Abandoned Port Building

During a drunken ride through the back streets of Minato-ku, we found this. The site of a former terminal for the Kansai Kisen, the Bentenchou abandoned port building as slowly begun to fall into disrepair and now has become a hang out for bored people and the location of a few squatting bars, a usually empty club and a fabric store.

We crusied around inside for a few minutes looking for something cool and instead found a girl who resembled something out of an alien movie. Sorry for the condition of these pictures, but it was dark.

Of all the places I have seen, this building, which used to house a thriving shopping center and ferry service to Kobe and Matsuyama, has to be the clearest sign of Japan’s economic decline. While most analysts agree that Japan is finally starting to get on the track to comeback, the strong, yet bubble, economy which allowed them to own the world and become one of the most feared names in business, will never return. Japan now should reinvent itself to return to it's dominant position before Korea and China overtake it.

Wisdom of the Day: Look to the past to learn how to redesign the future