What is haikyo? If I would be a first time visitor to Abandoned Kansai (or any other blog about urban exploration in Japan) this would be one of the most urgent questions I’d have. It’s always “haikyo” here and “haikyo” there, as if the term has a very special meaning that can’t be described or otherwise expressed in English – but that is actually not the case. It’s just the Japanese word for ruin (廃墟), obviously composed of 廃 (hai = useless, obsolete) and 墟 (kyo = hill) – used as a synonym for both urban exploration and abandoned places.
In addition to the general term haikyo are quite a few more specific ones:
廃校: haikou / haikō, literally “abandoned school“
廃寺: haiji, literally “abandoned temple“
廃線: haisen, literally “abandoned line“ – usually abandoned railway tracks
廃道: haidou / haidō, literally “abandoned road“
廃橋: haikyou / haikyō, literally “abandoned bridge“
Theoretically you can combine 廃 with tons of other kanji to be even more specific (廃病院 would be haibyōin, an abandoned hospital), but the ones listed above are the most common compound words.
That’s all, folks… Everything else is just pretentious BS by people who desperately want to set themselves apart.
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You learn something new every day! Nice blog. 🙂
By Asturian Diary on 2012/11/13 at 23:45
Then I actually achieved what I tried to accomplish – thanks! 🙂
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2012/11/14 at 12:38
Florian,
You’re right – “What is haikyo?” was the first, most urgent question I had when exploring your blog!
I have a buddy who’s about to complete his Undergrad in Asian Languages (Japanese & Korean) – I’ll forward your blog to him, I’m sure he’ll be excited!
Great Blog!
Traveling Thane Furrows
http://thanefurrows.wordpress.com/
By thanefurrows on 2012/11/14 at 13:13
Hey Ben,
I actually just recently added this page after talking to a fellow explorer – sometimes it takes a nerdy conversation to realize that one uses geeky terms…
Thanks for spreading the word, I hope your buddy will enjoy reading this blog!
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2012/11/14 at 19:01
Fascinating blog!
By cindy knoke on 2012/12/29 at 04:20
Thanks a lot!
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2012/12/31 at 20:47
Your obsession with ruins and abandoned places mirrors mine, though I have not been able to indulge as much as I’d like. When wandering through abandoned halls the ghosts of people come back to us. We have a tradition of selling old wooden homes and moving them to new locations. I once visited a park full of houses for sale, go into them and a duck on the bath, a surf board on the deck, the perfume of previous owners wafting out of a cupboard all speak volumes. I loved your Children’s TB Hospital blog. Cheers.
By Xraypics on 2012/12/31 at 07:14
Thanks a lot! I still don’t fully understand how the whole urbex thing became that important to me… I remember hiking up an abandoned cable car track, next thing I know: I stand in a half-finished cooling tower north of Chernobyl – and that was just the beginning!
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2012/12/31 at 20:56
You’ve got a very sweet blog going on here. I love the pics…I too gravitate towards abandoned places. The juicier the back story, the better. Thanks!
By Clownshoes on 2013/01/19 at 16:26
Thanks a lot! I always try to find out as much as I can about the background story. And some of those stories are really juicy… 🙂
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2013/01/21 at 23:17
That’s very cool. The last place I went was a sanitarium here….very eerie.
By Clownshoes on 2013/01/22 at 00:04
I love the interior photo – what was this place?
By lena de almeida on 2013/02/09 at 04:30
That was an abandoned school in the Shikoku countryside. *The full article is here.*
Today the place must look quite different as it was renovated during my visit after being abandoned for decades.
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2013/02/10 at 22:19
Thanks, I checked your other photos of it – it was great that you managed to get there before the building was renovated.
By lena de almeida on 2013/02/10 at 23:32
My kind of blog. Love it. Keep on keepin on.
By macingosh on 2013/04/10 at 05:06
Great to hear! I already have enough material to update Abandoned Kansai every week for at least a year, most likely more – and I keep exploring whenever I have the opportunity.
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2013/04/10 at 12:37
Superb. Can’t wait to see the next posts. Best regards
By macingosh on 2013/04/10 at 20:44
Thanks – for now I hope I’ll be able to publish a new article at least once a week.
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2013/04/11 at 12:37
Thank you for visiting my blog (livingwithmyancestors.wordpress.com). I’m enjoying looking at all of your photos. I just learned something new — Haikyo! Keep up the interesting work! 🙂
By Linda Arthur Tejera on 2013/06/03 at 09:09
Hey Linda,
I love your blog and I wish I would have old postcards of all the places I visit. Sometimes I find some, but usually they are on other blogs and I don’t like to “steal” their pictures…
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2013/06/03 at 17:34
I love learning this sort of stuff! Keep up the good blog
By myculturalworld on 2014/01/27 at 06:47
You keep reading it, I’ll keep writing it. 🙂
By Florian / Abandoned Kansai on 2014/01/31 at 12:20
THX for the information
By animeotaku27 on 2014/05/26 at 10:50