Supernatural Japan with Kevin O'Shea | EP: 424

0:00You know you're looking out the darkness and let me see a figure but it's darker than the darkness. I just get just like really creepy feeling and I see this like shadowy demon looking figure in the front seat of the car. She used to come into my room at night and stand right by my bed and I just was petrified. I remember I saw something fly by my bedroom window. We heard the bathroom door shut so then we looked out my bedroom window down the hallway. The bathroom door was wide open. So we came around the bed and we saw a high shot. This thing stood up. I mean it stood up and it had high pointed ears.

1:04It had a snout, it had a long arm and it just grabbed the deer. What? Okay guys welcome back to the Let's Get Freaky Podcast. If you've had a paranormal or a wild experience you'd like to share on the show. Please get in touch email let's get freakypodcast at mail.com or you can reach us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X YouTube. There's so many different ways send us a message. We would love to hear your story. That is at TC. Let's get freaky podcast. Okay guys sit back and relax. We have got a fantastic guest on the show tonight. I'd like to welcome to Let's Get Freaky. Kevin O'Shea how are you sir? I'm great and thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to join you in your audience.

2:09Yes well I'm super excited to have you man. I've said to you before I recently found you on Instagram. You've got a fantastic account. So interesting. Supernatural Japan. And then through that I found your podcast and I've been listening and it is fascinating man. Absolutely fascinating. You deal with subjects that we love here at Let's Get Freaky from ghosts, high strangeness, even to big food and topics like that which I absolutely love. So I'm excited to get into it. I want it all tonight brother. I want it all. Awesome awesome. Well we got a lot to share because absolutely the podcast my podcast supernatural Japan covers like as many bases as I can and there is a lot of bases to cover. Yeah so yeah let's talk about some weird stuff. Let's go brother. Let's go. I would like to go to the start of your journey with high strangeness. What kind of got you into some of these topics?

3:09Absolutely well I mean I think it's really just been in the last few years and I've kind of really gone into it but I mean it all started to be honest like I'm so those listening you can hear the accent I'm North American but I'm Canadian more specifically and I grew up on the East Coast of Canada. Very rural area. Providence called Nova Scotia. An island called Cape Ratton Island and and a lot of of Scott it was basically the place was built by Scottish immigrants. Irish immigrants so with those folks when they came over hundreds of years ago they brought with them their folklore their stories. The tales of fairies and and all kinds of other things and I got you know I guess that's that's what I'll begin and because you know growing up growing up in this I grew up in a rural fishing village you know about back in the day you know in the 80s or would have been maybe 1500 people today there's probably about 900 people there or less. And you know very very superstitious like people were very superstitious and very Catholic very superstitious I can remember having my my godmother who was basically like my baby sitter often during the summer holidays who would I can remember one time I open an umbrella up in the house and she almost ripped my head off she was like what do you.

4:30Closed and see you know what he was what what what what what and I you know I learned that apparently I'd I'd I'd potentially some and something bad by opening an umbrella indoors of being so you know I there was a lot of the superstition and as I got older I can remember in university. You know my major was actually like in business in English but what I loved about going to the library was finding these old books about Scottish folklore and Irish folklore and just sitting back and reading about you know fairies and giants and like the Irish giants like Finn McCool and all of this and I thought that was fantastic. And kind of that was that and then covid times happened now so in between we'll we'll kind of I in early the early 2000s like 2002 early 2002 I moved to Asia I left Canada left my job as a software designer and became an English teacher I just I'd never had the chance to really travel so I decide I learned about teaching teaching English you could go to a place like Korea.

5:37And they would fly you over there and they give you a free apartment in a decent salary for a single person and you know one over Korea had had a great time party young 20 something year old guy met a lot of great friends had a great time but I decided that I liked teaching and I wanted to be more serious about that. So I went back to Canada got my teaching certifications and degree to be a primary school teacher and that's what I am now. But in that in that mix of things actually in South Korea I met my my Japanese wife of all places so I'm so I met a woman from from Osaka Japan and she can be Canada with me I went back to school got my teaching degree and as soon as I basically got my license to be a primary school teacher I headed to Japan and I work yeah so I've been teaching I don't I'm not an English teacher now I teach up what they call international schools. And got the Japan and I just you know I wasn't one of these people like I had no interest in Japan it was never my radar like no no interest at all no like on a main manga none of that stuff.

6:43I just I literally met a woman from Japan and I went to Japan and I fell in love with Japan like everything about it. And as far as the kind of I wouldn't I don't know if I call this strangeness freely maybe maybe slightly it could be but we hear the term a lot of a lot these days of liminal spaces and how a lot of people are drawn to liminal spaces. I was immediately drawn to those liminal spaces in Japan I was a runner and I would always carry an iPhone with me you know like in the little pouch when I go running at night and my running would take me through all these bag alleys and past shrines and temples. And I mean you know I would go on maybe a 5k run but it might take me an hour because I was just stopping and taking photos constantly and just it was just something very I don't know. I was what's the term I don't know it just drew me in and I started learning more and more about you know folk traditions and a bit more about folklore and you know I guess it was during the covid times.

7:45You know I am an international school teacher we go I go we're kind of opportunity takes me my family and I moved to China and then covid kind of was a book to kick off we were yeah so I was in China moved to Beijing moved to a city called shenzhen China as well lived in all these different places 24 years in Asia now. But during covid I got stuck air quotes in Japan with my family was a nice place to be stuck to be honest and I started I discovered the genre of paranormal podcasting I was always an avid podcast listener but I listen to like outdoor podcasting hiking podcast history podcast. But I came across like Jim Harald's paranormal podcast I came across the morbid podcast out of the US a Canadian one that was called nighttime which is now called Canadian Gothic and I was just like this this is great. And so I started super natural Japan and I made a few episodes made a few episodes and then I got lazy and I should know because I probably a lot bigger than I am now if I had stuck with it during that time.

