Abandoned Kansai

Tourism to Japan is at an all-time high, so I guess it’s time for another urbex location for tourists. Enjoy a walk in the park and check out this abandoned water wonderland by simply looking over / through fences!

I’ve talked about the risks of urban exploration plenty of times in the past – and all those nuisance streamers and urbex tourists from overseas don’t make the whole thing easier for us locals, who just want to enjoy something fun to do in our spare time. Life in Japan is tough enough…
A couple of years ago I created a *Special “Urbex for Tourists”* to point out places where people can enjoy the aesthetics and atmosphere of abandonment without all the pesky dangers. Places like *Ikeshima*, *Tomogashima*, and *Okunoshima*. For today’s location though you don’t have to take a boat to a shima… pardon… island! You don’t even have to leave Tokyo. The now abandoned Rainbow Pool sits right there for you to enjoy in Showa Memorial Park, next to Nishi-Tachikawa Station in the outskirts of Tokyo. All you gotta do is get there, pay up (450 Yen entrance fee!) and enjoy.

I guess it’s this Matryoshka doll system of organization that makes the Rainbow Pool not really viable as a typical abandoned place. When the park is open, there are so many people present even on an overcast weekday, that there is basically no chance you would be able to jump a fence and explore the place without getting caught. When the park is closed, you would have to break into an active location, most likely while it’s still or already dark, and then you would have to jump a fence to explore the Rainbow Pool – with the risk of triggering god knows what kind of alarms or running into security / regular employees doing whatever they are paid to do in the park during off-hours. There are many much easier to explore water parks, which is probably why I’ve never seen the Rainbow Park on regular urbex sites.
So, what else is there to say about this place? You can walk along the fenced Rainbow Pool area (up until summer 2023 it cost an additional access fee, so of course it was always separated from the main park) and enjoy the abandoned looks of it – maybe take some photos over / through the fence. It’s not a real exploration and of course it’s impossible to get any really interesting shots that way, but it literally is a relaxing walk in the park, so why not? Not all explorations are enjoyable or spectacular or exciting – and overall it was still an above average experience, especially in combination with the autumn leaves at the time. So, yeah, have a look yourself, if you are in the area, and support a local park with your 450 Yen. And if you would like to know more about abandoned places for tourists, *check out this article*. 🙂

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