Elvis has left the building
それぞれの温泉地のこういう建物は多くないですか？団体旅行のピークに出来たホテル。つまり、マスツーリスムに頼って、バスが来なくなって、個人化された日本の旅行文化を追いつけなくて、結局お化けホテルになってしまう。壊すのにお金がかかるし、永遠にそのまま残るってやつ。
この戸倉上山田温泉の一番目立つ所に「信州観光ホテル」の跡がずっとそのままで。温泉の恥のままで。今日は久しぶりに通ったら、壊す作業が始まったように見えたり聞こえたりしました。こうやって見れば、でかいホテルだったよね。ボーリング場まであって、作った人はきっと大きい夢があっただろうね。でも、今は幽霊しかいなさそう。幽霊しか喜ばないマスツーリスムの記念館（？）がやっと消えるでしょうか？さようなら。
Most onsen towns in Japan have a building (or buildings!) like this -- a hotel built during the peak of the group tourism decades. Japan's travel culture has since evolved, from "mass tourism" with busload after busload of tourists, to a more modern, individualistic type of travel. Since the buses disappeared, these types of hotels couldn't keep up with the changing times and inevitably went bankrupt. Demolishing costs are prohibitive, so the building turns into a ghost hotel.
This particular shrine to mass tourisim is Togura Kamiyamada Onsen's old "Shinshu Kanko (Tourist) Hotel". I walked by it today and was happy to hear the sounds of heavy machinery. Perhaps someone has finally started to demolish this behemoth. Somebody obviously had big dreams at one point -- there's even a bowling alley. But now it looks like this blemish on our townscape will finally be removed. Sayonara!