8:49But I made a few episodes and I kind of stopped fell off and then like late 2024 I really jumped back into it and I haven't haven't missed a week since then. Wow wow that's awesome. It's wild how life can take you on these little routes and it's like it's where you're meant to be exactly. It's so cool that is so cool it's funny you say about the umbrella because my family is the same with the umbrella is if you put the umbrella up in the house you are in trouble. What you do you bring in the cars to this house. Yeah and I don't know like it's really interesting because one of the things that I find fascinating so I've lived now in you know from Canada but I've lived in South Korea, Japan, China and Malaysia. So I spent a few years living in Malaysia teaching and obviously each culture has a very different sets of folklore and things but I find the most fascinating are the crossovers when things are similar.

9:51So the things like the power of salt is protection that's something that's when you're being culture but also like in Japanese culture that's a big thing. I can share with that at some point if you'd like and but yeah so like you know I've been podcasting now doing the spooky podcast which has connected me with some other like minded individuals in Japan and although I'm currently based in the ancient capital of China, Shion, China, where the home of the terracotta army. I do make it back to Japan several times a year usually for pretty lengthy holidays and every time I back I spent all my time exploring supernatural spots and sites and you know trying to go to the places that I make podcasts episodes about like to see them in person and experience them and feel the vibes. Absolutely. Yeah, because you can feel the energy when you go to these places wherever you're on the world. There's these spots that for some reason. Oh yeah, yeah, I experienced a big one just like in July that was amazing.

10:54I'm using a place called Eastse Chingu or Eastse Grand Shrine which is actually Japan's most important Shinto Shrine and that place was off the hook. That was magical. What did you kind of feel when you were there? What was that? So this is an ancient shrine. I mean, that's one of the things about Japan that's so wild is like you'll be walking down like a back alley in a city like in Osaka or something. You'll come across some little shrine literally in a back alley. You're like, what's interesting? You'll you'll find out Google Maps and you'll hit the little link and then I'll send a little pop up. You're like, this shrine is was built 1200 years ago. You're like, what? 1200 years ago and you know, that's that's quite a common thing. And there's you know, just thousands of shrines across Japan and you know, I'm by no means an expert on shintoism, but it's like the indigenous religion of Japan and it's kind of more of an animistic earth based religion. Very similar to a lot of the kind of indigenous people saying Canada United States, you know, there's no like one book. It wasn't started by one person. There is like no one God kind of thing.

12:01But this it's it's a lot of nature nature gods called Kami, but this this shrine in me a prefecture and it was the first time I'd ever been there. We were we were spending the summer in my family and I in Osaka where my wife is from and she was like she said she always wanted to take us there. And we went there and it's just it's this absolutely breathtaking area in the forest, old growth forest, old growth cedar trees taller than I've ever seen before. I've never seen trees like this and you walk through these paths and there's all these different shrines in the forest and rivers and everything there is completely sacred. It just there's just this. How do I I describe to my wife and a few other people. Like a comforting warmth that just surrounds you like a big warm blanket. I've never felt anything like that. Like you feel so safe walking through the forest paths towards the different shrines. So warm so I don't know protected maybe maybe that's the term.

13:01And you can photograph some of the shrines but the main shrines you're not allowed to to photograph or take videos of they have science up everywhere in security guards everywhere and you can't lift a phone up or take a photo of them. Not sure why that is but that's interesting. But it was a really really that was a really powerful place. Yeah, you see Jingyu, you see grand shrine. I want to do an episode. I have not done an episode of that yet but I will. I've got a research more. Absolutely. I wonder why you can't take the pictures of the shrine because I know in the some churches in the UK that you they say you can't film but you kind of you know and some people you should respect but obviously but people still go in and film and it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. But if you did if you took the picture in Japan, you're going to get in trouble. Well, you know, I think I think one thing that what to be honest one of the one of the rubs that's happening right now in Japan with there has been an explosion in tourism since COVID. During during the COVID years and I recently had a guest on my podcast guy named Zach Davidson who is a well known translator and like manga manga and anime translator and also a writer and you know he he talked about I've heard this before

14:13it definitely during during COVID whenever everyone was locked down the world kind of discovered anime like people are at all at home they can't go anywhere and Netflix or at home watching TV and Netflix and there's a service called Crunchy Roll and all some people started falling in love with with the manga and anime and we saw the Pokemon boom really took off during COVID right. Yeah. So people were locked up and cooked up and they couldn't get out and they couldn't travel and all of a sudden COVID's done the Japanese yen is that it's like weakest in 40 years. So people are like let's go to Japan and the thing about Japan is it's a very rules based culture. Like when there's a rule people follow it and that's it. And there's no questioning it like if it's a red light you don't jaywalk doesn't matter that there's no cars coming there's no cars. So what it's a red light so you stand there until it changes. Because that's what people do. It's just it's literally just that simple like you don't you don't throw your trash in the wrong trash can because you're not supposed to.

15:16And of course not everyone follows those rules like you know I explained to my kids when they're young I'm like see what that woman's doing at the crosswalk so that's there's a Japanese little way around the jaywalking so what she's now done you don't you can't jaywalk at that crosswalk but she's walked about five meters down the road from the crosswalk and there's still no cars coming so now she wants to cross a road. You know so like so I mean there's a lot of exactly but you know this obviously with this like a big influx and for a foreign tourism there's a lot of people who are tourists who do when that sign says don't take a photo they do. And that really irritates Japanese people because you know this is a whole concept of you know please if you're going to come here please respect our country respect our culture respect the rules. I guess that's a that's a rub everywhere right you see that now with like over tourism in Greece or in you know when Rome and you know people like carving their initials into like the coliseum and the Parthenon and stuff like that right.

