Happy Halloween, everybody. To celebrate the occasion, I thought you might enjoy these 5 scary Japanese things that will educate and entertain you, hopefully a little bit.
At the very least, it will show you that Japan isn’t just a country full of cute animated characters. It’s also a country of FEAR.
1. Japanese Hornets
They are huge. They take out thousands of European bees even when they’re outnumbered a billion to one. Oh, and did I mention they’re huge? If you thought you were scared of bees before watching this video, you’ll be happy to know that they can never be this horrifying.
For the five of you that are still here (and haven’t run to your mommy), there’s more.
2. Butoh Dancing
I don’t know how to describe it, so I’ll let Wikipedia do the work for me:
Butoh (舞踏, Butō?) is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh (暗黒舞踏, ankoku butō?) movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience. There is no set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.
Then again, you could just watch this video, too.
3. Japanese Horror Films
Japan is pretty well known for its horror films. So well known, in fact, that America keeps ripping them off. The Grudge, The Ring, and so many more have made their way over to America as remakes.
If you want to see some Japanese films, here are some recommendations. They’re not all necessarily “horror films” but they are at least scary, in their own way. Be sure to leave in the comments your favorite scary Japanese films as well!
4. Japanese “Haunted Houses”
These aren’t your run of the mill, lame haunted houses. I don’t know if it’s the ability to scare the s*ding out of anyone without the fear of getting sued, but Haunted Houses in Japan are about the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through.
I wish I had pictures, and I wish I had video, but you’ll have to let me regale the experience to you through text. Actually, here’s a video someone linked to in the comments. The ones I went to were a lot scarier, I think, though.
It depends on the one you go to, but basically you go inside a building. You walk, you aren’t in a dumb, slow mining cart. The one’s I’ve been to are dark, scary, and full of zombies (actors dressed up as really awesome zombies) chasing you. Now, they aren’t allowed to touch you, as far as I could tell, but that didn’t stop me from worry about them jumping out around every corner, from every hole, and from every nearby coffin or bed.
Luckily, there’s doors that let you “escape” if you can’t take it anymore. As you go through the haunted house, there are people crying on the other side of those doors… lots of people. When you’re waiting in line to get in, people are crying as they come out. It’s that scary.
Oh, and it’s awesome fun. You should try it out if you get the chance. Here’s the exit of one of my favorites, the one at Fuji Kyuu Highland (you should go here instead of climbing Mt. Fuji).
5. Panic Face King, Dokkiri, and Other Japanese Prank Shows
There’s this television show in Japan where the whole goal is to scare people as much as possible, then get a shot of their “panic face” (that’s why the show is called “Panic Face King”). This might not be terrifying for you, but it sure is terrifying for the people getting pranked. If you thought Punk’d was bad, you should watch these.
Then there’s Dokkiri, which does something pretty similar. Thought this one would be good for the Halloween theme.
[hr]
So, if all those things didn’t convince you that Japan can be scary too (and not just full of cute, big eyed things), then I’ve done my job. Happy Halloween, everyone.