Uncanny Japan

Tanabata is a Japanese festival based on the bizarre tale of two star-crossed lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi. In episode 55, I'll tell you their story, explain a little about the origins and how it's celebrated today. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript. Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Her other shows are Uncanny Robot Podcast and The Soothing Stories Podc...

What if someone told you that you were turning into a tengu, one of those red-faced, long-nosed goblins? What would they mean? In this episode of Uncanny Japan, I talk about a handful of Japanese sayings that are based on youkai. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript. Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Her other shows are Uncanny Robot Podcast and The Soothing...

In Japan "Kagome Kagome" is an old children's game and the song that goes along with it. It's interesting because the mysterious lyrics have several different interpretations and most of them are pretty grim. So listen to episode 53 of Uncanny Japan where I talk about this creepy song and several of the theories behind those odd lyrics. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and tr...

Ushi no Koku Mairi means visiting a shrine at the hour of the ox (between 1:00 and 3:00 am). It also means going there so you can put a curse on your enemy. Deriving from the legend of Hashi Hime (The Bridge Princess) and the Noh play Kanawa (The Iron Crown), this peculiar and frightening way of cursing those who have wronged you is definitely next level. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read th...

Looking at the calendar, I see we're fast approaching Golden Week in Japan, and I wanted to share some of my favorite traditions from the most exciting holiday of all: Kodomo no Hi, or Children's Day. In this episode, I explore three fascinating cultural discoveries that have captured my imagination. First, there's the ancient practice of iris baths, or shōbuyu - a beautiful tradition where famili...

I want to celebrate my fiftieth episode by reading my yokai story, "Sand Walls, Paper Doors" from my book A Robe of Feathers and Other Stories. This is the one that got me my book deal, my agent, and my best friend. Also, yokai, lots of yokai. Thank you for listening, sharing, and reaching out these past three and a half years. I'm looking forward to the next fifty episodes! Visit the Uncanny Japa...

An amabie is a Japanese yokai that is said to have predicted a plague and then encouraged people to share its image to protect them from that previously predicted plague. Or something like that. The amabie has recently been re-remembered all over Japanese social media with people posting their own adorable depictions of that long-haired, beak-faced, three-footed creature and wishing the current pl...

A kappa is a small, scrawny, aquatic yokai with a parrot-like beak, a tortoise-style shell on its back, and an indentation on the top of its head full of water. They're found in rivers, lakes, ponds, and even coastal areas. But what do they do? While recently kappa have been rebranded to be very kawaii, that hasn't always been the case. Listen to find out how heinous these slimy critters can be. V...

Have you ever been sleeping and had a bout of kanashibari (sleep paralysis)? Then during that surreal--most likely frightening--experience, have you ever had what feels like a ghost child crawling on top of you? Or maybe late one night when you're all alone, you've heard an unseen child giggling. Perhaps you've heard tiny footsteps running across the floor, or found little footprints on your floor...

Have you ever woken up frozen, unable to move or speak? You're wide awake—or at least you think you are. You can hear everything around you, but you're completely paralyzed. In Japan, this experience has a name: kanashibari. And the explanations? They involve a fierce Buddhist deity with a very specific tool, and a freaky-looking yōkai with a thing for pillows. Come with me as I explore what happe...

Akemashite omedetō. Happy New Year. I'm surrounded by moving boxes in my new creaky house, but I want to share Japan's amazing New Year food tradition—osechi ryōri. It's a whole bunch of different dishes meticulously prepared in the days leading up to January 1st. Once finished, they're placed very artfully into jūbako—these gorgeous lacquered stackable boxes. Think of bento boxes, but much more e...

In Japan when an inanimate object reaches its 100th birthday and perhaps it was mistreated, or lost, or thrown away, it gains a soul and might possibly start playing tricks on people. This is called tsukumogami, or haunted artifacts. In this episode I talk about the tsukumogami and some traditional ones you could run across on a dark spooky night. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show n...

When walking around Japan you might see a small rectangular piece of paper pasted near a front door or on a gate. On this paper is an image that can only be described as a demon or devil. While off-putting at first, this creepy little fellow isn't actually a bad guy; he's there to protect the family and household. In this episode I'm going to tell you why. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read t...

