Unlike a lot of people, I’m not really big on going to the beach. I know that there’s this idyllic vision of sun and sand and fun and that sort of thing, but what people fail to realize is that the beach is the gateway to the ocean, home to some of the most terrifying [...]
Japan is home to many an urban legend, some of which end up being turned into popular horror films. The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Kuchisake-onna) is one such legend. Conveniently enough, it’s also one of the legends that’s had plenty of media released surrounding it, and this weekend, I finally got around to watching the 2007 horror [...]
When Halloween time rolls around, most people get excited about costumes, or candy, or even drinking heavily. Pretty much no one ever gets excited about Halloween food (candy doesn’t count). Luckily, the Japanese have got us covered. Japanese styled bento boxes are impressive enough as they are, but the Halloween themed bentos some manage to [...]
When I was a kid, I was over at a friend’s house and found a magazine with a bunch of comics in it. As I started looking through it, I found a horrifying comic. I’d never really seen a comic like it before, and was really freaked out by what I saw. Even today, a [...]
Earlier this year I got a nice surprise in the mail: Tuttle Publishing sent me three books: Ninja Attack!, Yokai Attack!, and the new Yurei Attack!. The books were written by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, a husband and wife team who run AltJapan, a localization company that translates books, movies, and video games between [...]
While Japan obviously has its own set of holidays and festivals (some weirder than others), it’s adopted a lot of foreign holidays too. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Japan, and Christmas is widely celebrated, even though only a tiny percentage of the population is actually Christian. But what about Halloween? How Does Japan Celebrate Halloween? [...]
Michael from Gakuranman.com is an adventurer. He’s currently living in Japan, and one of his favorite things to do is to explore and discover haikyo (abandoned sites / ruins) in Japan. For Tofugu’s current series of “scary” Japanese things, Michael has kindly offered to share with us the things that scare him most about his [...]