16:21You know I guess bad be people should be respectful you're right yeah. So I mean I don't I think you know I don't know I didn't try to I think they would just say don't take a picture yeah I kind of I don't think they don't think they're me any kind of like they're not going to tackle you or you know just Japan they wouldn't do that but they. Please they politely say please don't do that. When I because I've never been to Japan I'd love to one day and I like a lot of people watch a lot of YouTube videos in Japan because the culture so interesting and whenever I see it watch a video it's just it just looks so clean it looks so beautiful obviously there's this wild history that's just incredible I love Pokemon cards myself as well. I'm not afraid to admit it nice still collect the Pokemon cards so yeah I'd love to get over there sometime and experience that because it does look good when you were saying that a peaceful vibe that you got from the forest I kind of get that when you when you watch videos of Japan and stuff it's just this level of calm and respect which you've just described that how the general people are yeah I've got to get them that would be yeah absolutely absolutely beautiful.

17:31So going back to when you're a kid and you kind of yeah growing up interested in these topics and things like did you experience anything yourself any paranormal strangeness yourself if you ever have your experience anything. Yeah you know and again it's okay I guess I have absolutely so I have I'm not often and even I'm not sure exactly what it happened but to set the stage so back to back to Canada so where I lived in the Prophets in Ovesco, so obviously you know Canada is a was a colony of the of great Britain right you know it was it was British North America and it became Canada in 1867 but until then it was British North America that was you know that's what it was was known as and you know back to the 1700s the colonial powers the European powers were fighting over North America right the French the British the Spanish. So in what is now Canada the French and the British were fighting for for you know control of things so where I lived at you know hundreds of years ago the the the island of Cape Breton what it's called the Eale Royale and there was a large French fortress there and my little hometown the whole reason why I live there where my mom and dad worked for parks Canada or like heritage Canada which is like the National Park Service but for history.

18:54So my dad was a historian for the Canadian government and in the in the town of Luzberg back in the 1700s it started in 1713 the French built a essentially a fortress so you know a walled city and it was one of the biggest in North America I think behind I think it was the third largest seaport behind Boston and Philadelphia as of the 1740s so there was a you know this huge busing city of huge busing city of about 5,000 miles. And people at the time that was huge and bustling large military garrison fortress active seaport all of this stuff and in 1745 the New Englanders came up and besieged the fortress for six weeks and eventually the you know the French had to give up their food out of ammunition all that stuff and they surrendered and they left and years later it was given back to the French and a treaty.

19:54In the 1756 I think I'm trying to go back to my history because I used to work there I was a costume to animator so basically it in the 1950s or 60s there was a downturn in the coal mining economy and that I part of of Nova Scotia and essentially you know thousands of coal miners were put out of work so the government wanted to put together programs in order to retrain them and give them the work so one of the things they decided to do was to do the work. So I think it's to rebuild a part of this French fortress they rebuild a quarter of it and they're extremely accurate that they got all the blueprints from France they brought over artisans from France to build it in the traditional way that things were built and the locals were taught how to build it and construct it so they constructed this really amazing fortress still there today the fortress of Lewisburg National Historic Site it's amazing but it's a living museum so when you go there during the summertime there are people staff members who are we were called historic

20:54interpreters or heritage interpreters who study the history can talk about it you wear the costume of the time and everyone plays a role the year is 1744 you've you're now the fortress of Lewisburg we are at war with the English are you a spy you sound American are you Sam British you know they they the soldiers who do this I was in the fight and drum core and I played drums military French military drums and this is what was my part time job I was a volunteer there as a kid during summers and it was my part time job not my part time but my summer job all through high school and university and I would you know it'd be there six days a week like doing drill doing parades tattoos all this kind of military shows and I loved it was great but you know what was really cool was sometimes at night groups of reenactors would visit from America a lot of groups from or in across Canada and they would they would close the site at night for these people and they so they could experience what it was like to to be there and which meant I got to say there you know several nights over over the years and you know we wouldn't have flashlights we just have lanterns with like candles and stuff when we would go like hardcore this is the way it is like 1744 time and yeah so you know they'd have these caps set up and people be like drinking lots of like whiskey and brandy and playing

22:20bazookies and mandalins and banjos the different instruments and have it a great old time and you know you think about this is a place this French fortress that was a city for you know several decades where you know people were born people died they were large you know like illnesses you know I'm sure at some point epidemics lots of people died there were murders there were all the crimes that go with these these places and there were two major sieges in which hundreds and hundreds of soldiers died in very brutal ways right in that area so of course that's a lot of negative mojo right that sticks to a place so there were always tales of stories at the night watchman the night security guards would talk about actually I want to I want to one of my one of my best friends when I was yelling now is like in a night security guard there for years I got to talk to him sometime but you know there's all kinds of stories

23:20of you know like there was like apparently a woman a young girl who had been murdered and thrown into a well and you know there was her spirit could be heard from the well there's different houses where people had been said to have been killed and stuff. For me the experience I'd always six in my mind was I was probably about 20 years old and I was at one of these night these reenactments and I was wearing my uniform sleeping in this thing. You know we'd sleep on everything was so authentic you know the beds were essentially bags filled with hay and like a wood like on top yeah the worst was the source. At the time they would have been filled with like fleas they always talked about how the soldiers often in the summer would have rather they would have slept outside in the fields because there was so many fleas in like the barracks rooms and and ticks and other awful things but we didn't have that because we didn't ever sleep there which is bagzable day but um I just run one of these nights I was by myself I don't separate it from the group and walking through these passageways and stuff and we you know we're wearing this like 18th century French colonial marine uniform and I've got a sword and stuff and I can remember going I was I was getting this big giant building a big barracks building called the King's Bastion huge building looks like a mostly a castle.

