Japan Haikyo Tour 2019 – Part 2 – Abandoned Schools, Clinics and Transportation

Highlights From This Trip

This blog post is the second part of my Japanese Haikyo Tour 2019 series. This post covers the abandoned clinics and schools we visited on our travels.

Other posts in this blog series:

Japan Haikyo Tour 2019 – Part 1 covering abandoned onsens, love hotels and amusement parks.

Two weeks in Japan is never enough when exploring ruins and lost places. As mentioned in my previous blog post, the Japanese equivalent of “Urban Exploration”/”Urbex”, is called “Haikyo”. Despite driving over 3500 miles on this trip, we ran out of time to visit Hokkaido and Kyushu. I have enough photographs to fuel many website posts of Japanese ruins for the meantime (expect these to start appearing soon!). A return adventure will almost certainly happen, hopefully in the not too distant future.

The first* outing of my Sony A7ii

* A few photos on my Crown Theatre post came from my new camera, but these were more test shots before my Japan trip.

What better place to test out a new camera, than a two-week adventure among some of Japan’s finest abandoned buildings. To accompany my new camera, I chose the Sony FE 12-24mm F4 G lens. This model appears to be an unpopular choice among urban explorers (most of which go for one of the 16-36mm Sony or Zeiss lenses). Never one to follow the masses, I did extensive research into the options and made my purchase. I liked the idea of a wider field of view than my previous well-loved Tokina 11-16mm (equal to around 16mm on full frame). Time will tell, perhaps I will change my mind and go with the more popular option (perhaps not :P).

I have started editing some photos of a particular rural clinic. Seemingly I am unable to wait until I finish these travel blogs before delving into the “real” photos. The subdued shades of grey and the grittiness of the scene drawing my attention as I glance over my Lightroom collection. Thus far I am very impressed with the images as I am editing. They are certainly crisper and more detailed than my beloved Sony A77ii were able to produce.

Abandoned Schools

Japan is littered with derelict schools. Population decline over the last few decades has decreased class sizes to unsustainable levels. The older schools close, as schools merge together to maintain operable student numbers. This decline appears more prevalent in rural areas, where you find pockets of closed schools only a few miles apart. Most of the buildings we visited were closed in the late 1990s or during the 2000s. Birth rates in 2018 were the lowest observed since record-keeping began, so it seems likely more schools will join these on the haikyo trail.

Many of the schools we visited are old wooden buildings, identical to those featured in many of the animes we know and love. The corridors are wide and airy, a white line painted on the floor to divide the tide of school children moving to and from classes. The classrooms are often stripped, but in some, the traditional desks and chairs remain. Usually, the libraries still have books on the shelves. Science labs have microscopes sat on wooden benches, or diseased animals in jars lurking on shelves. Sometimes there is an anatomical model propped up in a corner.

Decaying Clinics and Hospital

Abandoned hospitals are a favourite among European explorers. In Japan, there is no shortage of medical facilities, but these are very different from what we know from Europe and America. Most of the haikyo locations we visited are referred to as “clinics”. These would usually be a family practice, named after the presiding doctor of the town they are in.

A lot of the locations we visited were old wooden buildings, usually over two floors. The doctor’s private residence was usually located in an adjacent building, or on the upper floor (in the case of the smallest clinics). A lot of these were likely built in the early part of the 20th Century. From paperwork and calendars, it appears that most of these clinics close in the late 1980’s or 1990s. Inside each clinic are some dependable fare: some sort of large metal examination chair, empty bottles and vials, a doctors office with scattered patient records. We search every room going through these mental checklists in the clinics. However, it is the subtle details that are often equally interesting. Perhaps there is an interesting piece of medical equipment. The lighting in the pharmacy may be perfect for some close-up shots of bottles with cryptic labels.

We also visited larger hospitals, such as a multi-floor optometrist and one hospital with surgical theatres. These are usually more modern examples of defunct Japanese medical services.

Defunct Transport

One of the first locations added to our map was an abandoned bus decorated like CatBus from My Neighbour Totoro. This film is one of my favourites, and my go-to movie when I have had a bad day. Needless to say, I was delighted to meet CatBus! It appears the years have not been kind to him, as he sits by the roadside partially surrounded by bamboo. This forlorn and forgotten CatBus seems to have been a roadside cafe or attraction.

We visited several cable cars, which the Japanese call “ropeways”. These usually link a lakeside or tourist attraction to a viewpoint or car park. Several of these have been refurbished in recent years; a happy turn of events for a cable car, but a loss for haikyoists.

In Fukushima prefecture, we stumbled upon a derelict car dealership. Among the car collection was a funeral car with ornate decoration, as well as a bright orange Chevrolet.