The Slow Demise of Rural Japan: Early Winter Edition
Some recent shots
Go to almost any hamlet here in rural Japan and there will be at least one house like this:
Another angle:
This one clearly met its demise in a fire. But just down the road there was a place like this:
Eaten alive.
I wish I could find the photo, but I have seen, more than once, a half destroyed garage still with a (working) car in it.
No money to fix it up?
No motivation?
Who knows?
What gets me though, is that at the same time as these buildings are obviously meeting their maker, just down the road we get views like this:
Or this:
Or this:
Where people still live (this is very close to that first hamlet), and actually a popular Kominka restaurant lies to the left of this photo.
And then of course, there are also places like this:
Which I for one find absolutely stunning. There was no-one around here when I took it, but there was plenty of snow, just not visible in the photo.
I drove a little further and came across this:
Just a random building in the middle of a random field. Who knows what goes on there. To be honest though, I think it would make a great spot for a cabin, who’s with me?
On that note:
Living in a Dying Japanese City
Those who have been following my Instagram would have noticed an uptick in the number of photos of buildings from small town Japan. It all started with me just thinking these buildings look cool, because they do, but then I realised something.
Daily Yamabushi for The Week and The Week Before
Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of November 21 to 27, 2025.
Read Daily Yamabushi at timbunting.com/blog. Most popular articles here.
And one more week. Because life. Sorry (not sorry)
Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of November 28 to December 4, 2025.
Read Daily Yamabushi at timbunting.com/blog. Most popular articles here.
Lovely stuff. Indeed, take those photos while you can.