While urban exploration has grown in popularity in the West in the past 10 or so years, the hobby is also quite a large niche here in Japan. Book stores carry racks of publications dedicated to photography of tunnels, industrial areas and abandoned buildings, and similar Web sites abound. Perhaps by nature of its complexity, Tokyo’s massive train network boasts urban legends of secret emergency networks and abandoned stations, and a tour of the city’s storm discharge tunnels are on the top of every casual explorer’s must-see list.
There is an even more popular sub-genre of urban exploration, however, that of the abandoned building. What with the life cycle of most properties lasting only about 20 to 30 years and a decreasing population with shrinking expendable income, Japan offers a lot of disused structures that saw their heyday during the bubble era. The countryside–and occasionally city, though the price of real estate tends to be a quick death sentence for abandoned structures–is often marked with the unassuming, hulking shape of structures that have worn out their use. Known as “haikyo,” some buildings are very evidently out of commission, dilapidated and silent, while others others reveal their secret with only boarded up windows and some stray weeds. Many bookstores and Web sites feature guidebooks to more popular sites, though both in print and online information regarding the areas is chronically out of date.
Haikyo explorers are understandably secretive. Entrance into most areas constitutes breaking and entering, and the last thing an avid explorer would want is to have his cover blown by a stream of hikers traveling in and out. Foreign haikyo adventurer Gakuranman lists in his “Hazards of Haikyo and Urban Explorations” that, while heading off alone is never a good idea, an optimal group contains about four people. Realistically, any more would attract unwanted attention and probably tip the cops off.
I’ve tromped through abandoned areas before in the States (I’m from Detroit, after all), but got my first taste of exotic Japanese haikyo when my good friend and director Michael Condon needed some company while scouting out locations for a music video. We visited the old Fuchu Air Force Base, a post World War II relic located a few minutes walk from Fuchu station. On our excursion there was just two–Mick and I–and thankfully so, since we spent nearly an hour walking up and down the small streets around the perimeter of the base looking for a way in. The thing was inconveniently located, right in the middle of a residential area. On a warm Saturday morning everyone was out doing their laundry and riding their bicycles. Two foreigners in sunglasses staring at a barbed wire fence–we didn’t exactly blend in.
After a time we found our entry point at the back of a parking lot with only a few kids playing nearby. The sound of dry grass crunching as we dropped and hit the ground inside felt like it echoed deafeningly off the sides of neighboring houses, but no one seemed to notice. So off we ran for cover, taking refuge inside an overgrown forest laden with what turned out to be rose bushes. Ouch.
As one would expect with an abandoned air base, the haikyo was pretty huge. Buildings stood lifelessly, swallowed up in the brush and covered in vines, with cracks in the doors and windows flashing glimpses of the inviting darkness inside. Well, inviting.. or creepy, depending upon how you looked at it, but either way the lack of roads and overgrown greenery forced us to pass through the buildings instead of going around them, heading through musty corridors that just screamed of asbestos. There wasn’t a whole lot of furniture left in most the rooms we checked and it was difficult to determine what the buildings had previously housed, but the feeling of crunching of glass and tile beneath our feet as fallen ceiling panels swayed when we passed was thrilling all the same.
Having found a road, we made our way past the iconic radio tower and two satellite dishes that can be seen from Fuchu station, strolled past bamboo groves, street lamps and more rotting structures. One group of grafitti artists had left their distinct style of tags here and there inside the buildings, and some of the rubbish strewn about indicated that the base may be a bit difficult to enter but not an unpopular spot to visit.
We had hoped to find some hangars and runways–it was an air force base, after all–but as the sun grew higher in the sky and the temperature rose, sleep deprivation and hunger began to get the best of us. Finding a way out, however, proved nearly as difficult as finding a way in. Our initial entry point would have taken a while to return to, was out in the open, and had the barbed wire tilting inside. All the walls nearby faced busy roads carrying a steady stream of traffic, and we were sure to be seen climbing over. Fatigue made us foolish, however, and after a bit of deliberation we chose a spot that was easy to climb up inside and coincidentally had an electrical pole on the outside that provided a great alternative to a drop from the top of the fence. We moved quickly and probably were a surprising sight for the old lady and two cyclists who spotted us, but in the end were soon out and away from the base, thinking about where to eat some lunch.
Now that I’ve experienced the thrill of my first haikyo in Japan (is it too self-incriminating to say that tresspassing is thrilling?), I’m excited to make another trip, be it back to the base or to one of the many ruins that dot the Japanese countryside. For future endeavors it would probably be worth it to visit somewhere that isn’t smack in the middle of a populated neighborhood, but it’s quite the confidence booster to tell a tale that both starts and ends with a vault over a barbed wire fence.
11 Comments
Nice writeup! I read that the Fuchu base is heavily guarded and you are at the mercy of the US military if you get caught. Did you guys have any problems in that regard?
Very cool pictures! After checking out your pics I spent about an hour researching old bases in Japan. I think the reason you didn’t see any hangars or runways was because it was a communications base. I need to check this place out! Well done!
