Strength lies in calmness – but when the clock’s ticking you have to make quick decisions… and some of them might not be the smartest!
I hate being rushed, in every aspect of life – whether it’s working, eating, or exploring. In times when more and more people become more and more unreliable, addicted to their own vanities locked behind black mirrors, I like to decelerate my life on purpose; not wasting time, but consciously deciding what to spend it on – planning ahead instead of making rushed decisions on short notice, that cost money and reputation at best, at worst even time in addition. I prefer slow food over fast food, a chair over a back seat, rewrites over first drafts, well-laid plans over rushed decisions, quiet time over a constant stream of IM ping sounds. I rather explore two or three locations a day thoroughly than rush through five or six – I live a busy life, still way too fast and busy for my taste… but I’m not on the run!
Back in 2013 I was on my way to Nagoya and I stopped at a rundown onsen town to explore a couple of places, more or less successfully. Despite being rather small, the village featured some large abandoned hotels. Hotels so rundown that I rather enjoyed the surrounding nature than breathing mold half the day. Back in the onsen town to catch a bus back to civilization I had about 15 minutes to kill, so I made the spontaneous decision to speedrun explore one of those rundown pieces of… decay. Walking inside as far as I could in 10 minutes, taking as many photos as possible freehand on high ISO (the sun was already setting…) – filming the three or four minutes on the way back before heading to the bus stop. For comparison: 10 minutes usually get me two decent shots using a tripod when exploring regularly; sometimes even less.
The result you can see below: A bunch of crappy photos and a rushed video. I probably would have spent those 15 minutes better by visiting an omiyage shop or enjoying a cold beverage while waiting for the bus. In addition to that the exploration was dangerous – because I rushed it, because I was alone. Overall a stupid idea. One I never repeated, because: Strength lies in calmness.
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Abandoned Kansai 
Do you usually use a mask in mouldy places….just curious
I’m afraid I breathe it all in. Except for one location – it was impossible to explore without a mask and still gave me nightmares for months…
Yikes, you be careful….
yeah i can see why chilling at a bus stop with a beer or whatever in hand would be a better spend time in this case, but on other hand, you never know what you may find in a place like this :D. yeah this time there was nothing spectacular to be found, but again, no way to tell before hand hahaha
You’re absolutely right – judging an abandoned place by the first impression is a huuuge mistake! Some places took me hours to appreciate. You never know. And sometimes it’s just a single room or even a single item that changes everything. (BTW, thanks for commenting – I really appreciate it, even though it sometimes takes me a while to answer…)
haha yeah 😀 and dont worry about it 😉