It's a holiday Monday morning, the sun is shining, the air is crisp and cool, what do you do? Go on a haikyo! Mike and I decided to head deep into Saitama to do the last major undone (by us) haikyo in the Tokyo area. A cement factory. And? This haikyo site has the privilege of being ranked the number one haikyo in Japan according to Mike's haikyo book. At least I think it is. Mike will correct me if I'm wrong.
I slept in a bit so we didn't get to the spot till arond 1:00 pm, it was Sunday after all.
Because this is Tokyo, the sun began disappearing behind clouds, the crisp air became clammy, and, I kid you not, the very second we reached the cement factory, it started raining. Were we bitter? Nah, you get used to being screwed by weather after you've lived in Tokyo for years.
Well a rainy haikyo is better than nothing, but as it turned out, the cement factory ended up actually being nothing. It was being torn down!
There was a big construction-like tarp surrounding the haikyo, but Mike and I found a small tunnel-like hole in one section that was hidden from view from surrounding traffic and buildings, and we crawled in for a look. Here's the view that first greeted us. Piles of rubble and some wrecking equipment.

The factory had pretty much been reduced to piles of rubble, but it did afford us a few photo opps. Truthfully I was a bit nervous to be in here, this was no longer a haikyo, but a real construction zone on what was now surely private property. It was a holiday, so nobody seemed to be around, but the place was enormous, exposed, and there was fully functional machinery all around.
A lot of shots had to be taken from indoor vantage points due to the rain. Two little shed like buildings near the place where we entered were the only real standing structures that hadn't yet been demolished.

I liked the contrast and layout of this scene, it has a very post apocalyptic feel to it. This was from the smaller of the two above mentioned buildings.

Piles of metal, wires and of course, concrete, surround me. Judging by the foundations, this was a massive factory.

However being down on the ground here was just too open and exposed for my liking. To the left there was a major road and the cars driving down it could see us easily if they happened to look. There was also a litte construction workers hut up on the left which someone could have been in, you know, those little portable beige buildings that you always see at construction sites? It'd only been about 30 minutes but I just felt like we should get out. I was however, interested in circling around the hills (you can see them in the background of some of the pictures) to see if we could get any shots from above.
Wonder if all this scrap metal is worth anything? Bubbles on 'The Wire' would know.

Getting in over top was pretty easy. There was this little temple trail behind the cement factory, which provided extremely easy access. We just walked off the trail for a few meters and we were in.

And it turned out to be a pretty good idea actually. Until now, this haikyo had almost been a fail, but with the discovery of the top entrance, and the shots we got, the trip became almost worthwhile.
You can't really get a feel for the scale of the place with this shot. The whole thing is around 4 times bigger than what you can see below.
The building I'm standing in for this shot was half torn down. Not the safest place to be I suppose. The things we do for a good haikyo photos!

Some kind of cement quality control checker?

Everything seems to be in order here. Keep that cement flowing!

This little guy is saying 'yoshi!' which kind of translates to 'alright!, let's do it!', which pretty much summarizes how I feel about making cement myself.
...And those are some really big hands...

Standing on a ledge, looking waaaay down. What's a little danger when trying to bring you the best haikyo photos?

The more you look at it, the more you start thinking that this building really is hanging by a thread.

And then we left. By this time the rain was coming down hard, it was cold and we'd pretty much seen all there was to see.
It wasn't a bad day, but it's really too bad we weren't a little quicker on the draw. If we'd only come here maybe a month earlier, the factory would've probably still been standing in all it's creepy haikyo splendor. Better luck next haikyo!

Gankutsu Rock Hotel
Queen Chateau Soapland
Abandoned Ski Lodge
Colour and Concrete
Mt. Asama's Volcano Museum
Fined in the Mine
If You Build It, They Will Leave
The Haikyo of Living Precariously
Seikoshi Gold Mine
Sports World Redux
BE Labs
Haikyo and Cosplay
Pearl Love Hotel
Nichitsu Ghost Town
Welcome to the Hotel Nagano
Cement Factory
Russian Village
Izu Sports World
Free Entertainment!
Haikyo! Ruins in Japan
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