24:36And I walked up these stairs to this barracks room the drummer's barracks room and I during the days when I was working that was one of our posts we'd spend an hour there every day and tourists would come in and we'd explain to them what the room was and talk about I'd spent countless hours in that room. But not many after dark and I just remember and I've been in this building a lot but I'd heard stories there's all kinds of stories of stuff. And I was like I know I kind of thought it was a bit BS to be honest I was like all right ghosts okay haha and then um so this this one night of this reenactment I can remember going up up the stairs and into this room I don't know why I was going in there don't know I was going there to look for something and I went into the room and maybe I think I got a bottle of Canadian club whiskey or something that may have been up there because like it was we're having a party after dark and I just remember going up the stairs and around the bend and into this room that had like 16 bunks and it was a it was a warm summer night and I walked into the room and I don't I just remember I didn't see something but I felt something and it was this icy icy icy coldness that went down my spine and every hair on my body stood up and I I can remember this flight or fight kind of feeling.

25:54I think I was soiled myself I was just a feeling and I remember I don't know why I did this but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time I drew my sword to not use the sword as part of my costume it was like it was it was also like it was like not a real it was real but it wasn't very sharp or anything it was just like a ceremony I pulled out the sword I was just like and I just I felt this overwhelming incredible feeling of fear absolute fear like fear. You know as a young guy sometimes may have gotten a trouble here and there you know some some trouble at some bars and this and kind of may have gotten myself over my head with here and there and it wasn't like that it was something different and I just remember. Literally running out of that room down those stairs. Outside and like almost almost almost hyperventilating and I like I was absolutely terrified at that room absolutely terrified of it and I've been up there so many times didn't believe in this stuff.

26:54I don't know I don't know what it was I've known what I was that's what so interesting because you say you're quite skeptical but for you to have that feeling it's like that's not someone I mean that sort of grew up being scared and having experiences you know no that's different you know I get scared everywhere but you're not. So that's why that's so interesting or maybe things are different for me now I mean like so I think that was that was something that kind of opened my mind up to things. So I mean like I know and that's one of the things about my podcast. I definitely have a dose of skepticism that gets thrown in there. I definitely that kind of person. When I hear someone say something I'm like well depending on the story but I have but at the same time I absolutely believe like I absolutely believe in the paranormal I absolutely believe in the suture not super natural I absolutely believe. And I believe in when we go to certain places we should treat them with the utmost respect because who knows what might happen if you don't but it's probably not good you know so there's no man yeah.

28:01So again I've got this like I'm now a believer in the paranormal the supernatural but I still have a healthy dose of skepticism at times. I think that's important. Skepticism is important and I'm the world you know I'll jump straight to the paranormal and you know we're so interested in this stuff you know we wanted to be paranormal a lot of the time but you're right it's important to keep that level head not everything that happens is paranormal obviously but there's just some things that happen that are like undoubt you know there's no doubt in your mind what you experience. Yeah no yeah in that room was you know you know yourself that that is that's paranormal. Yeah and I think like another another I'll try to make this shorter but the only other experience I had and this was in Canada too and it was connected to that same place and it was kind of it was a was weird this weird but it was interesting I I never forget this so essentially I grew up at this park I grew up at this fortress my dad was a his the chief historian there he he spent time is a super intended to this place and my dad lived in breath history.

29:07I grew up of the kid the 80s right you know we didn't really babysitters on that often it was really a thing but what what happened sometimes is like my dad would have to go to work on the weekends or do something because he was kind of high up in the management so there was off of the site of this fortress there was like an administrative compound where there were like offices for the government work you know the people around it that artisans amasons the people who took care of things that a fire department there to specifically for that that site. So there was a small office building it was like only two floors high and just it's like a big long rectangle pretty basic but maybe you know that's where like the archaeologists had their lab and this and that was a cool I got to always like sometimes the archaeologists would show me around when I was a kid and that was neat. They weren't anything like Indiana Jones mind you. Not those guys they were not they weren't that cool they were not like that. No Indiana Jones cool. No no but but so like you know I would I spent a lot of time in this kind of office building and like literally like we get there my dad would be like sometimes like to my older brother and I like okay guys I got to do some work for I'll be here for an hour just like entertain yourself and like you know obviously it's before internet and smartphones you know I'm you know I'm I was born in the late 70s so you know we just kind of run around and muck about and like find books to look at or this or that so I was I knew the layout of this part.

30:34It's a place very well. So one night when I'm 19 years old 18 years old I was living at home for my first few years of university and you know I went to bed and I I very rarely remember dreams. But I yeah I went to sleep and I had this very vivid dream and I still it's super vivid in my mind my dad's office was at the very end of this long hallway and in my dream and on both sides of that. On the left and right were other offices of people he worked with and I knew these men very well they were like almost like kind of surrogate dads me to they were really nice guys but my dad's good friends you know they come over the house to drink beer sometimes and this and that. And so in this dream I'm at the end of the hallway and I look down in the hallways dark it's that night you know it's darker outside there's no lights on but there's one light coming at the end of the hallway from the office next to my dad's. And that is the office of one of his friends and one of his colleagues and the door was open a jar and there was light coming out into the hallway and in my dream I walked down the hallway towards that light like what's going on and I I walk and as I come to the door the door opens by itself and I look into this office and there is my dad's friend and coworker sitting at his desk with his hands in his face.

31:57And he's crying and he looks up at me and he's got tears running down his face and he puts his face back in his hands and continues crying and then I woke up and I woke up and I got up and I had breakfast and I went to university for my classes and when I came home that night my mom said hey Kevin I don't know if you heard but so and so you're your dad is that so and so his house his mom died last night. Like his friend is coworker his mom died last night and I was like what yeah his mom died last night and I was just like whoa wow wow what is what is how did that happen how did I have this dream like what what what what what was that could I so another one like I don't know I have no answer for this that's a head scratcher for me but that that's a wow man that gave me chills right when you said that yeah right that I've got chills out too. Yeah because again like this you know people say coincidence and stuff like that I don't believe in coincidences man that is what was frozen okay we're back on we're back on that yeah just froze but I didn't take in consideration where you are yeah well I'll share with I'll share with your audience what happens here so if your audience doesn't know so I'm I'm currently in mainland China I'm here for work and essentially the world's internet is blocked in China.

