Hiyamizu Elementary School – Part 2

Lost Schools of Setana, Japan

Hiyamizu Elementary School – organized in 1902, closed in 1985

Hiyamizu Elementary School (October 2010)

Second Visit – October 31, 2010

After my June 2009 visit, I decided to come back when conditions were a little more explorer-friendly, and see if I could get a peek at the inside of the building. That opportunity came on October 31, 2010.

Makomanai Park and Campground parking area, just across the road from the dam

Halloween – it seems like an appropriate day for ruin exploring. It was a beautiful autumn day. Although the night had been cold with a touch of frost, things warmed up rapidly after sunrise and conditions were just about perfect for enjoying a walk in the country. As on my first visit, I left the car at the parking area near Makomanai Dam and walked from there. This time, since I knew the way, it only took ten minutes to reach the bus stop.

Hiyamizu Elementary School bus stop. I see the post-box has been removed since my previous visit.

The inside of the bus stop.

Arriving at the school I found, as I had hoped, that the grass was mostly dry and the biting and stinging insects were gone for the season. With the exception of the bees, that is. Yes, someone has decided to use the school grounds for beekeeping and has set up beehives in the middle of the athletic field. This caused me a few moments of concern but fortunately, honeybees are pretty easy to get along with and since it was late in the season, they weren’t very active anyway. The ones that were out were interested only in the flowers and completely ignored me. For some reasion, the grass was a lot shorter than it was during my June visit last year. Maybe that’s normal for this time of year and I’d just never noticed before.

Hiyamizu Elementary School playground and athletic field. Those boxes on the ground are beehives.

A section of the south side (front) of the building. It’s amazing how many of the windows are still intact after 25 years.

After surveying the outside of the building for a few minutes, I decided to try going inside. This was pretty easy to do, since the doors at the main entrance are missing. Or rather, they are broken in pieces and lying on the front steps. Someone has removed the floor at the main entrance and in one of the rooms next to the main entrance, so you can walk right in on solid ground. I’m wondering if someone tried to use the doors as a ramp to drive some piece of equipment up the front steps so they could park it in here. I didn’t notice any tire tracks, so if they did, it must have been years ago.

School main entrance. The building is wide open, with the remains of the doors lying on the steps in front of it.

School main entrance. This is what’s left of the doors. It looks like this section of wall was removed on purpose.

Inside the main entrance, there is a calm, peaceful atmosphere about the place, as if the building has completed its work and is enjoying a rest as it slowly returns to nature. If you stand still and listen, you can hear the building softly rustling and creaking in the gentle breeze, and if you look up, you can enjoy a relaxing view of the sky through the holes in the roof.

Looking across the entryway toward the west hallway. You can see where the floor has been removed.

Since this is just a one-story building, with the windows in the classrooms and the holes in the roof, the whole place was very well-lit. I walked over to where the floor began and looked down the hallway to the left. It seemed fairly solid at this end, but a little questionable further in. I went to the other side of the entryway and looked down the hallway to the right. The floor here had a lot of debris on it which had fallen from the ceiling and didn’t look as solid. I went over to the left side again and put my hand on the floor. It felt solid, and I saw that there was a beam running underneath it. I climbed up onto it and tried walking, being careful to stay on top of the beam. No problem.

I went about ten meters down the hallway until I reached a section that looked a bit dodgy – thin and damp in spots. There I decided to stop, since the thought of crashing through the floor and possibly spearing my foot on a rusty nail wasn’t very appealing. From this spot, I was able to look into a couple of the classrooms and get some pictures. Unfortunately, the floor in the classrooms didn’t look very solid either.

It’s funny, but even though the building is falling apart, I found myself being very careful not to damage anything while I was there.

Some of the rooms in the school have old tires, boxes, and other things which have probably been there for years. And will probably be there for a while longer, since it’s difficult to get to them now because of the condition of the floors

Looking down the east hallway from the main entrance.

Classroom on the west hallway. All of the doors inside the building have been removed from their hinges and set on the floor. The floor in this room looks kind of iffy – maybe solid, maybe not. If there had been someone else with me, I might have tried taking a few steps on it. But since I was alone, well, better safe than sorry. I think there’s solid ground underneath, but you never know.

Classroom on the west hallway (in the photo above) from another angle. It still has a few of the student desks in it.	Event sign lying on one of the desks in the classroom. Whatever the event was, it took place on Sunday December 9 starting at 10:30. Now, in what years was December 9 on a Sunday?
This is the hand washing place for the school restrooms. The toilets are through a door on the left.	To get to the school toilets, you have to walk across this floor. I didn’t think it was safe. What do you think?
“By Arada.” I don’t know who drew this picture, or when, but it must have been a while ago, since I have doubts that the floor in that area will support a person’s weight any more. I took this from out in the hallway, using the zoom.	For obvious reasons, this is where I stopped in my walk down the west hallway. The chalk drawing in the previous photo is in the room on the left.

Looking out from the main entrance. I think the hooks on the right were for students to hang their coats on. This would have been the place where they changed their shoes when they entered the building, so there would have been shelves or lockers here at one time.

This is the room next to the main entrance, on the left (east) as you’re looking out. The floor has been removed, and you can see some of the foundation stones.

Tree by the main entrance. Main entrance is just to the left.	Having done everything that I felt safe to do inside the building, I decided to walk around the outside, peer in through the windows and holes in the wall, and see if I could get any good pictures that way. I only saw one other person while I was out there looking around – a farmer who drove by in a manure spreader on his way to fertilize the field behind the school. He didn’t seem to mind my being there. I could tell it was a manure spreader because of the smell.
Some of the wildflowers growing around the school	Electric meter box with nothing to do
Looking north from behind the school	The north side (rear) of the school building. The building on the right is about where the school gym would have been.

I’ve been wondering about that building on the right in the photo above. It could be the school gym, except that it’s been maintained and looks newer than the school building. It is currently in use as an equipment storage shed, housing things like lawnmowers, snowplows, and tractors. It’s where the farmer mentioned above keeps his manure spreader.

Wonderful chaos. I wonder what this used to be. A small kitchen? A science room?

Part of the ceiling of the room in the previous photo. In the lower right is a fluorescent light that still has an unbroken bulb in it.

Baseball (or softball? – it’s hard to tell which), surrounded by debris which have fallen off the building. How many years has it been lying here?

Looking north past the west end of the building. The scenery all around here is awesome. The floor at the west end looked pretty solid. To get to it, you would need to use a setp-stool or small ladder, and climb in through the hole in the wall. Maybe next time?

Looking through my photo collection now, I notice that there are a couple interesting items that I didn’t get pictures of. In the hallway near the restrooms, the word for “toilet” it still visible, in large characters painted on the wall. I’m sure the restrooms themselves would be very interesting too, but the floor you have to cross to get to them is most definitely NOT safe. But maybe there’s another way? According to the Matsuoka history book, next to the school, near the gateposts there was a building that housed a collection of Buddhist statues. There is a small run-down building there which matches the one in the photos in the history book. If I remember correctly, I peeked inside during my 2009 visit, but it was empty. Why didn’t I take any pictures of it? That’s what I get for reading the history AFTER visiting the school.

Yes, I will have to go back here the next time I’m in Setana and try to catch the things I missed.

Back to Hiyamizu Elementary School – Part 1

Back to the Home page