Part 1 can be found here. 

Earthquake Damage

In the higher parts of town where the tsunami didn’t hit, the earthquake still did a lot of damage to many buildings.

With the streets cleared of rubble by the government workers, abandoned buildings and infrastructure created an eerie post-apocalytic vibe.

Nuka Cola side quest

Another classic post-apocalytic image omnipresent in Tomioka was that of the dilapidated vending machine. A friend of mine is a big fan of the Fallout game series, so I made finding a real-life Nuka Cola a priority.

Unfortunately most machines were either all locked up (I wasn’t going to break in, I’m an explorer not a vandal)…

…or already ransacked.

Even the front can sections had been broken into in this machine.

Main Streets

There is a highway running through Tomioka with some traffic heading through town to Iwaki, the power plants, and the next town Namie.

But the commercial centres of town remained shuttered.

A grocery store remains boarded up, almost fully stocked.

This dressmaking shop evidently closed quite quickly.

This poster was advertising a festival to be held in April 2011. It presumably never went ahead due to the March 2011 evacuation orders.

This restaurant is in hindsight grimly named アトム (Atom).

This service station has stood up to the elements surprisingly well.

Inside is pristine

But this external basin is caked with grit.

The signage has collapsed on the reverse however.

Pachinko Grand Hall

I spied this building on the way in, and it turned out to be the main event of the trip. A crumbling local casino at the top of the hill.

Several walls have collapsed.

As has the sign.

As well as pachinko, the place featured a halloween themed Karaoke bar.

Inside is a moment in time, frozen.

Pachinko balls (the equivalent of gambling chips) have fallen to the floor and remained there for over six years.

Products like chewing tobacco remain in their racks.

Apart from items that presumably fell in the earthquakes, shelves remain undisturbed.

A kitchen deserted.

Even in an abandoned wasteland, you still have video games in Japan. Puyo Puyo for Windows XP!

And you can never escape from the omnipresent Hello Kitty.

On the way upstairs there was a commercial kitchen.

The second floor waiting room.

With a shelf full of reading material.

My quest to find a Nuka Cola continued, but these machines were empty.

The new view from the second floor bathroom was… something.

The karaoke rooms.

Heading through the back to get to the final floor, apparently there was a Sauna (セウナ)?

Right at the top, the ceiling was collapsing, parts literally fell just as I walked past this section.

The roof seemed stable enough however.

Heading down via the external spiral staircase.

One last look on the ground floor led to Nuka Cola success! I found some mini bottles in a small refrigerator. Use by date: 19 May 2011…

New Buildings

Probably the saddest scene was right up the top of the town. This was a new estate – six years ago.

Brand new homes completed or half finished. The town was clearly growing, and people were starting their lives here.

But now the houses sit abandoned amidst overgrown weeds.

There was a similar scene closer to the coast. This half-built wooden house was never finished and has since been beaten by weather – but the metal and glass door/window fittings remain pristine.

This old man is one of the handful of residents who had returned to the area as of July/August. He was out walking his little dog and heading to the town’s single shop.

Abandoned School

What would a post-apocayptic scene be without some creepy abandoned institutions? Tomioka delivers with an abandoned school.

On the right is a kindergarten.

It’s all been kept in pretty good condition internally, seemingly with plans for the population to return in the future.

Across the road, a middle/high school.

It was getting dark and the final shuttle was leaving, so it was farewell to Tomioka, Iwaki and the rest of this area of Fukushima. If I ever return I imagine it will be very different.

One day in late July 2017 I decided to get back into the urban spelunking game, with a trip out to the abandoned towns of the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone. Since the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and reactor meltdowns, the Japanese government has slowly been reopening areas closer to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and while it remains tricky, a lot of areas can now be visited legally and (mostly) safely.

The trip started with a train from Tokyo to the nearest city Iwaki (いわきし Iwaki-shi).

From there it was a slow train to the coastal outskirts of Fukushima Prefecture.

Nearly at the end of the line was the first sight of something soon to be common – stockpiles of large black bags of radiation-contaminated soil. All soil is being tested inside the entire disaster area, and any found to be contaminated is being removed and shipped out for storage.

Tatsuta Station (たつた)

Tatsuta isn’t a town from what I can tell, just a station. It’s on the edge of the evacuation zone and was partially destroyed and shut down following the 2011 disaster. The station reopened in 2014 as a rail terminus. Trains still do not go any further in.

A new station structure was being built/rennovated, presumably with plans to eventually restore the train line to isolated towns like Tomioka and Namie.

This area is far enough inland that the tsunami didn’t hit, and it’s toward the edge of the exclusion zone, but was nonetheless evacuated 2011-2014 and has remained mostly abandoned.

Businesses sat empty, and there were no people around at all, apart from the two other people who were on the train.

Another soon to be common sight – geiger counters. Most areas now read at levels ‘safe for long term habitation’.

From here on you have to get a charter bus to any towns further in.

On the outskirts of the zone, the Japanese government has been building new houses for those who lost theirs in the quake and tsunami. All seem to be empty, possibly because the residents have settled elsewhere by now.

This is the road to the second nuclear plant –  Fukushima Daini. It was successfully shut down after the earthquake.

The cooling tower is visible on the skyline.

The sister plant which suffered the meltdown – Fukushima Daiichi – is just south of the next town, Tomioka.

Tomioka (とみおかまち Tomioka-machi)

While tsunami debris had (mostly) been cleared from the streets, it seemed decontamination work had only just begun at Tomioka, one of the two towns closest to the meltdown. Evacuation orders were only lifted two months earlier, and there were a few hazmat-suited work crews around, and a single shop (a supermarket) had opened to service them, as well as workers continuing the long process of decommissioning the damaged Daiichi plant.

Apart from decontamination workers, the majority of the town was still abandoned.

Half-packed possessions remained just sitting around.

Structures that survived the earthquake better were being used as dumping grounds for goods and possessions from elsewhere

Houses closer to the coast in the lower part of the town suffered huge tsunami damage.

This side-of-the-road restaurant and home had been abandoned and overtaken by the elements.

I went exploring inside.

Continue reading part 2 here – featuring the main streets of Tomioka, a pachinko parlour (casino), earthquake damaged buildings, an abandoned school, and abandoned newly built homes.