Hachijo Royal Hotel   Location: Japan

Hachijo Royal Hotel is located on a remote island approximately 180 miles off the coast of Tokyo, it is surrounded by a scattering of small islands collectively known as the Izu Archipelago. Due to its tropical climate and abundance of sandy beaches the island was dubbed the the “Hawaii of Japan” back in the 1960s in an attempt to boost domestic travel to the island from mainland Japan.

The hotel which was built in 1963 was advertised as the largest in all of Japan, and for the next two decades middle class families visited from all over the country to stay. But as international travel became easier for the masses, and with the real Hawaii just a little further along in the same direction, tourism saw a sharp decline and the island struggled to reinvent itself. As a result Hachijo Royal Hotel was forced to close its doors in 2006. Since then, the tropical heat and saltwater has ensured a swift deterioration of the building, while thick vegetation is also slowly encroaching from the outside. The interior is also slowly falling to pieces…