Standing at approximatley 48 meters high, the Shime Coal Mine (aka The Zombie Tower) was built in 1943 and ceased operating in 1964. The structure still stands proud and beautiful on the outskirts of Fukuoka. Back in its hey day, the top of the tower housed a bunch of offices and from its centre, a huge cable wound 1400 meters into the depths of the mine below. Very popular place for Japanese photographers. #abandonedjapan #haikyo #shanethoms

A long abandoned bath house in the hills in the Kansai area. It was located in a forest and extremely waterlogged. #abandonedjapan #ShaneThoms

A crumbling long abandoned hotel beside a river in Nara Prefecture. Inside I found a beautiful collapsed staircase. #ShaneThoms #abandonedjapan

Located just outside of Hachimantai, this long abandoned sulfur mine housed about 15,000 workers before becoming abandoned in the late 70's. The first time I visited it was raining hard and an intense, thick fog descended over the valley. I sat in my car for about 2 hours waiting for a break and just watched as the low clouds moved and hovered over and between the rows of haunting abandoned apartment blocks (a truly stunning and fierce visual). Each time I got out to take a

Most people are familiar with the devastating earthquake which struck Japans eastern coast on 11 March 2011. The 9.0 magnitude quake caused severe damage to 3 of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant subsequently releasing high levels of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere and into the ocean. This incident was to become one of the worst nuclear disasters since the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986. To eliminate any possible exposures to dangerously hig

I found this lonely derelict two story roadhouse while driving through Ibaraki Prefecture. It was plonked on a long stretch of empty road in the middle of nowehere so I slowed down and peeked through its windows. I realised it was abandoned after I spotted a number of white ripped lanterns dangling from its ceiling, so parked the car up the road and grabbed my stuff and walked back to check it out. A long hallway stemmed from the front desk all the way down to a larger re