Geocaching is always something I’ve wanted to get into, but there’s a lot of effort that goes into organising and maintaining caches for fellow explorers to find. With my interest in ruins and urban exploration, most of the places I visit are encapsulated in that Japanese saying, 一期一会 (ichi-go ichi-e).
One time, one meeting.
This means maintaining a cache left in a ruin would be very difficult. However, it seemed only natural that it should be a haikyo I use for my first cache. And among Japanese ruins, which triumphs over all others? It is of course that Holy Grail of Haikyo, the ghost island of Gunkanjima. My first illicit visit there saw me shooting as though I would never return, but as time has worn on, I’ve managed to land there several more times. I’m confident I’ll be back there again!
So it was that a friend of mine originally left a cache there, which I dutifully signed and dated when I visited on one of my previous expeditions. However, on a recent return to the island while coordinating a high-profile television shoot there, I found his cache gone. Vandalised with nothing left but for the small, black pouch that had once contained the goods.
It was with some haste then that I stuffed some paper into the pouch, added a few of my Gakuranman calling cards and trademark golden gakuran buttons, and re-located the trophy to another location on the island.
Naturally, no tour will get you close to the cache. The only ways are stealth or with official permission. I hope the cache will remain a little safer this time, but being such a high profile location, who knows?
So if you’re an adventurer visiting the island other than by way of the official tours, take a moment to sign the cache and take home a souvenir gakuran schoolboy button for your efforts. (Incredibly obvious hint: Where would a schoolboy spend his weekdays?)
The coordinates are exact to the building and a 10m radius. You just need to find which floor it lies on :).
Until the next adventure!
P.S. If you do manage to get there and find no cache, do not despair! Look hard enough and you may find one of the many other calling cards and buttons I have hidden at notable points around the island :).
Can’t wait to log this geocache when I finally visit.
Oh, a treasure hunt! I would totally go on an adventure there, if I had any such experience exploring haikyo, and didn’t live almost on the other side of the world from Japan… horrible that some vandal would ruin such a neat idea, but then again I’m not surprised. Hopefully no one who shouldn’t find such things, won’t find this one.