{"id":454,"date":"2007-05-13T22:12:17","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T13:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-13\/454"},"modified":"2007-06-30T19:38:22","modified_gmt":"2007-06-30T10:38:22","slug":"abandonded-houses-in-hokkaido","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-13\/454","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Houses in Hokkaido"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 48mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f\/8, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAbandoned House in Hokkaido<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

During our drives around the countryside on our recent trip to Hokkaido<\/a>, I noticed<\/span> a fairly<\/span> large number of abandoned houses. I love them<\/span> for their\nphotographic opportunities, and because I find<\/span> them to be quite\nintriguing.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 125mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nA Real<\/span> “Fixer-Upper” Special<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I wonder who built the house? Who lived<\/span> there? Were kids raised there?\n(How did they like it, and where are they now?) Why did someone leave it?\nWhat's happened to it since? Who owns it<\/span> now, and where are they?<\/p>\n\n

Mostly, I wonder<\/span> about who might have lived in it first, when it was\nnew. How wonderfully<\/span> peaceful it must have been, and being new, just plain\nold wonderful. (The windows look to be of single-pane glass, so perhaps\nsome of the wonderfulness wore off during the long, cold winters this area\ngets.)<\/p>\n\n

I look at the decorative woodwork above the door (that you can see in\nthe large version<\/a>), and\nsee that one of the diamond shapes is partially broken. Who broke<\/span> it? Was it broken<\/span> while people were still living there? Who built<\/span> the decorative\nwoodwork, carefully crafting a simple<\/span> accent that lends a measured<\/span> flourish\nto the dignified simpleness of the house?<\/p>\n\n

I can see from the way the electricity meter is installed on the house\n(on the outside wall of the entryway) that the house must have been built\nbefore electricity was available in this area (about 8km from the center of\nthe relatively small town of Kitafurano — \u5317\u5bcc\u826f\u91ce).<\/span> I wonder<\/span> when\nboth those events happened, and how exciting it must have felt for those\nliving there to get electricity.<\/p>\n\n

Oh, how I'd love to rummage through what's left of the house now, to see\ntraces of who had lived there, and to see how the house was constructed. It was set<\/span> a fair<\/span> distance from the road, so I couldn't<\/span> get very close. (It's\nnot like there was anyone around to complain if I looked<\/span> around, but it\nwouldn't have been right.)<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/8, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNew Road, but House Is Still Old<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f\/8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHokkaido Road<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Most roads we saw have some highly-visible marker or another to indicate\nthe edge of the road, most likely for the snow plows. The most common<\/span> were\nthe arrows above the road, as in the picture above, but the arrows are\nbright red and white. In the picture<\/span> above, all but the furthest are still\nwrapped in plastic, likely having been only recently installed.<\/p>\n\n

By the way, the mountain peak behind the house is Mt. Furano, six miles\naway. At 1,912 m (6,272 feet) in elevation, it towers almost a mile<\/span> above\nthe house. The peak above<\/span> the roadway is Mr. Biei, about 8 miles away, with\nan elevation 140m higher than Mt. Furano. These are among the highest\nmountains on Hokkaido, and part of the same group with the highest, the\n2,290 m (7,514 ft) Mt. Asahi, 20 miles to the north. (These are all small\nby comparison to Mt. Fuji's 3,776 m — 12,387 feet.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our drives around the countryside on our recent trip to Hokkaido, I noticed a fairly large number of abandoned houses. I love them for their photographic opportunities, and because I find them to be quite intriguing.<\/p>

I wonder who built the house? Who lived there? Were kids raised there? (How did they like it, and where are they now?) Why did someone leave it? What's happened to it since? Who owns it now, and where are they?<\/p>

Mostly, I wonder about who might have lived in it first, when it was new. How wonderfully peaceful it must have been, [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}