Hidden in the Japanese landscape is a surreal city of abandoned hotels that has been frozen in time and remains untouched. Share this article Share this article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy link Link copied Bookmark Comments
An urban explorer has stumbled upon a disturbing, abandoned hotel city in Japan that has been untouched for more than three decades.
Luke Bradburn discovers the forgotten tourist destination of Kinugawa Onsen, a once thriving resort town famous for its natural hot springs.
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The 28-year-old came to Japan in early 2024 to document the Fukushima exclusion zone, but while searching for other nearby locations, he came across an abandoned hotel district.
In this area he found a once bustling main street, now an abandoned town with many huge hotel buildings slowly crumbling along the river overlooking the cliff.
Luke then spent six hours trudging through overgrown paths, crumbling staircases and perilous cliffs, exploring some 20 sprawling structures.
He noted that some of them were frozen in time, filled with slot machines, stuffed animals and even drinks that were still on the tables.
“It was like being in a ghost town,” he described. “There were abandoned cars on the streets, and although you could drive through the area, all the buildings around it were just rotting away.”
“When we walked inside, the contrast was striking. The outside was overgrown and crumbling, but inside, some of the rooms were pristine, as if no one had touched them for decades.”
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Luke estimated that there were about 20 abandoned hotels along the river in Kinugawa Onsen, of which he managed to inspect five or six, moving through interconnected corridors and passages.
“Every time it felt like stepping into a time capsule. You get a sense of what life was like here in the best of times, and then it just stopped. It's creepy, sad and exciting all at once.”
Inside the hotels, he found grand lobbies, traditional Japanese onsen baths, and entire rooms frozen in time: “One of the strangest experiences was walking into the lobby and seeing a huge stuffed deer and falcon still there. It was weird.”
“We found arcade machines still filled with toys, tables with drinks and rooms that looked like they hadn't been touched in decades,” Luke said.
The hot spring resort town of Kinugawa Onsen, located in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, began to decline during Japan's economic downturn in the early 1990s, when tourism slowed and many hotels closed.
And there's a reason the buildings were abandoned: Due to Japan's strict property laws, many of the structures have remained untouched ever since, as some owners have died without heirs or simply disappeared, leaving the properties in legal straits.
Luke, from Greater Manchester, commented: “It's very different in Japan. Crime rates are so low that abandoned buildings are not as easily looted and destroyed.”
“In some cases, demolition requires the owner's permission, and if the owner is deceased, then by law demolition is not possible for 30 years.”
However, not everything was in perfect condition: “The floors were missing, the ladders were hanging down, you had to retreat because everything had collapsed. In some places it was really unsafe, you had to be very careful.”
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