Wow epic, didnt know you could do that in Japan. Got some nice snaps. I like the last one cause it has the frames on the sides and the stuff hanging from the ceiling gives multiple levels of depth. I would love to go on one of these if and only if there are no insects or animals :(
Mike: Yeah, we had read online that one of the two radio towers was still in use and that part of the base was still manned, but we didn’t see anyone nor see signs of any recent activity besides the pink ribbons tied around the trees. Looking at satellite images on Google maps, there is what looks to be a parking lot in use. We joked around about being treated either better or worse than the locals if we got caught because we’re both foreign and I’m American, but in the end it wasn’t a problem. We were really pushing our luck with the exit, though.
Love your site, BTW :)
Randy: Yeah, I realized it later after reading a bit more online. Too bad, though, as I’d LOVE to have seen some abandoned and overgrown runways! Find anything else interesting?
Very little of the base is still in use. Just one small comms facility and some buildings still jointly used by USAF and JSDF. See the map here:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/??????
??? in Chofu is another place near there that used to offer some ex-military haikyo action. (The ASIJ kids living out near school used to jump the fence and drink beer in there from time to time, not that I would know a thing about that, cough.) It was built as a residential facility when Tokyo took back the “Washington Heights” stuff downtown to build facilities for the 1964 olympics.
http://www.funkygoods.com/hai/kantou/kantou.html
I think by now most of it has been town down and turned into college campuses, parks, and Ajinomoto Stadium, though.
Enter your comments here… A tree growing indoors!!
Rock! The site should be used for fake episodes of Lost. Stamp some dharma initiative logos everywhere. I also think this type of exploration should be combined with geocaching. to go full on nerd.
I was stationed at Fuchu Air Station in 1974–I was there up until HQ USFJ/5AF moved to Yokota Air Base. Your pictures seem to be mostly of the area that consisted of Bachelor Officer Quarters and the famous antenna and dishes (which must have been the old communications and weather operations area of the base). This was about 1/3 of the air station. From Google images of the air station, it appears that it is a portion of the base that once consisted of the NCO Club, supply buildings, the education center, and the aforementioned BOQ and comm/weather buildings. I visited the base in November 1980 and the base was pretty much in tact as I remembered it in 1974–the Air Force still maintained the weather and comm operations. I returned in April 1988 (rode my bike from Yokota AB) and rode around the fenced areas of the base, as it was configured at that time. The one thing I noticed was that the Japanese or local municipal government (?) had divided the base by adding several new roads. I imagine these are the roads that you now see in and around the base. While the main gate was still in the same area, I believe, it was later relocated further down the small street running in front of the base. In 1988, the AF still had its small part of the air station (where your pictures were taken) and the old “main” part of the air station housed the Japanese Air Self Defense Force operation, to include the old USFJ/5AF HQ building, which still stands today. The one thing I noticed during my 1988 visit was how much it changed and how it was a little difficult to recognize portions of the old base that I remembered from 1974. I don’t know if some of the buildings on the part of the base I lived had been demolished by then or not. They may have been. At any rate, it’s sad to see your pictures, because Fuchu Air Station and the housing area known as Kanto Mura, several miles east of the air station were very nice installations. After moving to Yokota, I felt we got the short end of the stick, so to speak. I say this because Yokota Air Base is in a piss poor location and is an overcrowded, ugly base. At the time, not may people liked Yokota, because in comparison to the other installations (like Fuchu and Tachikawa Air Base), Yokota was very drab. Thanks for posting your pictures. I may visit the area during my next visit to Japan, but probably just Fuchu City and Okunitama Jinja.
Interesting to see the old place again. Stationed there 1962-1964 at PACOM ELINT CTR. Walked from corner to corner many times. PEC was in one corner and barracks were in corner by the heliocopter pad across from Hq 5th AF. Train station was just a couple hundred yard outside the front gate past all the bars we called the strip. Went to the Airmans Club to drink and to the strip to drink some more and get laid.
I was also stationed at Fuchu during the period of 1962 and 1964. I truly enjoyed my assignment there.
I was stationed there from ’68-’73 and as Kevin said, air stations don’t have runways. When i left I was helping design some of the communications for the new 5th AF HQ. It’s really depressing to see the state of the place now. I had a great time while stationed there. My office/shop was in the old PACOM ELINT building when I left. This was handy because of the short walk to the NCO Club. It’s a really small base. Every year when we had our annual fitness run we would start at the front gate and run around the inner perimeter in a counterclockwise direction and finish up at the Airmen’s Club which was a hundred yards or so from the front gate. So, not much more than a mile and a half around. It was also home for HQ US Forces Japan , the Far East Comm Region, and the 1956 Comm Gp which was my outfit. I still miss it and for the rest of my career I tried to get stationed there or close by, but the closest I got was Okinawa. I would love to see more pictures of the place, because there was literally a whole town within that fence. You guys saw a tiny portion of it. Nice pictures though.