Maboroshi Hakurankai — Attraction in Ito

it's as if you found 10 abandoned sheds and a greenhouse in the mountains, added shelves, then summoned from the dead endless boxes of stuff found in peoples' closets or estate sales. an organized junkyard, a realized collection of random categories. game boy games, gaudy kids' toys, stuffed animals, wartime mannequins, old arcade machines, ancient civilization dioramas, rooms full of rooms, displaced from their original locations and contexts: it feels like walking through a google search for "everything", and yet its curation and arrangement gives the sense of walking and peering into the past: seeing the 'progress' of japan and all the consumable objects its left behind.

More straightforwardly it's composed of a lot of random stuff, some that were taken from closed museums around japan. Formally it does have a sense of 'museum storeroom' at times. The manager, sera-chan, is nice and talks very fast, and is against salaryman culture and had some life advice for working and pursuing interests. In some ways their relation to collecting objects reminds me a bit of how tumblr blog owners curate images. I think there's slight leftist and queer slants to some parts of the museum, which was nice.

...when i see stuff like this i always grow more wary of the urge to collect excessively. Not as a criticism of the museum, but so many of the collections here feel like they were donated by someone (maybe they were?), just bundles of random stuff. I suppose my 'digital folders of game/movie screenshots' aren't much cleaner..

this area of japan has a lot of random museums for some reason and i'd like to know why! I have a few theories but who knows...

accessibility note: buses run seldomly through here and there doesn't seem to be water or food sold at the museum. The road isn't super walking friendly, so plan ahead!

i also feel like this museum being intact is a miracle, it feels like it's falling apart and being reclaimed by nature. Some parts of it are entirely outdoors and overgrown. (I would bring a face mask for dust/potential mold and...

The greatest attraction I've ever been to. I spent over an hour here and didn't see anybody else. Some areas are explicit and scary, but the relaxed areas also create a sense of dread.

Everything is uncanny, it's like visiting the house of a crazy person with too much money who only wants a bigger collection. There is meticulous sorting to the chaos. In one room, a shelf will contain 200 model airplanes, next to a row of furbys, next to a room full of babies.

There's a section at the end with a ritual to the devil, and a secret stripper room in collaboration with a local strip club.

Thank...

This place is just breath taking and I’m really glad that some people in the world can provide those kind of place. Beware that the place is not taking care of but it makes it even more interesting with a vibe you can’t have anywhere else From Tokyo it’s a bit expensive and long to get there but 100% worth it. Paid 1200¥ for the entrance, about 2000¥ one way from Tokyo to futo station with a stop at atami station in between. Then you walk about 30min to Umenokidaira bus stop (don’t take the maboroshi hakurenkai itinerary on google maps because it will make you...