Urban explorer Luke Bradburn, 28, from Bury, Greater Manchester, has discovered an eerie abandoned resort town in Japan, where drinks left on tables have remained untouched for over 30 years. The town, Kinugawa Onsen, was once a bustling tourist hotspot but fell into rapid decline in the early 1990s when the Japanese economy crashed.
Bradburn, who originally visited Japan to explore the Fukushima exclusion zone, stumbled upon the abandoned city while looking at nearby locations. He described it as a 'ghost town', with abandoned cars on the streets and around 20 hotels left frozen in time. Some rooms were 'pristine', as if people had just walked out, while other parts were dangerously disintegrated.
Inside the hotels, Bradburn found arcade machines still filled with toys, tables set with drinks, and grand lobbies with taxidermy animals. 'Each one felt like stepping into a time capsule,' he said. 'You get a sense of what life must’ve been like here at its peak and then it just stopped. It’s eerie, sad and fascinating all at once.'
The buildings have been left untouched partly due to strict Japanese laws that make demolition difficult. Bradburn explained: 'In some cases, they need the owner’s permission to demolish and if the owner died, they legally can’t for 30 years.' He also noted that low crime rates mean abandoned buildings are not looted or destroyed quickly.
Bradburn explored about five of the hotels, using connecting corridors. However, he warned that many parts are collapsing, making exploration 'really unsafe'. 'There were floors missing, staircases hanging down, parts where you had to backtrack because everything had collapsed,' he said.
