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Archive for the ‘Asia’ Category

Kyoto Company Countryside Retreat

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, House, Japan, Photography, Travel, Urbex on 2023/07/05| 5 Comments »

Nothing like exploring an original find in the countryside – and this one was a beauty! Exclusively on Abandoned Kansai… 🙂

A while ago I took a bus through the countryside when I spotted this partly overgrown, massive wooden gate along a road in the middle of a forest. I made a note and was able to find the place on GoogleMaps when I got home, even verified it via StreetView. Behind the gate and in the forest I saw several roofs, so… chances were that I stumbled across another original find. The area was accessible by public transport, but not easily, so it took me a while to get back there – and it was well worth the trip!
The problem with original finds and exploring by public transport is that those places are, even more so than established locations, basically impossible to plan for. In the past I had as little as 15 minutes to explore and document a place as this was either the only connection to the middle of nowhere – or I would have had to stay 5 hours, basically ruining the rest of the day… and maybe be done after 20 minutes anyway. Usually I plan with 2 hours per exploration. Good for most locations, but even if it’s a fantastic place you can cover a lot of ground in that time. And if it’s a dud, I can sit down and relax for an hour… or 90 minutes… or 110. Unfortunately, 2 hours is not always an option. In this case I had about 45 minutes, though 120 minutes would have been perfect!
I got past the gate surprisingly easily and finally had a look at what was behind – a series of rather modern buildings with large glass elements, some connected by a wooden deck and / or a bridge on the upper floor. Steel, glass, concrete; quite 21st century. I still don’t know what this place was exactly, but judging by what I saw and based on the phone number I spotted on a sign, belonging to a company in Kyoto City, I assume it was one of those infamous company retreats. (One of the benefits working for a Japanese company of decent size and reputable image is access to one or more company retreats. Most of them are located in / near onsen towns or along the coast. Some are simple huts with self-catering, others are fully staffed mini resorts with a pool, arcade machines, a gym, access to a nearby country club, … Employees can use those facilities, usually located within two hours of driving from the main office, for free or a small fee.) Unfortunately I was in a hurry – and all the doors were locked. No signs of vandalism whatsoever. No broken things, no graffiti, no BB bullets. Just those amazing buildings in the afternoon sun, pure bliss, surrounded by nature. But the buildings seemed to be empty anyway, so in the end I was very pleased with the photos I took.

My expectations when walking up to the Kyoto Company Countryside Retreat were super low. “Roofs behind an abandoned looking gate” means nothing in Japan, could have been anything, including demolished the week before. What I found was a building complex, a small compound, that I absolutely loved. This was my kind of exploration, my kind of architecture. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to; buses and trains aren’t waiting for anybody. So I left with a heavy heart. Because it was such a stunning place – and because I felt like I wouldn’t be able to share it on Abandoned Kansai for a long time as I didn’t want to drag it into the public eye. But then I figured… that if I wouldn’t publish the photos of the gate, the Kyoto Company Countryside Retreat would be almost impossible to find. So, after thinking about it for a while, I selected some pictures, wrote up this little article and… well… here we are. I’m 99.99% sure that you won’t be able to find photos of those abandoned buildings anywhere else on the internet – it was the solo exploration of an original find, even my closest urbex friends don’t know that I’ve explored it… or when… or that this place exists (to the best of my knowledge – maybe they went there 5 years ago and decided not to publish it, like I initially did… 🙂 ). Please enjoy the gallery below and feel free to share this article with any of your friends who might be interested in Japan, urban exploration or just unusual things in general.
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A Friendly Reminder

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Non-Urbex, Photography, Travel, Urbex on 2023/06/30| 16 Comments »

Hello everyone!

This is just a friendly reminder that Abandoned Kansai is run with the exclusive intention of showcasing the beauty of abandonment in Kansai and the rest of Japan.

