Gunkanjima by Night

September 17th, 2012By Category: Photography, Travel

Gunkanjima doesn’t need any more presentation: it is the famous abandoned island of Japan and one of the most loved urban exploration spots in the world ! My dream to go there has been fulfilled a few times, but like all explorer/hobbyist photographer, I wanted more… and I ended up spending an entire night on Gunkanjima. It was a few months back and it was awesome.

It was early autumn and very chilly, the salty wind felt like breaking in through my skin. However I was really warmed-up by my friendly team; they were all locals, knew the island perfectly well, and obviously have a very strong bond with it.

After some organization and preparing our HQ, we all run away in different directions. It’s magical: sometimes we can spot team members by a flick of light, or a sound. Sometimes we walk into each other in random buildings, exchanging a hello and continue our journey.

Eventually, we met at our HQ for a few drinks and a nice nap. As we were probably the very first ones to stay and sleep on the island overnight since it was abandoned in 1974, I had this very strong feeling: oh wow, this is awesome and I am so out of my mind… Will I ever experience such a beautiful and intense moment like this one again?

Gunkanjima Sunset

Stairway To Hell Sunrise

Gunkanjima Stars

Abandoned City

Stairway To Hell Purple

Staircases Green

Gunkanjima Rocks

Gunkanjima Moon

Abandoned Mine

Abandoned Island

Block X Stars

<Gunkanjima Mine Red

Gunkanjima Moonlight

Hashima Moon Goodbye

Block 65 Night

Offbeat Japan’s Gunkanjima Urbex Trips are a series of articles about Gunkanjima, during day and night, exploring different aspects and landmarks of the island. I sincerely hope you would appreciate those photos, as I really enjoyed taking them. Thanks for reading!

Author of this article

Offbeat Japan

We're blogging about Japan, urban exploration and our random adventures around the world. The main theme is the beautiful, bizarre or shocking things in life.

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