It seems like abandoned amusement parks are not only my favorite locations, but people reading this blog are obviously fascinated by them, too – so today I’ll present you one that hasn’t shown up on the internet so far; neither Japanese nor English speaking. Expoland in Osaka.
Expoland (エキスポランド) covered an area of about 20 hectares and was opened in 1970 next to the fairground of the “Expo ’70“. Planned as a temporary installment it was extremely popular and thrived to be one of the most popular Japanese amusement parks for more than 30 years – the park actually re-opened on 1972-03-15 since it was closed after the Expo ’70 ended. Expoland made the news big time on May 5th of 2007 when a 19 year old student from Shiga prefecture died in an accident involving the Fujin Raijin II rollercoaster: One of the ride’s vehicles derailed due to a broken axle that wasn’t replaced in 15 years. After a series of safety inspections Expoland opened again but was closed on 2007-12-09 due to the lack of customers – 14 months later, on 2009-02-09, it was announced that the park was closed for good.
Later that year my interest in abandoned places started and when I talked to friends about it a colleague told me what happened at Expoland and that the park was closed down, but not dismantled due to the owner’s lack of money. Sadly the information about the financial trouble was wrong as I found out by chance a few weeks later when I saw a picture on the English homepage of a Japanese newspaper that showed how they were tearing down the huge ferris wheel.
I went to Expoland right away on the next weekend on my way to an illumination event in Kyoto, a cold and kind of rainy day in December, just to scout the place from the outside. Since Expoland was closed down rather recently there was no easy way in. The spiked fence around the whole area was still intact and of course there were no holes or open gates. Quite the opposite: Since the dismantling was still in progress the area was actually kind of busy with a few construction workers walking around even on a Saturday. After I circled the whole park once I saw two guys with a ladder, taking pictures over the fence. I talked to them for a bit, but they made it clear that there was no legal way in. On my way to the monorail station I realized that I was walking across a delivery entrance, so I made my way down there to check it out – and found it open for the construction workers to get in and out. The guard’s office was obviously still in use, but there was nobody there. So I entered Expoland, asking loudly if somebody was there to catch somebody’s attention – but again no reaction.
I made my way through the western and southern parts of the park. A stage and some buildings, including rest rooms, were still standing, but all rides were already dismantled. In the southwestern part I found the only big attraction still left: A waterland called “Caribbean Resort”. From there I went back to the delivery entrance and left the park. It was one of my first explorations, so I was high on adrenaline and torn apart by a decision: Leaving with what I got – or going back in to explore the rest of the park, risking getting caught? Well, I seized the day and went back in. To the main entrance, past a children’s playhouse and a restaurant, the former location of a water ride and up to where all the merry-go-rounds and the big ferris wheel were. I saw some construction workers in the distance, but I don’t think they saw me. I finished a circle counterclockwise to the east and north, past the old locomotive and to the playhouse. When I went back to the delivery entrance with its huge spiked gate my heart stopped for a second: It was almost dark, the gate was closed and the light in the guard’s office was on. I walked towards the gate to open it myself when the guard came out and addressed me in Japanese. To be honest, at that point I thought I was screwed as there was no way to escape. But to my surprise the guy was extremely nice, opened the gate to let me out and wished me a nice evening (at least I think he said something like that… Osaka dialect…).
Going to Expoland is one of my favorite urbex memories so far as it was a wonderful, exciting, positive experience from the beginning till the end. Or what I thought was the end. Because when I went back there a couple of months later to find out what happened to “Caribbean Resort” and the rest of the buildings I was extremely surprised to see what actually happened to Expoland.
But that’s a story for another time…
You can find out where Expoland was by clicking here.
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Archive for the ‘Demolished’ Category
Expoland
Posted in Abandoned, Amusement Park, Asia, Demolished, Haikyo, Japan, Kansai, Map, Osaka, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2009 on 2010/06/14| 20 Comments »
‘Hitler’ Surgical Hospital
Posted in Abandoned, Asia, Demolished, Haikyo, Hospital, Hyogo, Japan, Kansai, Map, Urbex, Visited in 2010 on 2010/06/02| 5 Comments »
Sekigahara Menard Land Revisited
Posted in Abandoned, Amusement Park, Asia, Chūbu, Demolished, Gifu, Haikyo, Japan, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2010 on 2010/05/24| Leave a Comment »
When I went to Sekigahara Menard Land for the first time in January of 2010 I was welcomed by a snowstorm. When I went there again in April of 2010 it turned out that the snowstorm was actually a blessing in disguise: Without the beautiful cold white blanket Sekigahara Menard Land is not much more than a bunch of concrete foundations…
As I walked along the almost familiar road to SML I saw a car parking right in front of the once so popular amusement park. Great, I thought, either security guards or people who have no clue at all about urban exploration. (As common sense should tell you: Never park right in front of the abandoned place you wanna commit trespassing at – especially if it is right along a country road!)