It's almost Halloween, so for this episode of Uncanny Japan I'm going to tell you a spooky tale called Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of Oiwa and her sad and vengeful ghost. The last ghost story I told here was in episode 25, Okiku and the Nine Plates (Bancho Sarayashiki). Well, Yotsuya Kaidan's main character, Oiwa, is another one of the biggies, who I'm guessing is even more well known than Okiku. Th...

Why is the beautiful Spider lily also called a corpse flower? Why didn't samurai keep camellias in their gardens? Why do Japanese ghosts like to hang out under weeping willows? On this episode I'll take on a few more Japanese superstitions, but this time plant and flower-related stories. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript. Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura....

His eyelids. He cut off his eyelids. But that is not all that the Daruma (Bodhidharma) is famous for. He's the man who brought Chan to China and Zen to Japan. Some say he taught the Shaolin monks how to fight while other tales talk about how he invented green tea, or well, his eyelids did. Join me and a thousand singing night insects while I tell you about the great sage, Daruma. Also, you know ho...

Episode 39 of Uncanny Japan is different, it's special. Today I forgo my usual format and invite my friend, fellow long time expat, and Sound Dude, Rich Pav, to join me in answering some listener questions about advice when coming to Japan. Here we talk about just a few things we've gleaned from our living-in-Japan experience. A longer version is available for my $5 and up Patrons. Since this is a...

In Episode 38, you can listen to Lafcadio Hearn's whimsical take on the cicada (semi) while enjoying some real time cicada singing in the background. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript. Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Her other shows are Uncanny Robot Podcast and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out her books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. If...

Ever since I saw a mother discipline her child by threatening to call an oni/ogre, I've been wanting to do talk about this. Then I found out it really is a thing, an app called Oni Kara Denwa (A Call From an Oni, or as it's translated in Japanese: Ghost Call) to be more precise. In Episode 37, I talk about what I've heard playfully called the oni appuli. It has over 10 million downloads and purpor...

A rock that gets weepy when the sun goes down, a pregnant woman slain alone in the mountains, a newborn baby visited by a ghostly priest who feds him candy to stay alive. These are all parts of this month's podcast: The Rock The Cries at Night (Yonaki Ishi). In this episode, I visit a local spot (one of the Enshu Nanafushigi / Seven Mysterious Things of Enshu). Come listen to me tell the tale whil...

A giant hairy foot crashing through the roof of an old house and demanding to be washed. A festive tanuki band that appears in the dead of night and lures you into parts unknown. These are just two of the Honjo Nanafushigi. Nanafushigi can be translated as seven wonders, but they're more like seven mysteries. All over Japan you can find stories (old and new) of seven strange occurrences. As an int...

Today's show feels like a wacky and wonderful one. You see, I started talking about the tengu in Episode 32 (Heavenly Dogs and Brilliant Swordsmen), but I wasn't able to cover one of my favorite things about this red faced, long nosed, mountain warrior. That being the notion of kamikakushi (神隠し) or being spirited away. In this episode I get into that but the more I researched the really wild an...

After coming to live in Japan (1890), Lafcadio Hearn listened intently to the folk stories and ghostly tales that were related to him. He then wrote them down in English, adding his own unique style and began publishing books of his gathered observances and retellings. Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Exotics and Retrospectives, and Kwaidan to name a few. Today on Uncanny Japan, I read you "Mimi-nash...

There are two types of tengu: the karasu/crow tengu and the hanadaka/long-nosed tengu. They're both awesome martial artists and fearsome foes, among other things. In this episode, I'll introduce you to these two super cool Japanese yokai and tell you a little bit about their lore. Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript. Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Her ot...

Story Time is a little bit different than the usual Uncanny Japan podcast. Instead of me telling you about some interesting, odd, or spooky tidbit, I'll be reading you a story. This is something I do over on Patreon once a month. There I call them Bedtime Stories and they're more varied, from obscure pieces of folklore I find, translate, and slightly reimagine (for the story's sake), to pieces I d...