Haikyo! Konomai Gold Mine in Hokkaido

Like a year ago, I took an interest in Haikyo, Japanese urban decay. Products of modern civilization, usually modern overzealous spending, that have gone to the wayside. I bought a book, subscribed to a bunch of blogs, and got my tripod ready to go building hunting.





But apparently my interest went to the wayside too. A recent article from VICE says that urban decay is for lazy journalists. I'm no journalist, but I am lazy, and I can say that it takes a lot to get up and drive hours out of town to see this stuff.





I adopted a new philosophy about this stuff. I'll be an accidental Haikyo finder. If I'm out and about, and run into something random, I'll try my best to check it out. That's just what happened in Hokkaido.





The farmer I was working with took me for a few hours to a nice countryside onsen. On the way back, he pointed at a crumbling chimney in the distance, and in his broken English told me about a gold mine in the area that closed back in the 70s. I noted the spot, and headed out there the next day.





Konomai was the site of the biggest gold mine in Asia in the 40s. A town was built around it, housing some 13,000 people. But then it dried up, and the ground was basically leveled. I walked around for a couple hours looking for anything of interest.



One appeal of Haikyo for me is the ghost factor. The more fucked up the situation was, the more fucked up the spirits are gonna be, right? A love hotel might have some crazy Shining type thing going on. A school? Maybe ghosts of kids murdered by the night janitor. A gold mine though. Think about what might have gone down. Like B.I.G. said, "The chedda breeds jealousy". Dude dies in the mine while his wife is having an affair with the foreman or something. Vengeful ghost enacts his wrath upon all.



I searched and searched for anything freaky.



Then I heard a crash.



My motorcycle had mysteriously fallen over. The back end caught the guard rail, but if it hadn't, I would have been down in a ditch without a clue.





Took that as a clue, and headed back to finish milking cows.

5:21 am

As seen from my apartment. I gotta wake up early more often.

Hella 500 Yen Coins

Ever wonder what hella 500 yen coins look like? Here you go.



About a year and a half ago, pockets weighed down with some heavy ass 500 yen coins, I found this piggy bank at the local buck store. 500 yen is about $5. Every time I buy a 100 yen アメリカンドッグ, I gotta break a 1000 yen bill and get another shiny gold coin.



So I had the extremely bright idea to never spend another 500 yen coin, and at the end of each day make a trip to my (extremely) local (piggy) bank.

I was totally diligent to this strange plan. Never spend a 500 yen coin. Even if something cost exactly 500 yen, and I had a coin handy, I would never use it. These coins became like my kryptonite. Some days I'd have like 5 or 6 at the end.



If all are 500
300,000
collect the coins of 500 yen, it saves 300,000

It was all good, my new financial plan. While the economy went to shit, I secretly did my thing. What could I spend 300,000 yen on! Some crazy new camera equipment? Put it towards a new motorcycle? 500 bowls of ramen?

Or maybe I would move and have a couple new expenses, like furniture, that needed to be paid for. Yeah, it's that one.



You literally have to bludgeon the bank with something.



Success!



I feel like a pirate with all these gold coins.





I'm rich, bitch!



Honk, honk!



The ATMs in Japan are crazy rad. They have built in coin deposit bins. The even take the 1 yen coins. Just toss it all in, Coinstar style, and you're good to go.

Apartment furnished, rent paid, and a little super glue put the bank back together for round 2.

Anybody else have any crazy saving schemes?

Tokyo Halloween 2009 - The Kawasaki Halloween Parade

3 years ago, in Tokyo, I dressed as Batman and had a good ol' time.

2 years ago, in Hiroshima, I had an interesting night, once again in Batman garb. I was ditched by the only people I knew at the time. On my own I hooked up with a Filipino girl who then sent me Jesus Loves You text messages for the next month. I got the fuck out of Hiroshima a month later.

1 year ago, back in Tokyo, I took it easy, dressed as Doraemon, and hung out at my guesthouse and a local bar. I seriously have no good stories from that weekend, except that I met the Japanese version of Mad TV's Delivery Boy.

This year, it was to be this:



Marimokori. I talked about Marimokori's hometown in my Hokkaido report, but let me refresh the memory. "Marimo" is a ball of algae. "Mokori" is an erect penis. So it's both a play on words and a giant green man with a hard cock. I love Japanese word play, thats why I wore it!

But seriously, I'm not a pervert scum in any way when it comes to public appearances. Marimokori is a beloved character in Japan. One little girl, about 8, ran up to me and showed me her Marimokori phone accessory collection. A woman of 40 asked me to take a picture with her family. Even the elderly took part in the fun. On no less than 2 occasions, old men started screaming "Mokori Mokori!!" while pointing at my giant green member. Don't believe me?



Out in other parts of town, people were avoiding eye contact with me, just going on with their day. This is the reason you see grown men walking around wearing school girl outfits on a daily basis in Tokyo... no one acknowledges it. So you freak out one day and dress like a french maid to get some attention. No one gives it. You try harder the next day, maybe dying your hair pink. No one cares. Then you realize that a fluffy skirt is kind of comfortable, and pink matches your eyes, and it becomes your new life.

Anyways....

This year was spent at the Kawasaki Halloween Parade in the day, and clubbing at Ageha at night. No photos from the club, but plenty from the parade. Enjoy.





Mario family. Rad.







Gloomy, another popular-in-Japan character. Gloomy is a cute pink bear with Wolverine style claws who always accidentally cuts up and kills people.







Not the pink Power Ranger, I was informed.



めいど - Maid.



Chucky! Who remembers that Ghetto Boyz track? And yes, this year Halloween did fall on a weekend.













On this day I took my 10-20mm lens to shoot with. I love it! But you literally have to get 2 inches from people's face to take these shots. So Halloween is the only time when I can use it as a portrait lens.









Hayao Miayazaki. It's like dressing up as Walt Disney, except you don't need to be an anti-semite or label your animators as Communists.



Happy Halloween!

Izu, a Rider's Playground

The Izu peninsula, about 100km from Tokyo, a hot destination for motorcycle riders. Most tourists just take the train to Atami. But the rest of this massive piece of land is not to be missed. There's palm trees, waterfalls, meadow-ed highlands, and coastal radness.



If nature isn't your thing, you can almost always see hella Ferraris. Or, like today, a Fairlady Z club.





If cars ain't your bag, Izu has the food thing going on. Lots of fresh fish, local wasabi, and some odder things. Here's my lunch of shish kebabed wild boar.



So gimme some pictures already!

The problem with me and Izu is that when I ride with my camera, the weather turns to shit. You can't see Fuji from the Izu skyline when you can't see the side of the road 2m away.

And when the weather is good, I'm riding with my track racer friends, and we never stop long enough to take out big bulky SLR cameras.



Anyways, stay tuned for Izu part 2, sometime in the next year hopefully.