Marukan Building Grand Dining Hall
A dining hall on the sixth floor of the Marukan Building, a commercial building in front of Hanamaki Station. It carries on the grand dining hall of the former Marukan Department Store and keeps alive the feel of a department store restaurant. For many years it has been busy with visitors who come for its famous Marukan soft-serve ice cream. It once closed because of the building's age, but was revived by a group of local volunteers and is still open today. The spacious room and high ceiling preserve the atmosphere of a department store dining hall from the early 1970s, when it opened, giving a strange sense that time has stopped. A leading example of the retro dining halls that survive in regional cities, it is also popular on social media and draws a steady stream of visitors from all over Japan.
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Nearby liminal spaces
- Former Waga River Hydroelectric Power Plant (20 km)
- Iwate Bank Red Brick Building (Former Morioka Bank Head Office) (35 km)
- Former Kyodosha Yuzawa San-ei (59 km)
- Former Matsuo Mine Apartment Ruins (64 km)
- Former Kejonuma Leisure Land (85 km)
- Osarizawa Mine Smelter and Ore Dressing Plant Ruins (94 km)
LIMap is a map for finding and sharing liminal spaces: places emptied of people that feel eerie and nostalgic at the same time. Many of these places are private or off-limits, so please follow the notes above and view them only from where you are allowed.