Gakuranman.com – illuminating Japan

Alrighty then. It’s high time I announced the winners to my recent competition with Flutterscape! There were a great selection of insightful entries with advice on how to best learn a foreign language which made it really tough to choose the best, but it had to be done. See below if you’re getting goodies from [...]

I know, what a title eh? Words have failed me. Or perhaps I have failed them. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but having gone through the batch of photos from my latest haikyo outing, it’s now obvious that I had passed through another world without quite realising it.

A collection of haikyo articles penned by Japan Times staff writer Eriko Arita ventures into the deeper meaning behind ruins exploration and its popularity in Japan. A mention of my thoughts of the subject are included in one of the stories.

The day was drawing to a close and my haikyo partner and I could already hear the noisy mating gerrops of frogs. But one last thing had caught our eye. A shadowy hole cut into the upper regions of the cliff beckoned us in the fading light. A cave, perhaps..?

Gunkanjima – every urban explorer’s dream. A deserted island of concrete ruins slowly crumbling away off the West coast of Japan. Travellers have long been forbidden to land there and view the secrets within its walls. But with an awesome guide and a little luck, I was able to do just that. Here’s my story.

Continuing the haikyo White Stone Mine series (part 1, part 2), this time I’m presenting a starker look. I’ve been reluctant to play too much with the natural colours of my photos up until now, but think of these pictures more as conveying the emotional vision.

Previously I took you through one of my latest explores focussing on the beautiful colours of the once proud White Stone Mine. Today it is in shambles, slowly being re-claimed by nature. But that’s not to say there is nothing left…

Japan is littered with abandoned mines, factories and other industrial spots, but my haikyo travels to date had not led me to a place quite as grand as this. The White Stone Mine is a sprawling ruin of wood and metal packed to the brim with history.

A rather curious piece of art by the group Gelitin is coming to Nagoya. The ‘Klunk Garden‘ is a mashup of a Zen Buddhist Japanese Rock Garden and the beautiful forms of the naked human body. Reminds me of Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto!

What’s your best kept secret about Japan? That was the question aimed at fellow J-bloggers for this month’s Japansoc Blog Matsuri. Quite a tricky topic, especially for those who don’t actually live in Japan, but nevertheless, we had 10 awesome entries letting us in on some lesser known parts of Japan.

More respectfully known as the ‘Japanese Fertility Festival’, but let’s not beat around the bush here, this is a bizarre matsuri that is full of phallic shaped sweets, giant wooden penises and rice cakes as hard as canon balls.

The Doctor’s shack lies hidden in rural Japan, its location closely guarded by haikyoists and folk who like to explore. And for good reason – inside is a goldmine of pre-war medicines and medical books, dusty bottles and old rusty instruments.