33:24So it's blocked by the government the government I won't get into too many details but basically the government basically doesn't want people in China to see what's going on in the world and they don't want the world and I was going on China. That's what I was so in order to connect with the world and talk to you Tommy I need to use a VPN and not just any VPN you have to use specific ones because the government blocks a lot of VPNs. So that's how you access everything that's how I'm able to do the supernatural Japan podcast and use my so I have I you know so you know I'm chatting with you on Instagram through messages it's I have on my phone I have we have VPNs and everything you have to have them on everything. Wow so I knew that that was a thing in China but didn't realize it was that date I didn't realize I was talking. Oh yeah yeah that's insane. So essentially China has its own internet like it's on wild garden and I think basically it's like 99 points something percent of the world's internet is blocked here. Bro I mean so if I don't want you to get in trouble if you got caught doing that is that what's the sort.

34:27Yeah no no no. To most people do it to most people do it still is it like most people don't actually to be honest the by far the majority of Chinese people don't even know such a thing. Exists they have no idea they were saying but for example you know for you know so many middle class and wealthy Chinese for example who've left and they've been educated in the UK in Canada in America they know they know what the world and when they return to China. They they're using VPNs and stuff like that they yeah and a lot of companies to like big companies and China banks and stuff if they need to do business with the world they also have to use them. So there's allowances made there's heads turned even even when we had we this apartment we moved into here we moved here from Malaysia last year and it was funny the internet technician was setting up and I'm like well this is my studio room and I need like I need a strong internet connection in this room and then he said it was funny it was kind of code he said to translate or so is he going to be using our internet or the international internet because because if he's using internet.

35:35Because because if he's using the international internet which means a VPN he needs a much stronger connection because a VPN sucks up a lot of bandwidth it's kind of like a sponge so even if I have like a high bandwidth it can be slow because I have to run it through a VPN so I'm basically spoofing it so like right now it when I haven't said it looks like my computers in part of Tokyo. Wow or or but it comes in handy so if I'm doing my banking my online banking in Canada I set my B pan to Canada if I'm doing like I'm using my bank in Japan I said it to Japan and that it's wild bro that is wild and then on a on a simpler note if you use it on like when you're using Netflix if you're on Japan that Netflix or American Netflix or UK Netflix you get different shows what you want there's none of this can't watch this here and all that which is crazy that is wild man. So that's why that's why we we had that connection issue so hopefully won't happen again.

36:37Well it seems to be perfect right now. Yeah my respect level has gone so much higher for you so I had a lot of respect for you anyway but it's now it's all big room it can't get any higher. Yeah so you had that experience where you you kind of had like like a medium style dream you know you saw yeah it seems to be you know you had some sort of connection there you know my wife's that dreams like that you know I've spoke to people and dreams like that it's very strange because you told someone that and and you know for your skeptical person they can be out of that to coincidence but I don't believe in coincidences and I mean the way that major I don't think there's a coincidence I don't think there's a coincidence there man that though no no no there's no way because I'm someone who very rarely remembers his dreams my whole life and why would I have such a bizarre specific dream of a guy my dad guy my dad works with you know like and you know this so that was I don't know what it was but it's something bigger very very strange

37:46something similar happened to my uncle someone he I don't know too much he doesn't talk about it too much but I have heard I've heard this happen my uncle had like he was at home and I don't know if it was in the dream state or if he just had this you know voice in his head basically saying tell my wife I'm okay you know any of this message just message came through and the next day he went into work and I don't know if he knew who the voice was or what it meant or anything like that the next day he came into work and I think someone that he worked with the husband passed something come on I was lions and it was like yeah so I mean these things happen man and how you know I know we've got mediums we've got people that are very open to this kind of stuff but how can you explain that especially if you're not someone that practices this kind of thing yeah yeah yeah yeah just happen just happen at one time you know that's one of the things before we got cut off I was going to say now I haven't had things happen like that like I lived in Japan for 10 years

38:50and you know I go back several times a year and and you know me hopefully if all goes well we're going to be moving back next summer for good hopefully we're fingers crossed we're working on that but yeah so I but I've never had anything like that happened there but I guess as as they always say be careful what you wish for right I'm like one of those people too because I'm always like I've never actually like kind of seen a ghost but I I want to I hear like Danny Robbins always say that on uncanny he's like I've never had this but I want to and like I'm like that too but again you know I you know I always think of another show I love is astonishing legends and they always talk about a horrible thing that happened at the Sally House with one of the hosts who would always said you know be careful what you wish for because that was like one of the most horrible experience of his life when something seemed to attach itself to him and you know so I but again I haven't I've had it I guess I you know I've died into the research in Japan but as of yet

39:51aside from some vibes here and there nothing nothing to do to that man know when you go into as you say the forest and things like that and whether it's good energy or bad energy you're feeling something and that is supernatural that is paranormal we don't know what that is it's like there's a natural sense that we have let's remind you yeah mind you like I was telling before we you hit the record button I'm now in the process of I'm I'm writing a book I've wrote a book once about teaching English I've written a book about gardening these are very different topics they got about gardening in schools but I've never written a book about supernat the supernatural right um but what really there was I've been getting some really amazing stories for some people about things that have happened to them in Japan and this came about where I did an episode on something called jiko bouquette now jiko bouquette are in English they would be referred to as stigmatized homes so um in Japan when people want to

