The reputedly haunted Nakagusuku Hotel in Okinawa, Japan freaked-out construction workers so much, they walked off the job before the hotel was even finished.

Guest Lost

The ruins of the Nakagusuku Hotel in Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa are a rare example of a structure seemingly cursed by fate and doomed to failure BEFORE it could even open for business. Remember the creepy “sacrilegious” housing development in the movie Poltergeist? It’s sorta like that, but in real life.

Naming Names

There are many mysteries swirling around the Nakagusuku Hotel – even its name is open to question. Depending on who you ask, it’s been referred to variously as the Royal Hotel, the Takahara Hotel, and the Kogen Hotel. The “Royal Hotel” probably was the intended commercial name: the word “ROYAL” was painted above the entrance and although now quite faded, it can still be discerned in good lighting. The evocative photos accompanying this article, by the way, were posted to Flickr by member keiyac in March of 2019.

Forlorn Fortress

The aborted hotel’s location invites speculation as well, being situated a mere 50 meters (roughly 165 feet) from the ruins of Nakagusuku Castle. The latter is a 15th-century stone fortress that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2000… almost a quarter-century after construction started (and stopped) at the hotel site.

All’s Fair

But we digress… back to the oranges, er, origins of the story. In 1975 the island hosted the Okinawa Ocean Exposition, aka “Expo ’75”. This little-known event was a World’s Fair conceived as a way to celebrate the return of the Ryukyu Island chain to Japan from the United States a mere THREE YEARS earlier. Kinda quick as anniversaries go but hey, World’s Fair folks!

Aha, Naha

A wealthy businessman from Naha (the capitol city of Okinawa) saw Expo ’75 as a unique business opportunity, and quickly secured a prime stretch of property on a hilltop just south of the castle ruins. The location was perfect, offering breathtaking views of the East China Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. The complex was to include a hotel, a vacation resort and a water park. What could possibly go wrong?

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Haunted Hotel Unfinished Abandoned Okinawa Resort Inn

Anyone who has dreamed of retiring from the rat race to run a grand estate hotel, rural farmhouse bed and breakfast, quaint inn or remote monastery spa could see their wish come true in this unprecedented giveaway from the Italian government.

As part of its Strategic Tourist Plan, Italy is offering up 103 historic sites to those with the will and means to renovate them back into use for tourism purposes. And this is just the initial offering: 200 more are slated to be given away over the coming years.

The State Property Agency and Ministry of Cultural Heritage are leading the project, aiming to draw visitors to beautiful areas with currently disused architecture. In some cases, a lot of work is needed, but that’s the nature of centuries-old structures.

State employee Roberto Reggi says “The project will promote and support the development of the slow tourism sector. The goal is for private and public buildings which are no longer used to be transformed into facilities for pilgrims, hikers, tourists, and cyclists.”

The country has previously auctioned off historic properties, including dozens of lighthouses, with similar goals in mind, but this time they are making it all free, banking on the long-term prospects of the renovations to raise funds for local businesses and the national economy (via Inhabitat).

Vacation not “vacant” enough? Abandoned in 1978, Japan‘s New Muroto Sky Rest resort is apparently patronized only by zombies or those hiding from them.

Little is known of the New Muroto Sky Rest resort before its closure and abandonment in 1978… perhaps that’s why the place closed and was abandoned. Certainly its location at the tip of Cape Muroto – a rocky, windswept peninsula jutting southeastward into the Pacific Ocean – was both scenic and accessible by major highways. Then there’s the “prehistoric robot” facade gazing menacingly out to sea. Credit Flickr user Craig Hunter (pictor ignotus) with the above images captured in June of 2009.

Cape Muroto is the largest cape in Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. While considered by many to be Japan’s version of the boondocks, Shikoku is popular with tourists performing the traditional pilgrimage to 88 select temples and a number of hot spring inns and resorts cater to weary wanderers in search of rejuvenation. Kudos to Abandoned Kansai for the above images dating from April of 2011.

The New Muroto Sky Rest did not have an on-site “onsen” – in fact, it had little to recommend itself as a resort besides its stunning seaside setting. According to urbex vet Jordy Meow, the complex featured a restaurant, a video-game parlor (de rigueur in the Seventies) and a pair of cantilevered side wings which offered unparalleled views of Cape Muroto and the ocean beyond.

The wings are still extant, as are the aforementioned views but as for the rest… put it this way, if it wasn’t nailed down or too heavy to carry away, it’s gone for good. We should mention that those scenic views are towards the ocean: over the past couple of decades Cape Muroto has become infested with more than a few ugly telecommunications towers, radio antennae, and even a wind farm.

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Trashed Resort Japans Abandoned New Muroto Sky Rest

Built in the late 1970s, this mining village housed 1,200 people at its peak and was left effectively intact for over twenty years before being sold as a whole for $5,000,000 to an entrepreneur in 2004 who has worked on bring it back to life in the decade since. He has, however, had to adjust his plans to the market along the way – his latest endeavor: to revive it to fit its original purpose once more (image above by Andrea B).

Located in northern British Columbia, Kitsault boasts a remarkable lack of decay, its infrastructure still mostly intact. It has over 100 houses and apartment buildings as well as a movie theater, hospital, shopping mall, recreation center and swimming pool.

Krishnan Suthanthiran purchased the town with visions of turning it into a rural retreat for the creative class and has already spent over $10,000,000 repairing landscapes and fixing buildings.

Still, much more work would have been required had the relocation of its previous occupants not been so hasty – they were moved almost overnight in the early 1980s, leaving almost everything intact behind them. Indeed, many of the spaces come complete with vintage furniture and decor dating back to the abandonment of the town.

The idea has evolved over time, however, as commodities markets have rebounded – this time liquid natural gas may be the key to the area’s success. In the end, Kitsault could once again become what it was to begin with: a mining town.

The Olympics have a long history of leaving a mixed legacy in their wake but the story of Sochi is particularly strange – it was never completely finished in the first place, and is already nearly abandoned less than a year after it hosted the Winter Games of 2014.

Already located in a remote area of Russia (albeit near the country’s largest resort area), it is perhaps no surprise that this Olympic Village would not be sustainable after serving as a venue. Russian photographer Alexander Belenkiy recently visited to document the deserted architecture of the area.

His photos show what you might expect – empty streets, sidewalks, buildings and parking structures, many showing signs of degradation and disuse. Anyone who tuned into the media attention during and in the run-up to the games knows that the facilities were also in many cases shoddily constructed or incomplete to begin with. Even when the place was occupied, its buildings were haunted by stories of electrical outages as well as journalists and participants trapped in elevators and bathrooms.

Stylistically, the architecture is a strange mix of contemporary and chistorical with elements of rural-town traditionalism, resort-village detailing and decorative columns, colors and facades spanning and mixing various movements and periods. Without upkeep, though, these eclectic remixes may not be long for this world.

This was Russia’s first time hosting the Winter Olympic Games, but it had to start largely from scratch: “The site of a training centre for aspiring Olympic athletes, in 2008, the city had no world-class level athletic facilities fit for international competition. To get the city ready for the Olympics, the Russian government committed a $12 billion investment package. According to some estimates, the investments necessary to bring the location up to Olympic standards may have exceeded that of any previous Olympic games. By January 2014 the construction costs had been reported to exceed the $50 billion mark, making it the most expensive Olympic Games in history.”