Exploring the Abandoned Royal Hotel - Hachijo Island

In today's episode we travel to the remote volcanic

island

of Hachijo. It was once an extremely popular haven for Japanese tourists, but the tourism industry here has long since faded. Scattered throughout the

island

are numerous old resorts that now sit empty and

abandoned

. However, today, we focus on one

hotel

in particular that was once the crown jewel of this tropical paradise, the Hachijo Royal Hotel. Abandoned since 2006, nature has had plenty of time to reclaim its territory. Now we venture inside to discover what remains. I wonder why this car. They left it here, maybe yes, a company car.

This one looks really trashed. There is concrete inside, maybe something would fall on it? maybe someone crashed it against a wall, I don't know. It's pretty messy. There's another truck here. It looks like the whole car is rusting. There is no more roof. We already saw that the basement door was open. We don't know if the basement. It will actually connect to the

hotel

in a way that is not blocked. I see upstairs, that's a good sign. Small access space. There's a lot of trash here, but it's like it's all in bags. Yes, there are many garbage bags upstairs. here also this is the lobby, it is the main entrance door There is no vandalism of any kind even though it is very easy to get into the place It is very good to see It is not a common thing Quite nice control desk area The old telephone booths are cool Yeah, so it looks like all the furniture has been removed but everything else is really intact, it's all piled up there Yeah, I'm surprised some photographer didn't come and put it back together yeah That phone booth is really cool, I want I mean, the booth looks a lot older than the phone that's what it does It moves on its own It's creepy that thing is so rusty It's crazy This looks like a bar, they have all the drinks on the shelves back there Built in 1963 during the first boom tourism on the island, the resort was initially successful.

It was not until the 90s when the hotel closed its doors for the first time. Over the next few years the hotel opened and closed under different names until it finally closed permanently in 2006. Since then the building has been exposed to the elements of this island prone to earthquakes and typhoons. Greek Theme Wow, this room is in disrepair. It's a cool little logo up here. I wonder if those drops are supposed to be there or if it's from decomposition. I'm going to guess they're supposed to be there. because it's kind of centered in the frame taking into account the drops There are curtains here, gift shop Yeah, this is a gift shop The floor just collapsed here in the basement, though that's like a crawl space Yeah, but still I guess this is a popular spot to see dolphins.

It's already too cold to go into that water. Let's listen to this. Is the CD still there? Yes, what year is it? 2008 Are there bathrooms here? Just a lizard up there Just storage a rock wall between and this sushi thing yes This is the ceiling that's on the floor This is a shower room, there are the shower heads Yes This could be a bathroom right here no, this is a bar This could be the sushi bar where that was probably Wow, all the plates and glassware are still perfectly intact Perfectly usable That's pretty weird for how long this place has been

abandoned

and how open it is It's pretty hard to get to no one will come here just to destroy Yes, those are the layers of sushi, right?

Yes, it is definitely a sushi place. Maybe sides for men and women? go away oo, an abandoned vending machine How much do things cost? Yes, quite expensive, they probably charge it like a fancy hotel. Yes, there is a lot of mold. Moss, whatever that green thing is. Here is the bathroom. The onsen. Let's take a look at the women's side, now it's practically identical. There is much more vegetation. Another restaurant. Venus Garden Restaurant. We enter? This looks like it was buffet style. There are full beers here. You want a beer? unopened? Yeah, wow, there's stuff everywhere, look at the top, it's like hardened.

Absolutely nothing has been destroyed. I feel like only in Japan could a place like this be abandoned for so many years and without vandalism. Yes, the fact that it is on an island. Also helps. All the cutlery is still here in the right places. Let's take a look at the kitchen. That door just wobbled. Just come back here. Lots of bowls of soup. My God! All this is full of tea cups and saucers. It's incredible, everything just ended. left here Oh my God, it's not over. All of this is still perfectly usable. Oh, there are things left here.

Is it rotting? Yeah, okay, this one is just storage, this one has stuff left over, it's disgusting, oh, it smells terribly unpleasant. Should we ignore that? it just creaks, everything is creaking The winds are howling again shh The first floor of the guest room we're

exploring

smells quite moldy Just look how short the door frames are I hit my head on this Oh wow, there are still slippers left , this is very Japanese It's like The beds are gone, but where are there beds here? No, they didn't use mattresses on the floor, they just use the floor for everything.