40:55buy a house normally here's an interesting thing Japanese people like new things so normally a young Japanese family would never want to buy an old house they would never want to buy a second hand house they want to build something and have something new that's theirs but of course you know we we sometimes you need to buy secondhand things and or rent apartments we often rent apartments I never lived in a house in Japan all the years I live there rented apartments but sometimes what happens is um when you're looking through real estate and um I'm I you know my wife and I my family my children we we hope to move back to Japan relatively soon and I'm always I've I've got a subscription to this really great um a real estate website called moco moco and what this does is it scrapes all the big Japanese real estate sites translates them into English and gives the value of the homes in American dollars and sometimes you're you're I'm scrolling through this and you'll see a neighborhood and there's all these houses that were made be built in the 1990s or early 2000s so they're they're pretty new and they're like 200,000 us to 50,000 us 300,000 us

42:00but then you'll see one that's like 35,000 us and you're like well that's weird why is it that you know um and what often it tends to be is a well a jiko boogan that term in Japanese stigmatized home is a home where either three things have happened number one there's been a murder number two there's been a suicide or number three there's been a lonely death and a lonely death is when someone dies alone in the home and they had no family they had no loved ones and no one knew about it for a long time until the decomposition kicks in neighbors notice it they call the police for like a welfare check and then they discover the the deceased so those houses people do not want to live in those those are bad mojo and really the Japanese are superstitious they're one of the most superstitious cultures I've ever met and quietly superstitious in a way and what's interesting it's basically everybody like everybody is superstitious like everyone believes these things like

43:01that's bad mojo you don't they wouldn't use that term but you don't want to you don't want that house and that's why these houses are so cheap um or apartments to buy a condo is so cheap um now there's even services where people like you know companies can we'll we'll clean the house up and they'll actually bring in like Buddhist priest Shinto priest of blessed and cleanse it but even then people often don't want to buy these homes um so uh by law uh when you buy a jiko boogan if you're the first own the first person to buy it after the murder happened or the suicide happened by law the real estate company has to tell you before you send a contract um and there's even and there's even a website um called oshimaland which I talked to it in that episode which I have book marked on my computer where it's a map of jiko boogan all across Japan so for example if you're interested in a home you can then go on that map and look to see if it's a segmentized home or not which is really fascinating in this map this website will tell you why it will tell you that someone

44:06was murdered in this house in 2022 or there was a fire and a family died in this house or this the didada and um so I did I did an episode on this and I fall down this rabbit hole and what happened is people started reaching out to me like privately like on uh you know I'm on all the social meetings I'm I'm on axel and I'm on blue sky and it's good to be on all them because there's people reaching out to me privately like hey kevin man like I I bought a jiko boogan do you want to hear the story or I'm renting I'm living in one out do you want to hear the story and I'm like hell yeah you tell me that story person and um you know a few people reach out to me they're like but I don't want anyone to know like I'm privately I want to tell you and then I'm like hmm this sounds like a book so because these are folks that don't want to be in the podcast you know they don't want they don't want me to interview them they don't want their names known they don't want people to know where they are which to me lends way more legitimacy and credibility to it because these people they're not looking they're not looking to get like social media

45:09clout they don't want to be on a podcast like they don't want people to know their name they're like okay you can interview me but please like um like don't mention the exactly where it is I live this place is like don't mention my name don't like you know be vague so um and you know so I started zooming with several people like about these tales and you know some people I've been zooming with and some people just send me like their story over like Instagram like DMs or Twitter DMs or blue sky DMs for shorter ones but some of these bigger ones like I literally I've been zooming with people and I'm recording it I said I'm going to record this but it's just gonna be on my laptop and it's just for my writing cycle I'll rewatch and write and rewatch and write um but but quite a few of these people are just like you know we really appreciate you listening to us yeah they're like we really appreciate you listening to us because I can't tell people this story or I've told people this story and they think I'm nuts or but but so yeah so I mean I can share a couple with you if you'd like yeah absolutely I'd love to

46:10hear a couple of them but because in in the UK obviously and US and places like that the topic of hauntings and things like that it seems to become more of an acceptable thing to share when you've had some of these experiences you know back in the day you you do still get a look sometimes don't get me wrong yeah when I tell people I do a podcast about big foot and things like that I get so many people have had paranormal experiences and as I've said before and then you all know and people know that the amount of time people will tell you that they don't believe in this kind of stuff but then in the next breath they'll tell you an incredible experience or they know someone that they're very close to that had an incredible experience and I feel like people are getting just more open to talk about it I feel I don't know because we do paranormal shows or we invite those conversations but in general it just seems it's more untelly there's more podcast it's more book yeah absolutely yeah absolutely I believe that kind of the same in Japan or is it no good it could be honest most of these people have reached out to me or all four owners who live

47:14in Japan so they're all like spaths they're like their Canadians are Americans they're they're British people who are they're all people who've been like long term but I've gotten I've also received a lot of stories maybe not about those houses but other like really interesting weird things from people who who had traveled there people who lived there for a year or two at one point you know people who yeah like from all kinds of people all kinds of walks of life but for example I'll share two quick ones about the jiko bouquin with a stigmatized home so one one person reached out to me an American person and said that they said we want to use gender because I'm still thinking about listening but nonetheless in the book I change names and even like city names and locations but one person reached out to me and I was a woman I'll say she because I'll mess up the so she reached out to me and she said you know I bought a about a jiko bouquin and I said okay well how did that happen she said well I found this beautiful old

48:14like farmhouse like outside of Tokyo and it was gorgeous and you know it's called a Comenka so it's like really old like about a hundred years old with this really in giant pieces of wood in the frame these old old old fashioned frame like really just a gorgeous house and she said like the price was right it was in a range it wasn't that expensive so you know she it came up on the market very quickly she contacted the of real estate agent and like the next day it was over at the house looking at it and she was just like this is gorgeous I love this house and she's like I'll take it basically and like just a few days later she's at the house the real estate agents there he's got a contract drawn up and she's single woman and and she's uh she said by the way to the real estate agent why does this place so cheap anyway and then she said he literally he had like the papers in his hand in the pen and he literally went oh no and then he and he like dropped he put he put the contract and the pen on the table and he said I was hoping you wouldn't ask me but he was like my legal responsibility because you've asked

