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doing the haikyo

Definitions:
haikyo: ruins
do a bit of haikyo:
explore abandoned buildings, theme parks etc

Doing a bit of haikyo has become somewhat popular in recent months, with many blogs displaying some impressive photos of places long deserted. See HERE, here and hErE for examples.

Recently, my curiosity started to get the better of me and before I could say "Is that the floor giving way?", I realised I'd caught the haikyo bug.

So last Sunday, armed with a car, a map of Japan and a torch taped firmly to my head, I decided to go off and try to shed some light on this fascinating world.

I headed out of Osaka, across several prefectural borders and into the lush vegetation that is widely known as Nagano.

After an hour or so of being lost on the mountain roads, a thick fog descended, my vision went blurry, my speech became slurred, and my hand-eye coordination went utterly to shit. Normal for a Saturday night, but this was a Sunday afternoon, so there was serious cause for concern.

As I pulled into a lay-by, I blacked out. When I awoke, I found myself inside my brain, a place abandoned long ago and with a pervasive odour so musty that I momentarily wondered if this haikyo thing was such a good idea after all.

Well, as I was there I decided to have a look around, though I didn't expect to find much.

I started the exploration in my temporal lobe where I found this unmade bed, looking like some kind of ridiculous art installation....




Walking carefully over several uneven surfaces, I came across my corpus callosum.

Here I stumbled upon this bundle of naughty magazines. They must've been dumped here by a previous haikyo visitor because they were certainly nothing to do with me....


Abandoned magazines full of ladies.


....though I did find this saucy picture hanging in my prefrontal cortex....




The frontal lobe was a barren wasteland, an empty void of nothingness, which explains a lot. I didn't spend much time here. There was really very little to see....




After the frontal lobe disappointment, I wasn't holding out much hope for my left cerebral hemisphere. However, as is often the case with haikyo, you can sometimes stumble across some real gems just when you think there's nothing left to see....


A gorgeous fully-fitted state-of-the-art kitchen with granite tops, oven, fridge freezer, washing machine and terracotta floor tiles.


It was at this point that I paused for a moment to consider the three unwritten rules of doing a bit of haikyo....

No matter how tempted you are, you should never:
1. remove anything from the premises.
2. damage any property.
3. move in and live there.


My cerebellum was a foggy putrid mess so I didn't spend long there, though I managed to snap a quick photo....




The last stop on this glorious haikyo expedition was my orbital frontal cortex.

There was quite a strong smell in here and I quickly realised, from what I saw on the floor, that this must be the part of the brain from where most of the material for this blog is sourced.


Bull shit
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On Monday, 06 October, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Sorry, your post is a bit confusing, so you didn't go to Nagano on a haikyo trip?

If not, you should definitely try it sometime!

Thanks for linking to some of my haikyo photos, I've since gotten a DSLR and feel I've taken even better ones since then, but it of course helps to have good subject matter.

Try a haikyo!  



On Monday, 06 October, 2008, Blogger n said:

Ahaha, now this is precious ! and much fun to read.

Care to join a tour operator to make a bit of money with your haikyo brain ?

So long !  



On Monday, 06 October, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

impressive...but I think detroit is probably the place for an interesting/dangerous haikyo

here are some cool sites I found

Detroit schoolbook depository (abandoned 20+ years and filled with supplies and rotting never-used books) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetjuniper/sets/72157603302647339/

selection of abandoned buildings and nature reclaiming parts of Detroit (abandoned buildings that were torn down left open fields) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetjuniper/sets/72157602695025605/

Fabulous ruins of Detroit Tour
http://www.detroityes.com/home.htm  



On Monday, 06 October, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Nice post. I hope you managed to find a way out. Some Brit haikyo places here:
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/index.php  



On Tuesday, 07 October, 2008, Blogger owenandbenjamin said:

Yes, there is a lot of Haikyo in the California desert.  



On Tuesday, 07 October, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Awesome. That's all I have to say.  



On Wednesday, 08 October, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Ha. I sense you had the best of intentions when you started, of doing a proper haikyo, but quickly realised "oh crap, that means getting up".

When you can't be arsed to do something, poke fun at it. A man after my own heart. Expected to see at least one saucy picture of Sae in there though...  



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