Michael from Gakuranman.com is an adventurer. He’s currently living in Japan, and one of his favorite things to do is to explore and discover haikyo (abandoned sites / ruins) in Japan. For Tofugu’s current series of “scary” Japanese things, Michael has kindly offered to share with us the things that scare him most about his adventures into the crumbling, decaying, unknown. Let’s let him get started, shall we?

“Haikyo”

You’ve seen creepy Japanese ghost girls. You’ve read about doom-bringing Japanese Giant Asian hornets. You’ve heard tales from the master of Japanese horror. But what if you could experience all of that for real? Would you take up the challenge?

Littered throughout the country are ruins known in Japanese as ‘haikyo’. They come in all shapes and sizes; from a tiny wooden medical shack to the charred remains of a love hotel, from a long-abandoned tomb to a sprawling, concrete ghost island that once had the world’s highest population density. Some haikyo have fascinating histories attached, while others, gruesome stories of murder and deceit. Certainly not places you’d like to be on your own…

But as an urban explorer, these places grab me and don’t let go. Though often thoroughly bone-chilling, they offer a sense of excitement quite unlike that found anywhere else. So grab your flashlight and come with me as we explore the abandoned buildings of Japan. I’ve selected some of the creepiest and most powerful images gathered on my explorations to date. These are the things that make haikyo exploration both exciting and scary.

Tombs

Crypts are always creepy places, but this one was especially scary. Hidden deep with a cliff face in a secret cave was a small shrine with various pots and vases and a couple of marble busts. Behind that was a tiny hole leading to a further chamber. Crawling through on my hands and knees, I discovered what looked to be a storage area for special vessels and other tools used in ceremonies. I’m not sure anyone was buried there, but it looked at though it was used as a place for remembering the dead.

Skeletons

I found this rotten pig skeleton at an abandoned hotel near a river. It appeared to have gotten stuck on a second floor balcony and I can only assume died of starvation. It’s often easy to find small bird skeletons, or even a cat from time to time, but an animal as large as a pig was quite a shocking sight to behold.

Decay

Some areas found when doing urbex are just scary in and of themselves. This hallway in the Maya Hotel had an almost ghostly presence about it, with the rotting wallpaper and light pouring in from an open door. Simultaneously beautiful and creepy. I kept expecting somebody – or something – to walk out in front of me…

Decay can also present other problems as well. It’s never good to breathe mold, not to mention the asbestos that can come from decaying walls and ceilings.

Heights

This one might not be scary at all for some of you, but for others, it can be a nightmare. Heights are a very real threat when exploring haikyo, and especially in ones with crumbling, degraded concrete like Block 65 on Gunkanjima. I was consumed with awe of the place when there that I didn’t quite realize the risk. I don’t think I’ll be sitting here again in a hurry.

Fire

A huge fire has scorched the first floor of this love hotel haikyo in Kyushu, and one particular room on the second floor. It’s a curious sight – while most of the rooms remain in fairly good condition, the fire only seems to have raged in the one room upstairs, leaving a horrible dark mess. Rumour has it that the room was a murder site. Something oddly heavy in the air held me back from entering the blackened bathroom…

Spiders

Eugh. I hate spiders, and I hate spider webs even more. The number of times I’ve run into the things when wandering around old buildings… This particular one was quite interesting in the way the sticky white strands reached outwards. At the centre is only what I can assume is an egg sack. I wonder where the hatchlings are now…

Children’s Toys

Hidden inside one of the rooms of Block 65 on Hashima island is an old chldren’s toy named Poron-chan. You know the kind that rights itself when pushed over? It has an eerie bell inside that gives a rusty tinkling sounds when pushed. Once a cute, colourful plaything, now the face is warped and decaying. It gives me the shivers.

Creatures in Jars

Down in the dark basement of one abandoned museum in central Japan lurks all manner of ghoulish creatures, preserved perfectly in jars of strange liquids. In the photo above, you can see one of Japan’s squid, the hotaru-ika (firefly squid), staring long into the darkness. It gave me quite a fright when I caught its gleaming white eye staring back at me!

Murder

These hand prints have been in this old Chiba love hotel for years, even before the incident. A tacky attempt at scaring those brave enough to enter inside. It’s a spot plagued with tales of suicide and death, and well known amongst local people as a ‘ghost-spot’. But one incident in particular is confirmed as true. A young teenage girl was kidnapped by a group of youths, strangled, and her body left on the premises of this haikyo late 2004. If there’s anything more shocking than the creeping around a hotel littered with blood-red handprints, it’s knowing that a real murder case took place there. Truly chilling, and indeed extremely saddening.

Dolls

I don’t know about you, but dolls are one of the creepiest things on my list. This particular specimen I found inside the Doctor’s Shack – an old medical clinic out in the Japanese countryside. The doll’s head was decapitated, but I reunited it with the body for a few photographs, and paid a blood sacrifice. Mosquitoes swarmed around me as if moved by some angry spirit…

Koichi

A little omake from way back when Koichi visited Japan. We teamed up to explore the Maya Hotel, one of the holy grails of the haikyo world. And at night, no less! Here’s yours truly with the cool frood himself, enjoying a spooky candlelit dinner while overlooking the city of Kobe. Think yourself lucky I didn’t publish Koichi’s ‘scary face’…

So there we have it. 10 Haikyo Horrors to curdle your dreams. What freaks you out the most?

