Wind is barely ever a factor when exploring abandoned places, but it this case it made taking outdoor shots very, very uncomfortable…
Over last few weeks I already wrote two articles about my day in Haboro in early May (featuring the *Chikubetsu Mine* and the *Haboro Green Village*), so you probably remember that it wasn’t the friendliest of days to explore, but not the worst either. You also probably remember the history of the place, so I won’t repeat again (built in 1940, closed in the early 70s, yada, yada, yada…). Arriving at the Haboro Miners’ Apartments, just a few hundred meters away from the Green Village / elementary school, the wind picked up significantly. Usually nothing to worry about, but as you can see on the photos, the apartment blocks were surrounded by a lot of trees… trees that were massively affected by the strong winds outside – to an extend that I was quite worried one of them would fall down on me… although it would have probably enough if a branch broke loose and turned into a widow maker. In addition to that the almost 80 year old concrete buildings were in really bad condition, apparently losing bits and pieces every once in a while, especially from the dilapidated balconies and the roofs in horrible condition…
Inside, the apartment buildings looked similar to the ones I’ve explored before – massive concrete blocks with wooden floors and storage spaces; some of the floors were in rather bad condition, most of the apartments were empty. Since the mine didn’t close by surprise and people could move out at their own speed, there was probably little to nothing left behind. And more than 40 years of irregular visitors did the rest. Interestingly those apartments did not only have private toilets (a real luxury in 1940s Japan!), they even featured Western style toilets, which is a luxury a lot of Japanese train stations don’t offer to this very day! (And don’t believe the hype, hardly anybody uses the squatting toilets here, unless they have to. It’s the same with restaurants and sitting on the ground – if a place offers both, usually the counter and the tables are occupied first, then the rest fills up…)
Overall it was the strong wind that made this exploration rather memorable – the buildings themselves offered some interesting details (like that tree growing through a balcony rail), but they were no match to the *Landslide Mining Apartments* and especially the *Matsuo Mine Apartment Buildings*.
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Nature taking over, big time!
And that was at the end of winter / beginning of spring – imagine what it looks like in summer / autumn… 🙂
Hmmm….plenty of Ticks?
There are surprisingly few ticks in Japan. They probably get eaten by nastier bugs…
Oh, OK….but there are cases of Tick borne encephalitis in Japan, nonetheless
There are indeed ticks in Japan, and they actually are in Hokkaido (and Tohoku), barely ever further south. And when you catch a related disease, Japanese doctors tend to be useless… like so many professions here. 😦
Doesn’t sound good…
nice 🙂 somehow,articles about abandoned apartment buildings,family houses and such,simply about places where peoples actually lived,are my most favorite ones 😀
Thanks!
Sadly regular houses are among my least favorite places to explore, but due to the insane amount of abandoned homes in Japan they will pop up regularly on Abandoned Kansai… 🙂