backfront”, to finally grab the photo I really wanted to take. A conversation with another biker later I finally descended to the partly overgrown pool area. One of the two changing areas looked like somebody was squatting there for a while (and what better place for that than an island so warm that it offers a free camping site all year long?), but other than that it looked as abandoned as the rest of the hotel – so signs of maintenance, no signs of any ownership, except for years old, trampled down ropes here and there. In its heydays the gigantic pool must have been amazing, at the time of my visit it was barely accessible – especially the concrete pathway with steps towards the backfront with the smaller pool and all the statues was completely overgrown and barely visible.
Even without entering the Hachijo Royal Hotel, it was a great experience exploring this wonderful resort and its absolutely stunning seaside front. It’s quite a big photo gallery this time, so make sure to not miss the hidden gems, like the picture on which the sun is setting behind Mount Hachijo-Fuji while a plane is just leaving for Tokyo’s Haneda airport. The four videos I publish show most of the resort’s exterior and I hope they will give you a better impression of how gorgeous the place really was. If there really still is an owner, I really hope he will act quickly and spend some money to save this modern classic – it’s one of those places that would really deserve to be saved!
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Love this!
I am happy to hear that!
If their intent was to re-create the ambience of an ancient Greek or Roman town, they did a remarkably good job of it. What a shame it had to be abandoned.
Yeah, if *Western World* would be Westworld, this hotel could be Romanworld. 🙂
Just a thought wouldn’t it be cool if the Japanese Horror Masters made a movie there? I mean Got the idea of the ‘Shining” (USA ) and change it to the Japanese version ? That was is a Hotel and so was the one in a the Shining .Just like ‘Paranormal Activity ‘We have our view and there is a Japanese version both cool. Well have a Nice New Year! Keep shooting!
Happy New Year to you, too!
Oh, if I was a horror movie director, I would know enough possible shooting locations for at least half a dozen films. I was actually involved in the production of a no budget short that was shown at festivals in Tokyo and other cities. But that’s a story for a another time…
Thank you .I love Japanese Horror and I am sure you can think of some great ones. Have a nice day.
would like to go here.
Who wouldn’t? 🙂
Most amazing indeed!
Thank you for posting this! Now I wish I could go back in time to see what this resort hotel was like when it was in its heyday. What amazing photos!
Yeah, I get that feeling more often than not, especially since I’ve been to Kyoto and Osaka in 1998, but of course I didn’t know that *Nara Dreamland* existed or that it would close in 2006…
Wow. The statuary alone is worth it! Nice post.
Thanks a lot! I liked the place so much, I went there before dinner and the next day before breakfast. 🙂
great!i like how thanks to rust on that white wagon the stones under it got some rust too,it must be here for a while…wich is interesting since its more or less under roof,the van next to it look pretty rust-less
It’s always interesting to see similar items react differently to similar situations. I guess water was dripping on the White car, but not on the other one.
Thanks for the posting. Love it. BUT what is the real story behind it being abandoned?
What do you mean by “the real story”?
I’m sure you know this, but some readers may not: Japanese needed a visa to visit Okinawa until it reverted to Japan in the early 70s.
Also, to me this hotel almost has a Stalinist look to it. Google “Stalinist architecture” and you’ll see what I mean comrade!
I knew that Okinawa was under American government till 1972, but I wasn’t aware that Japanese people needed a visa to visit – I assumed that Hachijojima was just more convenient to go to from most of mainland Japan.
Hmm, there was an article in a newspaper about this recently. However, it looks like nobody knows exactly when this was abandoned. There are different sources stating different years.
Maybe to at least provide a little more updated information … I spent my holidays in that hotel in March, 2006. So by this time it was definitely still open even though it already looked a bit shabby.
Got some pictures if anyone is interested. If I would have known this would be one of the most interesting abandoned places in the world at some point, probably would have taken some more pictures though. 😉
So heart breaking to see a lot of history abandoned.
Yeah… But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. 🙂
Hey, I’ve recently watched some youtube videos about this place and then i found your blog wich is very nice ;). I have a question. I’ve seen this sign in the hotel a few times. https://imgur.com/gallery/x5cYd Do you know anything about it ?
Sorry, Théodore, I’ve never seen that sign before…
But thanks for your kind words! Abandoned Kansai is updated at least once a week with a new location and an end is not in sight. 🙂
Is it on sale?
Not by me…