The Abandoned Town by Lake Ashinoko
Written by Ayesha Mu
Tuesday Nov 18th 2025
Category: Travel and Photography
Location: Hakone, Japan
Theme: Travel, observation, photography
At Lake Ashinoko, I realized that tourist towns live by a different clock. The cracked windows of the pale yellow bakery, the upturned tarmac of the main road, and the boarded windows of a two story bus station; made two years feel like decades.
The Japanese borders have been opened a few months post-Covid, yet even with the amorphous crowds exploring the Hakone volcano once more, the town by the shore remained abandoned.
A mist hovered over the great lake in the early morning ─ spreading and spreading in thick shadows ─ spilling over my shoes, and muffling sounds from the forest and distant ropeway crowds.
I walked along the shore, snapping photos of beheaded swan boat heads protruding from the ground, and wondered on the next calendar cycle of this town.
Photos by Ayesha Mu
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