Japan is the land of abandonment – from *sex museums* to *amusement parks*, there is nothing that people don’t leave behind. Even if they could use it to drive away – welcome to the Ibaraki 7.
The Ibaraki 7 are a handful of foreign made cars sitting next to a wooden barn in rural Ibaraki; which means that the area is really rural, because Ibaraki is pretty rural, even by Japanese standards. And not to diss the prefecture, but it strikes me as one of those you would be glad to have a car – to get around or to get the heck out. (The capital is Mito – and Mito is famous for natto! Kyoto has yatsuhashi, Fukuoka has ramen, Yubari has melons… and Mito has natto; there even is a natto statue in front of the train station. Probably the only prefecture where you don’t want to eat the local delicacy…)
Anyway, the cars known as the Ibaraki 7 are just sitting there next to that barn at a countryside road. A little bit more overgrown in summer and autumn, a little less in winter and spring. Despite being rather popular even amongst Japanese explorers (mainly because they were on the direct way between two abandoned hospitals – were, because one of those hospital has been demolished two or three years ago), there is little to nothing known about the Ibaraki 7. And since I am not much of a car guy, I couldn’t even say which manufacturers or models they are. But I am sure Gred does. I was actually about to skip this week due to extreme lack of time, but then I thought: Look for those old car photos, rant and rave a little bit, and maybe some people will enjoy the combination. If nobody else does, I am sure Gred will… just for the photos. So here you are, Gred – this one’s for you!
PS: When naming the photos I guess found out at least some manufacturers / models myself… 🙂
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Abandoned Kansai 
There’s something about abandoned cars, Florian….but they need a good setting, which isn’t always there. But earlier this year, I saw these: https://suejudd.com/2017/07/21/deep-in-the-forest-6/
And plenty more
Oh, wow, nice find! I’m still looking for a car graveyard here, like the famous one in Belgium.
“there even is a natto statue in front of the train station”. I am trying to envision a natto statue… some slimy blob from outer space 🙂
I think I took a picture… Next time I’ll write about a place in Ibaraki I will post it along with the article. It looks much better than the final product!
thats awesome, thanks for that 😀 this is great and sad at same time…im very sure these cars are super rare in japan, hell most of the japanese cars alone from this era are quite rare in japan by now and im pretty sure there is someone who would love to own and drive one of those…
to be honest im not really able to identify these cars as im not too familiar with 60s UK market, but i did small research based on the clues given.there seems to be atleast 3 first generation singer vogue’s, produced between 1961 and 1966.both of these sports cars are second generation sunbeam alpine’s, produced between 1959 and 1968.well given to the amount of cars there this is not much, but better than noting i guess:D
i allways find it interesting when i see abandoned car in japan still with licence plates, so far i know in japan that means you have to pay taxes every year or so for it…youre able to cancel the registration, either temporary or forever by scrapping it, then you wouldnt have to pay taxes, but in any case it means removing the plates from car…
anyway thanks again for this 😀
You are welcome! I knew you would love it – and the article was surprisingly successful.
The owner probably died, so nobody is paying taxes – but if the state doesn’t know where the cars are, they can’t remove the plates. I wonder if that the answer…
Anyway, thanks for writing a little bit about the cars… and whenever I see some more, I’ll take pictures. Promise!
yeah that could be it in this case…but not allways tho, i recal few abandoned cars infront family house, right next to theyr new car, still on plates…maybe aslong you dont drive untaxed car around noone really cares, but that seems abit unlikely…i dont know…
allright, thanks 😀