49:21us to tell you and what had happened was and that house two years earlier that had been basically a family annihilation you know family of four living there dies a company worker comes home from work one night stabs his wife to death and drowns both of his kids in the bath tub and then kills himself in the house and and then the the family who of one of the deceased you know like we removed everything it got cleaned up and they completely renovated the interior and they were selling it and that's why it was so cheap and um she was like oh well you know what it's really cheap I'm still gonna buy it so she bought the house and she said that like like immediately like everyone in the neighborhood's like oh you bought that house do you know about that house and she was like yeah I know about that house you know yeah yeah I know about this house and she was like saying one time like someone tried to break into it at night or someone who tried to break in

50:22so she called the police and they're like where do you live and she was like oh I live at the saddest so like oh we know that house very well so that's an interesting story about buying this house now she is said at this point she's only been there for about six months she has not had any experiences that she directly thinks might be connected to that but the tricky bit is like with an old Japanese farmhouse like any little gust of wind shakes everything and there's always strange anyway living a house that's over a hundred years old there's always lots of strange noises and and weird things um that's so interesting that was interesting crazy wish that's like just buying that's what she said that's what she said she's like oh like oh you're the crazy oh you're the crazy old American woman the crazy old white woman who bought that murder house that's like all the crazy American about the murder house um so yeah we owe it a great conversation and I haven't written that one up yet but um another one where there is like some spooky stuff that apparently has really happened was and and this is interesting so when I told you about that map called

51:25Oshima land which is it shows where these stigmatized homes are so I immediately when I learned about this map um in my wife and my wife's like oh yeah my son who's like you know in high school he's like oh yeah we saw we were watching in Japanese TV show a couple years ago and they talked about that they interviewed the guy who made that map they're like that's so fascinating I'm like yeah I'm on it now I can't stop looking at it I'm like going to every neighborhood I lived in Japan and of course I'm immediately going to the neighborhoods where my friends currently live because I've got a lot of friends who are long-term expats there and one of my friends who lives outside of Osaka Japan I went to her neighborhood and like right on her street like I'm right on her street I'm like there's two there's one like right across the road from her that says someone died in a fire a host fire and then there's another one that says someone committed suicide and then um I forgot to say something I forgot to ask her and then fast forward we're on holiday in Japan and my son is good friends with her son they're like roughly the same age so my son goes out of her place for

52:25for sleepover and you know a couple he comes back you know to our Airbnb like a couple of days later and he's like hey dad you know like my friend was saying that there's a haunted house on the street like really yeah everyone in the neighborhood says it's haunted I'm like really I'm like wait a second I message my friend on whatsapp I'm like hey I was on this website you know this episode he did about the show and I found like this these jiko book and she's like oh yeah yeah it's that my neighbor's that's the haunted house I'm like what you never like this is my friend for years you never mentioned anything about this to me tell me more she's like oh yeah this it's a really tragic story unfortunately there there was a house with the family living in it a few generations of the family so there's like grandparents their son and his family and some houses in the countryside still use propane tanks to heat the house and what had happened was for whatever half reason happened at night propane tank exploded and the house caught on fire and everyone was

53:28able to get out like this man and his wife and their kids and the grandpa but the grandma couldn't get out so her son had run into the house to try to rescue her he got apparently like horrible burns like three degree burns over a lot of his body wasn't able to rescue her she died so you know the house was destroyed they cleared off the lot and stuff and the the grandpa the dad I guess he rebuilt the house really beautiful brand new ultramar and modern house and he I guess only lived there they they moved back in but the grandpa had only lived there for like a few weeks and then moved out and moved in with his daughter like somewhere else in the block the husband and his wife through all this they ended up getting a divorce splitting up so it's just the son the man who couldn't save his his mom that night who's living in this big house and apparently

54:29I don't know PTSD survivor skill whatever it may have been he took his own life inside that house this big beautiful brand new house so everyone in the neighborhood's like oh this house is haunted so I guess they tried to rent it out a few times and apparently people and it's gorgeous I was seen on a real estate website it is absolutely gorgeous and people would move in and without a week within a week or two poof gone wow and then so Japanese and my friend was like oh yeah there's even like a foreign man moved in and he was only there for one week and he was gone and believe and it's not easy to get into or out of a lease in Japan I tell you so that's interesting and another thing she says is that um one of the things you find in the countryside in Japan there's a lot of narrow streets in these old farming towns it's kind of in a farming town like a suburb of a city so they have a lot of storm drains these how how why would they be maybe a foot wide two or three feet deep kind of all along the sides of the road and in Japan they put these metal grates on top of

55:33them so cars can because they're narrow they're often like one one lane roads so cars will pull up on the side let cars go by very sturdy very you know it's a Japan everything's made well in Japan so um and it's a brand new house a brand new property in these drains and she says that every month at least two or three times cars go through those grates those grates break and cars get stuck in these drainage ditches and to the point where her neighbor who lives on the same road bought like a tow truck kind of apparatus who attached to his truck so he can just pull people out of these drainage ditches and several times a month he's just like pulling people out of the exchanges of their cars out of these ditches um and it just keeps apparently happening again and again and again and again and everyone the neighborhood's like yeah because it's haunted it's that house like that like that this doesn't happen anywhere else but it happens right there and they replace them with like high quality stuff and it keeps happening and they're just like it's the spirits like yeah that's what it is and then like everyone in the neighborhood knows

56:37and that house now has been on the market for quite a long time in the prices like dropping dropping dropping dropping um and and I look at it it's gorgeous but knowing what happens there like there's no way temptation I would never moved out of it oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no absolutely no yeah no thank you because obviously in in the US UK Canada people are very special you know obviously so many people believing in this stuff obviously yeah but I still feel like most people would if there was a house on the market for dirt cheap I think I think it's gonna go pretty quick still in the UK. Oh yeah, Canada too, absolutely. Yeah, people are gonna just, even if they know it's haunted and people have run away off for two days, they're still gonna buy it just because the housing market is so good. Well, yeah, well that's even like, you know, someone left a comment on my Spotify on that episode and said that, oh yeah, like either like I almost bought a G-Cobo again and then the last real estate agent told me that it was and I said no and they said, oh okay, we