Ever since Japan opened the floodgates again for tourists from overseas, I receive a ton of PMs and e-mails from people… Everything from “Yo dawg, coordinates?” to really friendly messages.
How do I say this as politely as possible? Urban exploration is a dangerous hobby and not something anybody is entitled to. The locations can be dangerous, the weather conditions can be dangerous, the wildlife can be dangerous; and legally it’s a grey area at best! I don’t encourage anybody doing urban exploration nor do I support the efforts – quite the opposite actually! Especially when you have never done it before. After almost 14 years of exploring I have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing, sometimes learning the hard way. Most people writing me though don’t even seem to have a clue about how much and what they don’t know. Flip-flops wearing first timers on vacation who might get themselves killed – because Japan is this quirky whimsical fairy tale place where nothing can go wrong, even the police look like in an anime! Or worse: “I work for a popular Youtube channel and our audience likes to see us exploring…” Yeah, no problem – of course I’ll do the difficult part for any fame hungry idiot too lazy or incompetent to find abandoned places themselves in a country where you hardly can throw a stone without hitting a ruin! Anything else I can do? Drive you there? Hand you snacks and sodas? Pay for everything? (Speaking of payment: Offering me money doesn’t help, I’m not a whore. And Youtubers are actually not the worst people who contact me – Youtubers with 6- or 7-figure subscribers who have their management write me are; some of those people pretend to be independent wanderers, but apparently can’t even properly plan their own trips; instead they try to exploit the people who do the groundwork.) Sooooo… long story short: Urban exploration is a difficult and complex hobby with no room for bullshit or entitlement. The signs in the gallery below have been put up for good reasons. Respect them or be prepared to deal with the consequences… (I’m not trying to be mean here, this really is just a friendly reminder. Enjoy your time in Japan and don’t cause yourself unnecessary trouble! Or even better: Just enjoy Abandoned Kansai!)

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Hiroshima Sports Hotel Revisited

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Hiroshima, Hotel / Ryokan, Japan, Photography, Sports, Travel, Urbex on 2023/05/31| 5 Comments »

The first time I visited the *Hiroshima Sports Hotel* it had a reputation for being under close surveillance of the surrounding country club – tough to get in and out. While it wasn’t exactly tough to get in, I still believed the story and barely dared to step outside to take pictures of the pool and the tennis courts, so I was stuck with a mediocre abandoned hotel that was completely overhyped. I hardly ever do revisits, except for *Nara Dreamland* back in the days, so I closed that chapter and hoped that I would never be reminded.
About 5 years and a case of arson later I found myself in front of the goddamn place again – with a different group of friends who never had been there before, which boggled my mind, because they just introduced me to an amazing abandoned hospital I didn’t even know existed. I had no intentions to waste just a single second on that piece of shite hotel, but I couldn’t really say no as I was still high on gratitude. Despite the flaming incident the reputation of the place apparently hadn’t changed (amazing, but hard to enter), so my friends were super excited, and I couldn’t break the news to them that we were about to waste a precious afternoon far from home. Upon arrival we saw a guy sitting in front of the road leading up to the hotel, apparently guarding it. The little devil on my shoulder was like “Perfect! Let’s use that guy as an excuse to bolt and explore a way more interesting location instead!” and my (Japanese) friends started to slightly panic, instantly trying to scout alternative ways in; which didn’t exist. I knew that because I’ve been there before. So I listened to that stupid little angel on my other shoulder and stopped my friends before somebody broke their ankle or sprained their neck (or the other way round…) and introduced them to the concept of gaijin smash. I’d walk up to and past the guy with a friendly konnichiwa on my lips and then head straight for the hotel. If he was in fact a guard, I’d play the stupid bumbling gaijin who doesn’t understand a word or the situation – if he was cool my friends should follow right behind me. And what shall I say? I smashed the situation and got us all in without sliding down a barely angled 5-meter-tall wall none of us would have been able to climb up again… and at the same time ruined the rest of my day.

While I must admit that the second exploration of the *Hiroshima Sports Hotel* was quite a bit more interesting than the first one (the arson added to the atmosphere and I went outside without caring about getting caught), it was still a boring AF experience. I didn’t even go upstairs and stayed on the entrance level and downstairs again. 5 years of additional decay (and vandalism) made some spots more interesting, so I was able to take a few cool photos, but again: hotel, revisit, exiting morning. BORING! Almost two hours later my friends finally had enough, and I was finally free to leave – just in time for sunset, ending this day of explorations. A glorious day overall that would have been better without this surprise revisit, but sometimes you gotta be a team player – especially in the land of shoganai…

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Trump Golf Resort Japan

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Golf, Haikyo, Japan, Photography, Sports, Travel, Urbex, Visited in 2017 on 2023/03/16| 4 Comments »

I admit, the last two locations and articles were a bit dull, so let’s strike back bigly with… oh… goddammit… an abandoned golf course? Really?

