A popular destination for urban explorers, Nara Dreamland has been left to nature's wrath for the last decade. (Victor Habchy)

When a friend talked to him about an abandoned theme park in Japan called Nara Dreamland, it was all it took for photographer to book a flight from France to Japan. He went to research the location, but when not much came up, he decided he’d be the one to photograph it. “It seemed amazingly interesting!” Habchy told weather.com.

“The place just look[ed] surreal,” the 25-year-old French photographer said. “I always dreamed to be alone on such an interesting, once-full-of-life place, now completely empty.”

Modeled after California’s Disneyland, Nara Dreamland was opened in 1961, but closed its doors after 45 years . Recently, the park was finally , a Japanese real estate company—they were the only bidder at the auction.

Until SK Housing determines the ultimate fate of the park, it remains overrun by nature and left to the elements. This is exactly why it’s known as a popular destination for urban explorers like Habchy.

(MORE:)

In attempt to capture the dreamy soft colors of the sunset, he visited Nara Dreamland on a clear sunny day. “I went there during the sunset to have this kind of melancholic colors with nice [shadows], somewhere between the nostalgia and the past,” he said. The photographer is always conscious of the weather, as “it really influences the look you will get.”

His personal style translates well into this series with the abandoned theme park. “I love when it’s a very cloud day,” he said. “And when the sun finally appears at the end of the day, it gives such an epic look on the image, with the color of the sun going through the clouds.”

The eerie feel of the abandoned park, with its fallen children statues and desolate tea cups, make for the perfect photo subject for Habchy. “You get such a great feeling [there], really.”