Comments on: Gunkanjima

Gunkanjima

arse_hat — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 00:22:46 -0800

Gunkanjima or Battleship Island is 480 x 160 meters and was home to more than 5000 people. Abandoned for more than 40 years it is a microcosm of 20th century industrial development. A soundtrack to the photos. Or take the multimedia tour. Urban exploration.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 00:24:22 -0800

Suggested by concreteforest.

By: soviet sleepover

soviet sleepover — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 00:41:25 -0800

What a great post! One of my great regrets about living in Japan is that I didn't try to go here (via bribing fisherman, wiles, etc).

By: keswick

keswick — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:11:10 -0800

See: also.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:21:57 -0800

I've always loved pictures of Gunkanjima.

By: bcveen

bcveen — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:42:23 -0800

I wish I weren't such a huge chicken about trespassing. I'd love to take up urban exploration. Awesome post, btw.

By: fFish

fFish — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:52:58 -0800

This looks like a great setting for a piece of IF. nice post!

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 03:47:32 -0800

...like a dystopian vision of Myst. (Another movie here.)

By: Marquis

Marquis — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 04:47:18 -0800

Those Mika Björklund recordings are a magnificent find. Thanks!

By: Tullius

Tullius — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 05:57:27 -0800

Fantastic post!

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:31:11 -0800

Great post, it looks an incredible place. The first link mentions a documentary at the end of the article - you can see a small clip of it here.

By: nylon

nylon — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 09:01:41 -0800

Cool post! Interestingly, one of the directors of the documentary, CM von Hausswolff, is a noted sound artist and also the King of Vargaland (he co-founded the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland). Elgaland-Vargaland is an autonomous region made up of the world's border areas - those places in between nations that don't belong to either. Check it out here. Those crazy Swedes.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 11:17:48 -0800

Very interesting. The urban exploration is much better than the multimedia tour, but I guess that goes without saying.

By: uni verse

uni verse — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 11:21:13 -0800

fFish: Reminds me of "the day after" (post-Russia vs US-gone-nuclear)

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:03:16 -0800

As keswick said, Gunkanjima has been discussed before, but - ye gods! - thanks for bringing it back. It is eerie and beautiful...and totally captivating.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 13:27:12 -0800

Great post. Mefi on Saturdays is always a wonderful read, like a big newspaper.

By: concreteforest

concreteforest — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:21:20 -0800

thats for the credit, arse_hat. Hmmm..that sounds like a back handed compliment, but it's your handle, not me! Keswick's article was the first place I heard about it. For those in Japan that want to visit this place, the closest option that I've found was mentioned in this article - apparently there are boats that go out and circle the island. They don't land, of course.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:43:57 -0800

Great post! And the urban exploration photos: some of the most scary images I have ever seen.

By: Redruin

Redruin — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 23:25:21 -0800

I love this place, I posted it on my site Red Ruin a couple months ago. Today I posted links to a HUGE Japanese urban ruin photo site. It has gunkanjima and much MUCH MUCH more.