First of all: The Trump Golf Resort Japan has nothing to do with former US president Donald J. Trump or anybody in his family. I named it that, because it was rather close to the abandoned *Trump Hotel* – which also had nothing to do with that clan. When you google the name of this article, the Mobara Country Club in Chiba prefecture pops up, because Trump played golf there with Shinzo Abe in 2019 – needless to say that it also isn’t related in any way to this article, neither is the Kasumi Country Club, where those two big shots played in 2018. But when I think of golf resort and abandoned, I think of Trump… with a fox in the distance.

Anyway, the Trump Golf Resort Japan was an original find, so don’t expect to see it very often on the interwebs, weebs. It consisted of a 9-hole golf course and a driving range… but no hotel, so I guess the name is a bit of an exaggeration, although there was a large apartment building with a restaurant right across the street – so I guess it’s kind of appropriate in a weird way? Anyway, tiny golf course, tiny hands; but big boy golf, not mini golf!

The main building was rather unspectacular – a medium sized house with a bar and changing rooms, nothing too fancy. Moss and other plants had already taken over, but this probably could have easily been converted into a nice bachelor pad with a killer man cave. The outside area was equally unspectacular and mostly overgrown. Worth mentioning was an abandoned golf trophy I probably should have taken it with me to send to Trump as a consolation prize for when he loses the primary against DeSanctimonious. Bwahahahahaha! Oh, and there was some other golf stuff left behind, too – bags, clubs, clothing…
The nearby driving range at the other end of the parking lot was mostly overgrown, which made it look a bit more interesting than the club house, which looked more like a surfer shop or something; probably due to location and the real name. Inside I found a first aid kit in a wooden box, plenty of golf balls and some clubs, outside there were some simple plastic chairs and tables as well as some drive mats (?) or whatever they are called.

Abandoned driving ranges in that condition are rather rare in Japan, so I really appreciated the rather unusual exploration – and the main building was just a nice bonus. Sure the *Japanese Driving Range* and the *Countryside Golf Course* were nicer individually, but as a package this was a pretty good abandoned golf site. And now it’s time for dinner… I think I’ll go with meatballs!

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Onsen Town Shrine

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Photography, Sacred Site, Travel, Urbex on 2023/01/30| 3 Comments »

For quite a while now the first article of the year on Abandoned Kansai has been about an abandoned shrine, because pretty much the first thing Japanese people do in the new year, some even at midnight, is visiting a shrine or temple, a tradition called hatsumode. And we can’t change that now, can we?

There are about 100 000 shinto shrines and 80 000 Buddhist temples in Japan – quite a few cities and towns have their tourism based on them, and the vast majority of those temples and shrines are in remarkably good condition. Thanks to the continuing urbanization in Japan more and more temples and shrines become abandoned though, because there is NOBODY around anymore; but even in still populated areas you can find one here or there. The abandoned Onsen Town Shrine is one of those… Another location with a rather descriptive name as it was located in the outskirts of a dying onsen town. Even though I know the real name of the shrine and it was marked still active on GoogleMaps I wasn’t able to find out much about it. I guess there are just too many temples and shrines in Japan to keep track of all of them. Which is a great opportunity to keep this article short and wish you lots of fun with the gallery at the end – the atmosphere was amazing, with the overgrown long staircase and nobody else around, paint flaking off the rusty building materials. On a rainy day this place would be perfect as the setting for a horror movie!

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Love Hotel Trash

Posted in Abandoned, Aichi, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Love Hotel, Photography, Travel, Urbex, Visited in 2014 on 2022/12/24| 2 Comments »

It’s this time of the year again… the end, when I post an abandoned love hotel to wish everybody a Merry XXX-Mas!

If you are, or rather were, a regular reader of Abandoned Kansai, you’ve probably noticed that the articles came everything but regular in 2022. Yeah, I’ve explored a little less than in previous years, but I still managed to check out something like 35 locations, which isn’t that bad, considering that I did 33 of them solo and by public transportation; which was probably one of the reasons why I published fewer articles in 2022 – less talking about urbex also meant a strongly reduced urge to write about urbex as the topic became less present in my life; still by far my favorite and most time-consuming hobby though. And the average quality was amazing, so was the amount of original finds I was able to check out. It’s absolutely mind-blowing what you can find in Japan when you get off the couch and leave the Golden Route for a change!