This time I entered SML via the back entrance a bit more down the road that was completely covered by snow last time. And as I assumed three months earlier the main part of the park was indeed inaccessible thanks to the snow masses. Too bad that it really didn’t matter that much since all that was left were concrete foundations. Every building was destroyed, every piece of metal that was cemented into the ground was clipped off and removed – and so was the rubble of the demolished buildings. The only things not broken were a couple of rusty fire extinguishers and two lonely plastic seats way off the main area.
When I got to area I assume once was the parking lot, the part I saw during my first visit, I saw the owners of the car – not security, but four Japanese people in their early 20s. A short, friendly nod and the group went straight to their car and left, leaving me alone to finally really explore what I’ve basically already seen before. This time the “bunkers”, concrete rooms built into the hill, were accessible – no snow and now open doors made it easy to have a look, only to be disappointed once again. Most rooms were empty and the rest was also unspectacular.
Sekigahara Menard Land is gone. Sure, you can still kind of guess a basic layout, but SML isn’t an abandoned or ruined amusement park – it’s a bunch of concrete foundations with a handfull of rusty items lying around. Maybe you will like it if you choose it as your first haikyo ever, but even then I doubt that you would be impressed.
Edit 2010-06-27: When I looked at the two picture sets I found a couple of photos that are quite similar. Time to put up my first comparison posting… to show what kind of a difference three months can make – and here it is: Sekigahara Menard Land – A Comparison.
(Sorry that some of the pictures are terribly bright / not very crisp this time. I shot the whole day with wrong settings without noticing it. At least it perfectly shows how bright of a day it was…)
Sekigahara Menard Land
Posted in Abandoned, Amusement Park, Asia, Chūbu, Demolished, Gifu, Haikyo, Japan, Snow, Urbex, Visited in 2010 on 2010/01/27| 8 Comments »
I recently stumbled across Sekigahara Menard Land again after seeing pictures a while ago; it opened in 1972 and was closed in 2000 – at first under the pretext of renovating it; 3 months later it was closed for good. This time the pictures came with a map, so finally I had the exact location and although I’ve read it was destroyed I thought: “Great! 2 hour train ride, 1 hour hike – nice and easy Saturday trip!” Man, was I wrong…
Living in the Osaka area snow becomes little more than a memory. It snows on maybe two or three days a year, but it hardly ever sticks to the ground. 5° Celsius is considered “really cold” by the locals and overall Osaka winters don’t deserve to be called winters.
When I started my little Gifu vacation it was about 10° Celsius and sunny outside, perfect for the usual T-shirt and leather jacket combination. Reaching Lake Biwa the sky became cloudy and when I started to head east patches of snow were lying on the ground. When I arrived in Sekigahara I was welcomed by the iciest snow storm I experienced in years – horrible weather. After about an hour of walking along country streets I finally reached Menard Land, freezing like hardly ever before…
Entering was as easy as it can be, if you ignore the fact that the snow was about 20cm high even right along the street leading to SML; I was never that glad to wear hiking boots on my explorations. The few remaining fences can be passed on the side, but there was not a lot to see – except for lots and lots of snow. The entrance was quite disappointing, even the buildings I saw on the satellite pictures were gone. I followed a former maintenance road / hall and a way uphill to the right where I assumed was the main part of the park. That turned out to be a dead end: After I sank about 50cm into deep snow several times I gave up since I had no clue what was under the snow, if the way I assumed underneath would lead somewhere, and what was left of SML anways – especially after the entrance was very discouraging.
3 hours to get there, 10 minutes of taking pictures… great.
But it got worse. Completely wet from the snowstorm (it came down almost horizontally!) and sinking knee-deep into the snow I decided to go to another station just so I didn’t have to walk the same way back – not a smart decision since that other station was further away and made me walk along a highway. When I reached the other station more than 1.5 hours later my umbrella was destroyed, I was soaking wet and my hands were stiff from the ice cold wind. Of course the waiting room at the station was closed so I had to wait another 25 minutes in the chilly weather for the train to come. And it was no surprise that only 2 stations later the sun was shining and the weather was great…
Hiking in the snow was kinda fun, except for the fact that I wasn’t prepared for it at all. But overall the whole trip was a total disaster – especially in winter Sekigahara Menard Land is a total dud! (I might come back in summer though to find out if there is still something left behind the little hill that was covered by half a meter of snow… maybe with a quick sightseeing stop in Hikone.)
