Uncanny Japan

For the spooky month of October, I'm reading my short horror story, "Go-Away Monkey" from my collection The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales. It's set in an older Japan in a small village that has been ...

18 Loka 202159min

The obscure and terrifyingly deadly yokai, the korori, ravaged Edo Japan. On today's episode I'll tell you all about it, what it really was and how foreigners were the ones who brought it to Japan. V...

29 Syys 202115min

A misemono is like a carnival, museum, zoo, and freak show all rolled into one. Here you could see exotic animals, buy cure-all medicines, and check out mermaid mummies among many, many other thrills....

15 Syys 202120min

A Japanese mermaid is called a ningyo (人魚) or human fish. Today I'll tell you about their history, the good, the bad, and the delicious! Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and tra...

30 Elo 202120min

It's Obon and today I want to read to you an essay by Lafcadio Hearn. He wrote it about the town he would stay at during summers, the town I've lived in for 25 plus years. Here he talks not just about...

15 Elo 202133min

How do you build a bridge that stands up to storms and floods? Well, you have to appease the nature gods, of course. But how do you do that? Human sacrifice seemed to have worked in the past. Today I'...

30 Heinä 202121min

The Tofu Kozo is a seemingly innocent little yokai who appears on rainy days offering a plate of tofu to unsuspecting people. What could possibly go wrong? Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the...

15 Heinä 202111min

Let's say you have a plague of insects, like millions of cicada awakening after a years-long slumber. Or worse, bugs that would rather devour your crops. And let's say this is happening 200 years ago ...

29 Kesä 202113min