Urban Explorer Discovers Abandoned Japan Resort Town

An urban explorer from Greater Manchester uncovered a hauntingly beautiful yet abandoned resort town in Japan during his travels in 2024. Luke Bradburn, 28, stumbled upon the once-vibrant Kinugawa Onsen, an area now characterized by crumbling hotels overlooking a riverside cliff. This resort was once celebrated for its natural hot springs, drawing thousands of tourists until its decline began in the early 1990s, coinciding with Japan’s economic downturn.

The decline of Kinugawa Onsen is attributed to a significant drop in tourism. As visitors stayed away, the resort’s hotels began shutting down. Japan’s stringent property laws have left many of these buildings in a state of legal limbo, preventing their demolition. Some hotel owners have either died without heirs or vanished, leaving the structures abandoned yet standing.

Bradburn discovered the resort while exploring the Fukushima exclusion zone, an area impacted by the catastrophic accident at the Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, which resulted from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Over a span of six hours, he navigated through the overgrown paths, broken staircases, and precarious drop-offs that now define the landscape of Kinugawa Onsen.

“It was like walking into a ghost town,” Bradburn described. “There were abandoned cars on the streets, and while you could drive through the area, every building around you was just left to rot.” His exploration led him to venture inside several of the deserted hotels, where time appeared to have frozen.

Within the ruins, Bradburn encountered hotel lobbies filled with remnants of a bygone era. Traditional Japanese onsen baths, untouched rooms, and arcade machines still stocked with toys spoke to the vibrant life that once thrived in these establishments. Perhaps the most striking feature he observed was a large taxidermy deer and falcon prominently displayed in one lobby.

“One of the strangest things was walking into a lobby and seeing a massive taxidermy deer and falcon still standing there,” he recalled. “It was bizarre. I’d seen pictures of it online before, and then suddenly we were face to face with it.”

Bradburn’s discovery of Kinugawa Onsen not only sheds light on the changes in tourism and economy in Japan over the past few decades but also raises questions about the future of such abandoned sites. As urban exploration continues to grow in popularity, the haunting beauty of these forgotten places captivates adventurers and serves as a reminder of the impermanence of human endeavors.