Overview

• Bradburn discovered Kinugawa Onsen in early 2024 while scouting locations beyond the Fukushima exclusion zone.
• He spent six hours navigating overgrown corridors, broken staircases and collapse zones across five of the roughly 20 abandoned hotels.
• Inside the buildings, he found pristine lobbies, traditional onsen baths, arcade machines filled with toys, taxidermy displays and drinks still on tables.
• Dense vegetation, missing floors and unstable staircases create dangerous conditions throughout the site.
• A 30-year demolition ban on ownerless properties and Japan’s low crime rate have kept the hotels intact and trapped the town in legal limbo.