Japan is famous for its haikyo (廃墟), otherwise known as “urban exploration”. The country is littered with abandoned buildings. It is a dream of mine to travel around Japan solely to explore and document as many of these places as possible. However, that trip is better done with someone interested in urbex, so unfortunately, I have to put it off for now.
Although, I recently went on a much-anticipated trip to Japan for 10 days with a good friend of mine. I told myself no haikyo this time because my friend isn’t exactly au fait with following me into abandoned buildings. We only had 10 days in Japan, so the priority fell on the vast list of tourist attractions we wanted to see.
One day, we had planned to visit Kobe, home of the world’s most famous and delicious beef. We decided to take the Maya Cable car up Mt. Rokko to see the panoramic views of Osaka Bay. COINCIDENTALLY, it just so happened that there was a famous abandoned hotel on the mountain. In fact, you could literally see it as you walked off the cable car.
Even though my friend isn’t into urbex, she is very understanding. So we agreed that I would go off and try to find a way into the hotel while she walked to the top of the mountain to get some scenic photos.
I went zig-zagging around the mountain face trying to make my way down to the hotel but to no avail. The only way in would have been to slide down a very steep slope and probably end up with a wedgie from a tree trunk. The thought didn’t appeal to me, so I accepted defeat and headed upwards to find my friend. On the way, I passed an abandoned restaurant which was part of the hotel back in the day. It wasn’t the original site I was aiming for, but it did give me a little urbex kick.
Enjoy the photography gallery below and don’t forget to follow Abandoned World Photography for regular urbex updates on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
