Gunkanjima sits about 15 kilometers south of Nagasaki city. Initially opened in 1887, this small island operated as a coalmine base which also housed its many miners and families. Mitsubishi (its last owner) closed the facility permanently in 1974 along with a number of other coal mining plants across Japan. For forty years, this concrete island and its many buildings have been left to decay…and in place of what was once a thriving island mining town is now an enchantingly