Today, exploring ruins is a hot touring course.

“Ruin lovers” are common all around the world, and there are a surprising number of websites and books that feature ruins.

There are a variety of ruin types, and among the popular types including theme parks, railways, stations, and schools, even exploring village ruins are gaining popularity.

Ruins are buildings and other types of creations that have been abandoned and ignored.

Though a personal opinion, their presence reminds me of sorrow and nostalgic feelings.

Everything has its peak period, when the lives and dreams of the people prospered.

Like the phrase, “rise and fall,” there is a saying, “the prosperous must decline.”

It is natural for something prosperous to decay.

Japanese people understand the aesthetic of sakura flowers (cherry blossoms), because they know that the petals of the blooming flowers will start falling down.

Ruins make me nostalgic. In the modern day that we chase after trends and the latest things, ruins bring about affinity, and takes us back to the place where we played as children. Maybe the ruins make us reminisce about the past.

There were few “ruin lovers” in the past. However, with the recent “World Heritage boom,” and the registration of Nagasaki prefecture’s Hashima AKA Gunkan-jima in 2015 and the Tomioka Silk Mill in Gunma prefecture as World Heritage Sites, more and more people have gained interest in “ruins.”

I myself like ruins, and I go to Hokkaido prefecture to see railway ruins whenever I get a long holiday.

Visiting ruins is not only about reminiscing, but also to find yourself in the good and old, and pick up the seeds of the future.

There is a saying in Japan that means, “to learn a lesson from the past.” When revisiting the good old things, we can learn new ideas. Not only World Heritages, but also the ruins that stand alone remind us about the important things we once forgot. This is a personal opinion…