This year’s XXX-Mas love hotel is a rundown piece of s#it I’ve explored back in 2014 and never dared to mention as it was that sub-par – much like 2022 in general! What a piece of trash year overall, so here we go, the Love Hotel Trash. I actually don’t remember much about it, except that it was one of eight locations that day – six of them (love) hotels. Like most abandoned love hotels it was along a countryside road and easy to access (only roped off), but also vandalized and completely filled with trash; 23 minutes between the first and the last photo. At least I didn’t waste much time on it, unlike certain other projects in 2022… In and out without being seeing or heard. According to GoogleMaps the thing is still standing, but I doubt that it looks any better eight years later!

Of course the Love Hotel Trash isn’t even remotely comparable to the greats like the *Japanese Castle Love Hotel* or the *Fashion Hotel Love*, but it kind of fit the trash year 2022 best! *Oh, and if you are not familiar with love hotels and want to know more about them in general, please click here.*
Merry XXX-Mas everyone!

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Ski Castle

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Photography, Travel, Urbex on 2022/11/22| 9 Comments »

It’s late November and the skiing season in Japan will start soon – time to have a look at a very special abandoned place deep in the mountains; an original find I’m quite proud of!

One of my favorite pastimes is looking more or less randomly at the satellite view of GoogleMaps, trying to find new abandoned places. About two years ago I spotted two large buildings in the middle of nowhere, impossible to get to by public transportation and therefore pretty much out of reach for me, given the recent trend of me exploring more and more solo again. I couldn’t get the place out of my mind, so I got back to it on GoogleMaps every once in a while – and a few months ago I realized that GoogleMaps added a bus stop just two kilometers away from it. 40 minutes by bus away from the closest train station, three buses in each direction per day with different schedules on work days and weekends / national holiday; one set not practical, because the stay in the middle of nowhere would be too long / short. Fortunately my next trip to the general area worked out well and I was able to include the mysterious place into my schedule… at the risk of missing the last bus and being stuck in the middle of nowhere! But hey, no risk, no fun, no explorations…
Public buses in Japan come in all shapes and sizes – from classic city buses to van sized community buses; and of course mine to the middle of nowhere was on the smaller end with only a tiny door for entrance end exit; basically a large van, maybe twelve seats. Now, it being a community bus not only meant that it was going to small countryside communities, it also meant that the bus driver was a bit more chatty and personal. When he heard where I wanted to go, he was quite hesitant to take me there – because “there is nothing there!”, which wasn’t exactly true or false; instead he recommended two other stops to get off, which, he promised, would be much more interesting. I politely declined and the driver finally gave in. 35 minutes later I found myself in the middle of nowhere on a straight countryside road – a small building across the street, maybe or maybe not abandoned, and nothing else in sight. And so I started walking… took a turn… and another one… and after about 25 minutes the buildings I was eager to see for two years finally came into sight!
At this point it was early in the afternoon, yet sunset was upon me soon. I was by myself in the middle of nowhere with no idea what to expect, and the only things I heard were the biting wind and not exactly friendly sounding animal noises I haven’t heard before and was not at all familiar with. Hooray for urban exploration… Were the buildings really abandoned? Would they be accessible? Was there still security of some kind? And what has the facility been used for? A hotel? A research facility? A wedding venue?
Realizing that the driveway was roped off gave me new confidence that the place was really abandoned, but even after passing the first building I had no idea what the purpose was. Large flagpoles implied a hotel or a company, but neither of the buildings had a name sign on it. So I took my time to take some outdoor photos, because both buildings looked quite unusual by Japanese standards and were still in really good condition, considering the harsh environment. The smaller building on the left turned out to be some kind of gymnasium, but it was inaccessible. Its doors were partly covered in spider-webs, hinting that it was abandoned for several years without anybody using said doors. The main building, four stories in total and built along a slope, turning 1F into a semi-basement, remained a mystery, despite me being able to access it. The lowest floor was dark, gloomy, and moldy – I only had a quick look and left as quickly as possible without taking a single photo, though the shared baths are usually my favorite part of an abandoned accommodation. So yeah, it was pretty quickly clear that this was some kind of hotel or company retreat, not a research facility. It also wasn’t a wedding venue as there was no sign of a chapel inside or outside of the main building. 2F was the main floor with a large cafeteria like area and a relaxation area with large couches and a fireplace. 3F and 4F featured a large office (pretty empty…), some meeting rooms and plenty of bunk bed rooms for up to eight people… One of those rooms had some skis in it, so I assumed that it was a rather high-class ski lodge without much privacy, hence the name “Ski Castle”.
Well, in the process of writing this article I found (and after I uploaded the photos…) out that the Ski Castle was neither a bookable accommodation nor a company retreat. It belongs (or belonged?) to a large private university and was used for hiking trips in summer, skiing trips in winter, and even whole classes for a longer period of time – which explains the cafeteria style eating area, the bunk beds, the large bathing area, the skis, the gymnasium, the “meeting rooms”, … and pretty much everything else. To some degree even the location in the middle of nowhere. If you want to create a facility focusing on education, physical health, and nature, this one was nearly perfect.