Oh, and by the way: Technically this haikyo is in the Chūbu area of Japan, but from Osaka it’s way easier to reach than certain places in Wakayama or the northern parts of Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures…
Addendum: In spring of 2010 I went back to Sekigahara Menard Land – you can read about it here.)
Koga Family Land
Posted in Abandoned, Amusement Park, Asia, Demolished, Haikyo, Japan, Kansai, Shiga, Urbex, Video, Visited in 2009 on 2010/01/23| 10 Comments »
Koga Family Land (thanks to weird transcription of the original Japanese also known as Kouga Family Rand) in Shiga has the reputation of being one of the most impressive and most documented abandoned places in Japan. Well, I guess it’s more correct to say it had that reputation, because of after more than 20 years of quiet decay this once so strangely beautiful place was torn down and ripped apart towards the end of 2008 – there are claims that the owners were worried about the dangers to people visiting the place, but I think they were more worried about the golfers having to deal with people walking on their private property along a street passing by several holes. Yes, the golfers. Koga Family Land is located in the southern part of a country club, surrounded by mountains from all other sides – the only way to get there (without sliding down some hill as described later…) is by passing through the same entrance the pink polo shirts wearing men in their best years are using. No problem while the park was open, big problem now.
So after I hiked along a country road for a few kilometers I reached the country club and walked along the street surrounding the golf course to get to Koga Family Land – or what I hoped was left of it. After about five minutes a friendly young man in a golf kart asked me to leave: Private property. Although my knowledge of Japanese is little of course I understood what he wanted. And even pretending not to, claiming in English that I’m just a hiker that lost his way, didn’t help. He insisted on me leaving. So I went back to the country road and followed it for a few kilometers in hope I could find some kind of back entrance to the KFL – without success. On my way back I heard some golfers and saw a steep slope and a little river separating me from the country club. Well, if you don’t let me in using the front, I have to use the side.
So after a fun but slightly dangerous slide down and finding a ford through the river (okay, it was a small river…) I was finally back on the property of the country club. After hiding from the golfers for quite a while I was like “Screw it!” and walked right across the golf courses – since I lost orientation and only assumed where the remains of the park could be I had to take measures into my own hands. The result was quite a few disturbed faces clearly displaying one question: “Who the f* is that f*ing foreigner and what the f* is he doing here?!” To my surprise no security people showed up and it seemed like the golfers were way too scared of me to approach me. After about 15 minutes I disappeared along an asphalted way to the south – I finally found some signs of the park. Or at least I thought so.
It took me another half an hour to find actual remains of Koga Family Land as the rumors on the internet proved to be right: It was almost completely destroyed. At first I only found some moorings and small piles of garbage (one with the seat of a merry-go-round) – and a confusing maze of ways. No signs, no buildings, no rides. Just nature taking back an area that once was an amusement park. Luckily two of the park’s buildings were not made of the light materials usually used in Japan – they were made of concrete and I guess therefore too expensive to be torn down. And who would come to see two buildings when you know that there was a whole park once? Well… I would!
Sadly enough exploring those two buildings was not nearly as exciting as finding them.
The first one I saw (and entered) was a souvenir shop, the price lists still on the wall. Filled with all kinds of signs from the golf course and the former theme park it was in pretty bad shape – especially the cafe part of it, where the wallpapers were molding and falling off the walls.
The second building seemed to be a restaurant once with quite a big dining room / photo exhibition hall on the first floor and a pretty stuffed second floor – including a kitchen, all kind of furniture, rotting blankets and pictures painted by kids.
What I love about abandoned places is finding elements of daily life, so I was very happy to take pictures of an empty soda bottle. It’s the little things that make certain visits worth!
After leaving the second building I strolled around in the area with high hopes to find more remains of park, but I was diappointed. So I went back to street surrounding the country club I was hiking along for five minutes some hours ago. This time no guy in a golf cart showed up to give me a ride to the main street. Which turned out to be very good for me as I stumbled across another abandoned building on my way out – belonging to the country club and way more interesting than the KFL buildings. But that, dear reader, is a story for another time…
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