Japanese style hotel room that's for sure, there are probably some western style rooms somewhere in the hotel. Yes. They don't even have legs on the chairs. It's interesting. The bathroom is visible. Just like the bathrooms in the Japanese hotels we've stayed in, these are the beds here. Where are only pads in the closet? Yes. Should we go to the end of the wing here? All of these rooms will look more or less the same. Wow, this one is in very good condition. All furniture is exactly where it should be. There is no deterioration, even I would sleep here.

Some more Japanese style rooms, oh shit. This one is really run down. Oh wow. That's a crazy difference. Yeah, jeez, oh, the mold guy, I can't stay here for long. This is crazy. It's crazy how this one is so run down. Here's the room on this side of the hallway. She looks perfect. Come across the hall and Yes, there is this. We are now above the main lobby. Here is the grand staircase. Oh shit, look at this room. The roof fell down. It smells so bad, shit, jeez, the roof collapsed. This would have been a really nice hotel in its time.

Someone put in a swimming pool. Stay here That's just stupid I'm going to take it out It's kind of wedged in there Oh shit, yeah, that's like it really moved, nevermind, I got it Everything on this side is a lot more run down Yeah, I wonder why, but This looks like a huge room, it was a huge room. These rooms also smell horrible. I would think if you had your sense of smell fully functioning right now you wouldn't even go into these rooms, it's probably like there's mold and then there's advanced mold. That's advanced mold. There's a draft coming from here there must already be a window open It's another suite, yeah It looks like someone was living here Yeah, oh, here's the open window People probably lived here well Yes, some areas of this building are in very good condition and other areas are just terrible oh look when you take it out it plugs in the batteries but it's dead.

I'm curious to see what those rooms look like above the really messy rooms downstairs. Hey, the upstairs rooms look better, that would be the windows where you came in The smells are so bad it could be dangerous levels of mold Yeah, I'm actually worried that mold could make us sick because there's so much mold in here The air is so stagnant Oh , another room with the ceiling collapsed. Wow, he just fell on top of the beds. Wow, I'm looking out some of the windows here upstairs and there's just plants covering them on the inside. Yes, inside It's crazy Geez, look at this bed.

Either I'm getting used to the smell or it's not that bad up here, probably a little of both. Oh, that's a current. It seems that the window in this room has been open for a long time. time That's the difference an open window makes These hotel rooms are like a jungle Shit, damn, the variation and condition of the rooms here is crazy. There are some perfect ones and then there are others like this This floor looks different, this was a kitchen or just a place for service Oh wow, Yamaha piano It looks perfectly intact. I bet it works unless the wood is rotten.

Yeah. Oh, there's a fucking cop, are you serious? Yes. They are passing right past. I had the lights on and everything I need to adjust the aperture. Is this a focus? Yes, are you seeing the water that comes out when you step on this rug? Anyway, there's a roach on this key that sounds out of tune, but yeah. We are going to continue climbing because we are starting to lose light. Oh, is there more up here, maybe a private room? mhm for top level guests shows that we don't really know anything about gaming, yeah, just mashing keys.

This is not just a lounge, it is a complete executive suite, because here is the bedroom. The full bathroom. Yes, it is labeled as a room. I bet it says executive. suite in Japanese And there's like a separate door so your waiter can come in and serve you drinks in your own room Yeah, that door goes out to the main hallway on the right Well, it's like a double door This is the main door, but Oh, so you could have that door to let in like your servant waiter, yeah you can have this open but then close it and then the waiter doesn't have to be able to come into the main room, they just come to the bar, we're really visible. up here yeah um, is it going to rain, is it going to rain? oh shit, look, you can see it out there, it's going to rain, let's go back inside right now.

He's coming here fast. It's rained, that's beautiful there with the sunset. With the tourism industry on the island showing no signs of returning to its old numbers, the future looks bleak for the

royal

hotel. For now, it will continue to deteriorate at the hands of Mother Nature. We hope you enjoyed this exploration.