P.S. Wanna be creeped out even more? Check out Gakuranman’s haikyo explorations.
P.P.S If you love Halloween, follow Gakuranman on Google + and Twitter.
P.P.P.S If you are inspired to visit an abandoned site, be sure to know the risks before you go. In many cases it may be illegal, and you must be able to take responsibility for your own safety: Haikyo & Urbex Safety.

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A common misconception about Japan is that it’s so densely populated that every single town is just like Tokyo; urban, people all crammed together, few empty spaces. Not only are there still tons of rural places in Japan, but there are even abandoned places, places that were simply left behind to rot. The Japanese call these places haikyo (廃墟).

Some of the creepiest of all haikyo in Japan are amusement parks. Places where poeople used to gather to have fun or go on vacation now sit vacant to rust and become overrun by nature. And while not all of Japan’s abandoned parks are as creepy as rusty ol’ clown car above, some of them come pretty damn close.

Why do so many amusement parks fail? It seems kind of strange that so many amusement parks would simply just close shop.

There are a bunch of different reasons why amusement parks go out of business:

• Bigger Parks: Places like Universal Studios and Disneyland have put a lot of smaller parks out of business. Why would you go to some no-name amusement park when you can go see freakin’ Mickey Mouse?!
• Failing Banks: Lots of smaller parks were financed by banks that gave bad loans, or failed for other reasons. With those banks gone, the amusement parks couldn’t afford to stay open.
• Other Asian Parks: Lots of new amusement parks are opening up all across Asia too, which has brought attention and attendance away from Japanese amusement parks. Countries like China and South Korea are experiencing a kind of amusement park boom, while Japan’s amusement parks have kind of peaked.

Lots of these failed amusement parks have been either abandoned or torn down completely. Lots of people have taken it upon themselves to explore these abandoned parks and provide us all with nightmare fuel. Let’s take a look at some of the creepiest abandoned amusement parks in Japan.

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Takakanonuma Greenland

The closest you'll get to Silent Hill without putting a pyramid on your head.

Takakanonuma Greenland was an amusement park that opened up in the mid-70s and quickly closed down. In 1986, the park tried to open back up again after being closed down for about 10 years, but quickly failed again. Since its final closure, the park and its huge roller coasters have become overgrown by local plants and nearly completely rusted over. Still, that hasn’t stopped intrepid explorers from climbing all over these rabies hazards.

And for some reason, nearly every picture I’ve found of Takakanonuma Greenland has been in a dense fog. While some might attribute this to the local climate or the time of year these pictures were taken, I’d like to say that there’s so much fog because this place is creepy as hell.

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Nara Dreamland

Nara Dreamland it its glory days

It’s hard to imagine now, but when Disneyland first opened up back in 1955 it was a pretty big deal. There weren’t really many other amusement parks that were as big or that paid such attention to detail.

Some people visited Disneyland to try to capture all the magic. Some people built their own.

Nara Dreamland, which was built in 1961, was in a lot of ways a straight-up copy of the original Disneyland, complete with jungle cruise, monorail, and main street. If you compare maps of the two, they’re pretty much identical.

What Nara Dreamland looks like today

In 1983, Tokyo Disneyland finally opened. After Disney had an official presence in Japan, Nara Dreamland began its long and slow decline. The killing blow came when Universal Studios opened up its own park in nearby Osaka in 2001. Nara Dreamland closed down shortly thereafter in 2006.

How about an enchanting jungle cruise?

The park itself is still standing and largely untouched, so there are lots of unofficial visitors exploring and photographing the park.

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Gulliver’s Kingdom

"Just getting my eyes brushed in the shadow of Mount Fuji. No big deal."

Gulliver’s Kingdom was an amusement park based off the classic British book “Gulliver’s Travels,” which follows a British sailor who travels around the world finding strange and interesting civilizations. You might recognize the book’s most famous scene where the main character, Gulliver, is tied to the ground by an army of tiny people.

Unfortunately, Gulliver’s Kingdom had its own set of unique problems. The park didn’t have the best neighbors ever. Not only was it right by Japan’s infamous “suicide forest,” and was close to Kamikuishiki, a town that was home to the Aum Shinrikyo cult that launched a terrorist attack on Japan in 1995.

Needless to say, the area wasn’t a huge tourist attraction. People probably even avoided being in the area.

The park opened in 1998. Very few people came to visit, so the park was forced to close in 2001. The thing is, the park wasn’t demolished until 2007, which meant that for six whole years it became overgrown, decayed, and vandalized until it had reached a nice, ripe state of creepiness.

For a less terrifying Gulliver’s Travels experience, you can always watch the God-awful Jack Black movie (or, y’know, read the book).

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Koga Family Land

Koga Family Land (also sometimes unfortunately known as Koga Family Rand) was yet another small, independent amusement park that failed in the mid-90s. It stood abandoned for nearly 20 years before finally being torn down in 2008.

No creepy place is complete without kids' drawings.

Up until the park was torn down, many different buildings and rides remained, including a restaurant, a cart ride, and a Ferris wheel that made terrifying noises when the wind blew.

Check out this video from Florian from Abandoned Kansai to get a good idea about how empty this place is:

You guys got "phoenix" right but not "land?" C'mon!

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If you want to read up more on haikyo, check out these awesome sites:

• Michael John Grist
• Abandoned Kansai
• Gakuranman
• This Japanese explorer (site in Japanese).

P.S.: Don’t wanna have abandoned theme park nightmares? Better follow us on Twitter.
P.P.S.: Want to embrace real-life Silent Hills? Like us on Facebook

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