Mari-chan. 25. Brazil. Music. Law. Memories. Literature. Foreign languages. RPG. Cinema. No GLAY, no life. HAPPY SWINGER, BiTch and SLAVE.

I visited Japan in November 2011 for the exclusive purpose of urban exploration on Hashima Island. The island, completely abandoned since 1974, sits in the southwest coast of Japan in the East China Sea. Only a few people have been able to access the island for the purposes of urban exploration photography. We were fortunate to be the only people to ever get 8 hours of uninterrupted access to the island.

“Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima or Gunkanshima (軍艦島; meaning Battleship Island), is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself.

The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it.” ~wikipedia 

by Chris Luckhardt

8 HOURS IN HASHIMA OMG. I want to visit it so much. ç__ç I dunno if I should be worried that I was able to recognise the place as soon as I looked at the first picture.

creepyabandonedplaces:

Nara Dreamland
Nara, Japan 

Disneyland opened in 1955 and was talked about all around the world. Some people visited Disneyland, and other people built their own. Nara Dreamland was built in 1961 and was, in a lot of ways, a straight up copy of Disneyland. The maps of both parks were pretty much identical with the entrance, monorail, jungle cruise, and main street. In 1982, Disneyland finally opened in Tokyo and caused a slow and long decline for Nara Dreamland. What really killed Dreamland was when Universal Studios opened up in Osaka in 2001. Nara Dreamland permanently closed in 2006.

I really, really would like to live in Japan for a while just for the haikyo. I’m not kidding.

So many amazing abandoned theme parks there. ♥ I love it.

Edit: Just remembered I visited the Tennoji zoo - not exactly abandoned, but creepy as hell and very different from the Ueno zoo, for instance. That might be the closest I’ve been to actual haikyo, haha.

theatlantic:

A Pop Star Shouldn’t Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend

Minami Minegishi, a popular member of AKB48 since the group’s founding in 2005, faced the camera and apologized profusely to fans. As tears washed over her face, she said those in charge of the group had demoted her to the “trainee” team and, to punish herself, she had shaved her head. Her transgression: being caught leaving a young man’s apartment several days earlier.

Thousands in Japan watched the just-buzzed Minami deliver her tearful apology, and on Twitter the video promptly took up five trending-topic spaces. Many were shocked by what she had done to herself, while others believed the punishment was just and were surprised by what she had done. It quickly morphed into the country’s first big entertainment scandal of the year, but Minegishi’s painful-to-watch apology is much more than tabloid fodder: Her situation highlights the more disturbing aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, and also on a growing gender problem in Japan.

Read more. [Image: AKB48]

I really don’t care about AKB48 and they (and their sister groups) were EVERYWHERE in Japan when I was there - ads on trains, TV shows, DVD stores, billboards. However, this thing is different and I cannot ignore it when it violates so many things I’ve studied about in law school. It just doesn’t make sense.

Nagoya Noh Theatre. It’s just outside Nagoya-jo, open to visits for free and with a really beautiful/magic stage.

ileftmyheartintokyo:

Tokyo by 小狼 on Flickr.

abandonedporn:

Botanic garden in Kichijo-ji, Tokyo

View of the Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba’s Statue of Liberty and the Tokyo Tower at night (from Odaiba’s Aqua City shopping mall).

The best part about staying in Odaiba, really.

I took this picture because I loved how the Tokyo Sky Tree’s shadow could be seen all over Tokyo - such an immense city looking so tiny. ♥

abandonedporn:

Nara Dreamland (JP) (by suspiciousminds)