I left the Ski Castle a happy man and got back to the bus stop just before it got pitch black outside… where I had to wait for half an hour to catch the bus back to civilization. And yes, that was the best schedule possible. Overall a great experience though! Original find, took some effort to get to, accessible, no security / risk of getting caught, spectacular outdoors, interesting indoors, unusual location, … Despite arriving with a healthy level of caution I loved this exploration and I really hope that this reveal won’t lead to vandalism, because at the time of my visit the Ski Castle was in pretty good condition, aside from 1F. I hope you’ll enjoy the gallery below – and if you are looking for a somewhat similar location, please have a look at the *Arai Mountain & Spa*.

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Röntgen Clinic

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Chugoku, Haikyo, Hospital, Japan, Photography, Travel, Urbex on 2022/09/01| 13 Comments »

This abandoned old countryside clinic had a surprise in the back – an old X-ray machine that looked like something from a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells novel! And that wasn’t all…

One of the most interesting places to explore in Japan are abandoned hospitals. From 100 year old clinics in countryside mansions to large concrete buildings with rather modern equipment – we’ve all been to them in variations as patients, but seeing them abandoned and with full access is an amazing experience.

The now abandoned Röntgen Clinic was a mid-size countryside clinic only a few hours drive from Osaka and quite unspectacular from the outside – a slightly rundown wooden building near the main street of a small town, barely visible from the road. The entrance with its chemical bottles was promising, the next few rooms delivered, too. In one of them I took a few photos of some Xylit injections without realizing what was right in front of my feet – it wasn’t until I left the room and came back that I found the most bone-chilling dead animal I ever saw at an abandoned place (I don’t know what it was, it neither barked nor meowed) – so be careful when you are scrolling through the photo gallery.

Highlight of the Röntgen Clinic was the name-giving X-ray machine in the last room I explored. How do I know that it was an X-ray machine? Well, the room was labelled “Röntgen Room” and one part of the machine indicated that the whole thing was built by Osaka Roentgen, a company established in the late 1920s and merged with Hitachi Medical in 1969. So… an X-ray machine from the 30s, 40s, 50s, or 60s – most likely from the earlier years by the looks of it. What could possibly go wrong? A lot! Which is why I spent as little time in that room as possible and quickly took some photos, preferably through the door or a hole in the wall; not a window, a real hole. As a fan of early science fiction literature this was probably one of the most spectacular finds I ever made and in hindsight I wish would have had more time – but a pressing schedule and the potential dangers only lead to a dozen or so photos. At the time I didn’t even pay attention to who the manufacturer was…

Overall this was one of the great explorations of all time, definitely a highlight of my 2018 season. Equipment like that X-ray machine must have cost a fortune at the time and is something like 80 years old by now – not exactly things you expect to see in a wooden building of the road in countryside Japan… and you actually don’t see them very often, not even on the internet or in museums, so… enjoy the photo gallery!

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Onsen Town School

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Japan, Photography, School, Tochigi, Travel, Urbex, Visited in 2015 on 2022/06/15| 4 Comments »

Probably the biggest and best abandoned school in all of Japan – and definitely the most overlooked one!

I’m time and again fascinated by how random it is whether an abandoned place becomes famous or not, whether it becomes vandalized or not, whether it gets demolished or not. Why the Onsen Town School never has become famous is absolutely beyond me, given that Kinugawa Onsen is just 10 kilometers away and pretty much everybody and their dog has been to *Western Village* ever since HBO remade Westworld as a TV show – I think it was even marked on GoogleMaps for a while, though it seem that marker was removed. Not that it matters after vandalizing morons marauded through…
Anyway, the Onsen Town School… a former elementary and junior high school dating back to 1874, though none of the buildings were that old. It was located on a slope and basically consisted of two buildings connected by a hallway – a rather modern three storey building from the 60s or 70s on the slope and a probably pre-war complex on top of the slope, including a large and pretty much pristine gymnasium.

