Offbeat Japan

"Jordy, did you give up the haikyo?" Here’s my answer, distilled into a new Best Of covering the past two years.

Located in the cool depths of a mine, in the heartlands of central Japan, the design of this neutrino detector is mind-boggling.

Hidden below the Tokyo streets is a true superhero – a bitumen-washed facility with state-of-the-art technology and an architectural beauty to put a Corbusier or two in the shade. This is G-Cans, also...

Aokigahara, known as Japan’s suicide forest, is a unique place in other ways. Silent, no wildlife in sight, magnificent trees and shrubs, and really easy to lose yourself in.

Nara Dreamland was an abandoned amusement park. I've just spent a year in Nara (2015-2016), a kilometre from the park, so it's time for me to write a little epilogue.

So everyday, I was walking from Ginza and Shiodome and on the way, here it was: the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Abandoned in 1974, the Battleship Island (Gunkanjima) turned into the Ghost Island and soon became one of the most famous spot for urban exploration.

A clear sky, rising temperature, it feels like holidays. Perfect time to pay a new visit to a few abandoned amusement parks!

I have always liked abandoned Japanese schools. Not only they are sleeping beautifully far away in forgotten countrysides but they are also the cradle of the Japanese soul.

I am a great fun of abandoned hospitals, they are my favorite type of haikyo. Not those empty concrete buildings, but the small wooden clinics rotting away quietly in the countryside without anyone noticing.