Kawasaki Warehouse in Japan has closed down.
It was an amusement arcade in an industrial suburb south of Tokyo most known for it’s authentic Kowloon Walled City aesthetic. It was opened in 2005, and the design was handled by Taishiro Hoshino, an art director with a background in kabuki theatre. Small-scale models of Hong Kong’s overpopulated slum superstructure were built by the artistic director before a team of craftsmen then painstakingly created all the detailed nuances from scratch.
Realistic replication techniques were used to artificially recreat elements of the Walled City, right down to the half-rusted appearance of the metal. The intricate attention to detail even extended into the restrooms and onto the vending machines, which were given a deliberately dilapidated makeover.
Hoshino and his team scoured second-hand stores and sourced paraphernalia from Hong Kong to enhance the realism, with battered television sets, bird cages, neon signs, post boxes, laundry and even a poster of Hong Kong action movie star Bruce Lee making an appearance. The result was a tantalisingly authentic-looking cyberpunk dystopia which transported visitors back in time to the dark and dingy Hong Kong haven.
Neon lights glimmered and buzzed from above while tungsten bulbs flickered beneath corroded steel shades below. Webs of twisted wires and a background soundtrack featuring Cantonese voices added to the atmospheric authenticity. There were even replicas of run-down apartments, set alongside derelict narrow passageways with grimy windows illuminated by the glow of television sets from within.
However, this apocalyptic wonderland is being shuttered due to unspecified issues with the building’s landlord. Now this unique amusement arcade will be relegated to the history books and the archive of the web, much like the City of Darkness it was modelled on.
