If you are a regular reader of this blog you might remember my *rant about Golden Week* a while ago. To refresh your memory: I went to Kyushu for some urban exploration – my plan was to stay for four days, but I had to return to Kansai the same day, because I couldn’t find a hotel room; partly because I’m Caucasian, probably because my Japanese skills are limited.
Between the devastating news from the Sasebo Tourist Information Center (their staff was great though!) and me returning home I visited the abandoned Saikaibashi Public Aquarium, a location that gained quite a bit of popularity on Japanese *haikyo* blogs recently.
Sadly only a couple of urban exploration blogs, Western as well as Japanese, really care about the history of the places they present – a fact that sometimes makes it tough for yours truly to give you proper facts about the places I showcase on Abandoned Kansai. I’ve seen a really old photo of the aquarium taken in summer of 1965, so it’s pretty safe to say that it was in business already back then. The oldest photos of the abandoned aquarium dated as far back as 1996 – and on those photos the place already looked like nobody took care of it for a decade or two. The small floating platform in front of the aquarium did not have the wood and barbed wire installation yet, and the handrail on the waterfront was still there, but the concrete holding it up was already severely damaged.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a public aquarium still in business, but passing by the ones on *Mount Yashima* and the Kaiyukan in Osaka (which is one of the biggest aquariums in the world) I was under the impression that those installations are pretty big. The Saikaibashi Public Aquarium wasn’t big at all. Probably 6 or 7 meters by 35 meters, 2 floors (steps, no elevator). There was one huge tank combining both floors and several smaller ones on each floor. None of them were filled with water, hardly any had intact windows. The amount of vandalism was severe – no graffiti, but most of the smashable items were destroyed. The building being exposed to the elements didn’t help either – even on the upper level the massive concrete floor felt kind of unsteady due to the damages done in the past decades. And outside it was more than clearly visible how fragile concrete can be: the bridge leading to the aquarium collapsed at two different segments and I really hope nobody was walking there when it happened. Which is rather likely since I’ve seen photos of the intact bridge that weren’t that old – maybe 1.5 or 2 years. The chance that a fellow explorer took an involuntary bath is rather high…
What really surprised me, not to say shock me, was a fact I found out about only after I visited the Saikaibashi Public Aquarium. As small as the aquarium was, it seems like the main attraction of the place was a dolphin show! The now broken bridge, fitted with metal grids, limited an area known as the “Dolphin’s Cove” (イルカの池), show time was at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 as well as at 16:00 on normal weekdays and at 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00 and at 16:30 on weekends, public holidays and during the six week long school summer break that to the best of my knowledge usually starts in July when the weather becomes too hot and humid to spend time in a building without AC, which applies for most Japanese schools.
Though small and vandalized, the one hour I had to explore and document the Saikaibashi Public Aquarium felt a bit short. How often do you have the chance to visit an abandoned aquarium? But at that point I was still hoping to get a hotel room in Fukuoka, so I had to leave prematurely and hurry to save my third Kyushu trip…
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Did you see a skeleton of a dead cat there?
No skeleton of a dead cat, but maybe if I go back I can ask locals about famine-stricken cats in the 80s or 90s to find out when the aquarium was abandoned… 😉
Haha. I visited this place in the winter of 2010, and saw a corpse of a dead cat inside. I was just trying to confirm to see if it’s still there, since no one really visit this place to potentially remove it.
Darn! I thought you were trying to be funny and then I tried to funny…
So, to answer your question seriously: I didn’t find any remains of dead animals, but I didn’t look in every corner since I was in a hurry.
LOVE this post. And your blog theme-I’m just realizing how much I love noticing and exploring abandoned sites, too. Thanks for the great pictures and stories!
Thanks a lot for your kind words! I wish I would have had more time at the aquarium, but that is kind of the fun with abandoned places – barely anything goes as planned…
Haha. It’s all good.
Do you have a lot of troubles with hotels and accommodations? I’ve never been able to visit Japan, but I keep hearing they can be a very odd combination of accommodating and friendly yet still xenophobic and racist to non Japanese.
Usually I don’t have any problems, especially when sticking with large chains like Toyoko Inn or Route Inn. Golden Week is a pain in general. This year it was okay since it was kind of split, but the more consecutive days off there are in a row in Japan, the more people are traveling and the more expensive everything becomes. 😦
I’m a young urban explorer and i went to this aquarium yesterday. I live here in japan, and have been for 6 years. When i went the floating dock was completely gone w/o a trace and an old gas burner with a propane tank was right at the entrance. I went through the entire place, even shimmying along the rotten rafters on the 2nd floor above the tanks. Sadly that area will soon be inaccessible, for the wooden steps/ladder thing is literally falling apart. The trolley up to the hotel is still there however, and was in good enough condition that i felt safe inside it. Please notify me of any other cool abandoned areas here in or around sasebo, as i only have 5 months left here in japan. P.S I took video of the entire thing, ill post a link as soon as i edit it together 🙂
Thanks for the update!
I think I posted about everything I’ve visited in the Sasebo area, though I’d like to come back one day; just for the burgers… 🙂
Calvin,
I used to live in Sasebo too. There are many abandoned bunkers in Sasebo. Some are really remote, which are thrills to visit. One of them is right next to a former “golf school.” Another one of them perhaps has the best view of the 99 islands too. Please contact me if you are interested. Don’t forget to check out Minamikawa Torpedo testing sight too. It is pretty close to Hario. Last but not least, check out Gunkanjima if you can.
– Chris
To find out more about those locations, please have a look here:
Gunkanjima
Katashima
I got a little mixed up here. I meant Kawatana Torpedo Testing Sight. Minamikawa is a tiny abandoned village elementary school in the mountains of Omura. Once again, feel free to contact me at crispswish@gmail.com.