My buddy Hamish and I went to Kinugawa for the day and got pretty quickly bored by the rundown onsen hotels, so we decided to check out other places nearby, like the Onsen Town School I never had seen indoor photos of – so our expectations were low, even lower after arrival, when we realized that the school was in pretty remarkable condition overall. But all we needed on that rainy day was one unlocked door… and we didn’t even have to walk up the slope, we found it right on the ground floor, allowing access to the whole school.
We started from a side door near the main entrance, made our way through the library, past some classrooms, through the music and the handicrafts to the almost pristine gymnasium. The school had been closed in 2010, but back in 2015 it looked like it had been cleaned in the morning! A little bit more dirty: The remaining part of the complex south of the gymnasium. I don’t exactly know when it happened, but it’s pretty obvious that a landslide hit the school and damaged some walls badly, with some mud running through the hallways and a classroom or two. There were signs of movement in some areas, implying that the school was not 100% abandoned (but hardly any “abandoned” school is, they pretty much all belongs to some municipality) or had some other visitors before us.

Overall the Onsen Town School was an amazing exploration that took about 3.5 hours, probably twice as much as your average abandoned school. I’ve been to dozens of them over the years, but none of them was even nearly as big or offered that much variety – on the other hand it was pretty much a standard school, nothing usual like the *Clothing School* or the *Round School*. Nevertheless one of my all-time favorites – and I hope you’ll enjoy the gallery!

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Onomichi Castle

Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Haikyo, Hiroshima, Japan, Photography, Roadside Attraction, Travel, Urbex, Visited in 2012 on 2022/05/24| 1 Comment »

Onomichi is famous for the being the starting point of the Shimanami Kaido, a popular car expressway and bike trail stretching from Honshu to Shikoku across several islands… but abandoned places?!

I loved Japanese castles ever since I watched the mini-series “Shogun” with my dad as a little boy – and of course I’ve been to the most famous ones (Hikone, Himeji, Inuyama, Matsue, and Matsumoto) and then some dozens. What I dislike with a passion are fake castles built in the 20th century as tourist attractions – the most famous one probably being the one in Osaka. Great castle park with amazing moats, but the castle itself is one step away from being some Disney crap – at least they went all in and even included elevators, so it’s one of the few wheelchair accessible castles in Japan. The latest of those abominations was erected in 2018/19 – and all it needed was a rich idiot on an ego trip and some local politicians who thought that they can turn an industrial bedroom community into a tourist attraction. “Let’s check out the underrated city of Amagasaki, I’ve heard they have an amazing castle there!” is something nobody ever said. Heck, I live near Amagasucky and I’ve never been to the castle, not even to take some photos and rant about it.
50 years earlier, a couple hundred kilometers southwest. Onomichi, Hiroshima prefecture. An important trade harbor from the mid-12th to the mid-17th century, the town lost quite a bit of its former glory during the Tokugawa period as international trade was mostly limited to Nagasaki’s Dejima. After WW2 the movies Tokyo Story and The Naked Island reignited interest in Onomichi, so in 1964 the local chamber of commerce and industry had the glorious idea to attract the fun hungry post-war workers with a three-story watchtower, modeled after the castle tower of Hirosaki Castle, but without any historical background. It was in business for a few decades (as “National Museum of Castles, Onomichi Castle”), but closed in 1990 or 1992 – it probably fell victim to the asset price bubble of the late 80s, when investors decided to make the Seto Inland Sea THE new tourist destination in Japan and pumped insane amounts of money into the area, resulting in plenty of abandoned places still visible today (like the famous *La Rainbow Hotel & Tower*, where the Japanese police caught 30 urbexers and airsoft players since the start of the pandemic alone)! Located on a hill just behind Onomichi Station and surrounded by hotels, the castle saw quite a bit of foot traffic and therefore hardly any vandalism. At the time of my visit in 2012 most of the premises were overgrown, entrance impossible. I took a few photos and deemed the location not interesting enough to publish… until I found out recently that Onomichi castle (which really wasn’t a castle, just a glorified watchtower) had been donated to the city in 2018 and was demolished between December 2019 and January 2021. On March 11th 2022 the site was reopened to the public as Senkoji Park Viewpoint Hall, after the city spent 200 million Yen on the project.

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