57:41thought you would buy it because you're an American. We figured Americans like hot and hot. That's what the Japanese real estate agent said. Crazy Americans. To a foreigner. You're right. Right? That's wild. Yeah. So, in Japan, you know, obviously in the UK, US, Canada, the ghost stories, some of them are quite similar. You know, people are seeing the same kind of thing. The woman in white, for example, is a popular ghost that people see everywhere. Yeah. The hat man. It's, you know, so many people see the hat man. Is it the same in Japan? Are people seeing, reporting the same entities? Or is it different? Are these things? Well, the woman in white, I mean, that's a really, that's a very stereotypical Japanese ghost called a Yude, which goes back in the time in memoriam in Japan. There is like the story of Oiyawa, which was one of the original Yude ghost angry, like a Yude is a vengeful ghost, a vengeful spirit. And it's often someone who was murdered, betrayed, something really happened, horrible

58:45happened to them. They've got unfinished business and they're vengeful. So, you know, that kind of archetype was really, there was something called the Legend of Oiyawa, which was a woman who was like a Cortezan who married this wealthy Japanese man. And this would have been hundreds of years ago. And there was a famous play made of it. And it was the old like woodblock prints of her from like the 1700s or 1600s of this horrible, disfigured ghost. So basically she was a woman who married this rich man, but he fell in love with someone else or wanted the younger wife. So he poisoned her and she died. And he, and basically she was like disfigured by the poison and that she vowed that she would haunt him for the rest of his days, what she did. And then he went insane and like killed himself or something like that. The traditional kind of like Buddhist burial clothes are white, like so the white robe, which is that same image you see in like the ring or the crudge, those movies.

59:46Again that's that kind of archetypal Japanese ghost that woman and white with a long hair down over the face, you know, very terrifying. So it's really interesting. But then when you got down to Southeast Asia, you know, I lived in Malaysia and like in Singapore, Malaysia, the same kind of that's the ghost that there was a, there was an area I lived in this island called Penang, Malaysia for two years, crazy superstitious there too. And they would believe that during the Hungry Ghost Festival, which was in August, kind of like, which was a time of year when like the walls between the living world and the spirit world were thinner that there was a ghost like that that would appear on this road that was near my house. And even like one of my Chinese co-workers who was ethnically Chinese, Malaysian Chinese was like, oh, I got to like I worked at the school with her. She's like, I got to get home before it gets dark. I got to get home because I don't want to drive down that road because of all the ghosts and stuff, you know. Trash, damn. But I mean, you know, in Japan there's definitely that kind of archetype of that woman and white, which is that Yure, Yude, they call it.

1:00:47Hat man and stuff. No. That's not something I hear about in my research or come across at all. That seems very Western. I also, yeah, like, you know, like maybe shadow people kind of think, but the hat man thing, that's not something I've come across. Yeah, yeah. Because you mentioned salt and things like that, the people you salt, obviously. It is weird how so much about cultures are similar, you know, we're experiencing the same things. And I know obviously the world is a lot more open now, like you can be anywhere in the world and we can talk, you know, thankfully with your VPN in China, you can talk to us. Yeah, yeah. But pretty much everywhere in the world, we are connected now and it's everyone can see everything. So, so now you could argue that, you know, ghost stories are going to travel around the world and people are going to experience the same thing. But, you know, a hundred years ago, I don't think that was the, obviously it wasn't the case. Yeah. It was books and things like that.

1:01:48But we were still experiencing the same things. And then you go back and yeah, well, this woman and white, you know, like what's up with that? Because that's cross culture. Or the salt, you mean, even like the first time I first year in Japan back in 2008, one of my co-workers, who was Japanese her father passed away and I went to the, I went to the wake and after the wake at the funeral home, they gave me like these packets of salt and I was instructed to throw it over my shoulders before I left. And then I had extra packets of salt they gave me. And they said when you get home, you're wife will know what to do with this. And when I got home, so I get home and I bring the doorbell and my wife wouldn't let me in the house in the apartment. And she threw more salt over my shoulders and then put a pile of salt at our front door in front of our door, a pile of salt at each corner of our door. Interesting. As protection. And then like later, what I noticed as I would wander around her, go through my apartment complex, sometimes I would see piles of salt outside of apartment doors.

1:02:51So I'm assuming that those people had gone to a funeral or awake and this was to protect them from bringing, for bringing anything bad back into their house. How interesting. Right. Would you say that in general, Japanese people in that culture is more spiritual and more believing in the supernatural than maybe? I would think so. I would think so, absolutely. I think so, absolutely. So for example, August is just finished and August is spooky season in Japan. There's a festival called Obon. And Obon is the time of year when number one is one of the longest holidays of the year, which in Japan people don't get a lot of holidays. So it's the time of year when you go home to your ancestral home, if you grew up, there's a lot of migration towards the cities, right? That kind of in Japan. So like a lot of people, they would go back to their ancestral homes or their villages and towns. It's the time of year when you welcome back your ancestors. And this is like, this is just common belief. It's not like this is what everyone believes.

1:03:51It's not like you're a Catholic, you're a Protestant, you believe this or that. It's just like, this is what Japanese people believe during this time of year in the middle of August. This is when your spirit, your loved ones come home. So you go, you clean up the graves and at your home, you put, you put out special foods that they loved. You have like a little altar called a Bootsodon with foods and drinks that they love. It was your dad and you loved to sit kind of beer. You have that beer out for him. You know, you have these certain drinks out for them and food and they come and it's kind of a peaceful time of year where you're welcoming them back and people are embracing the spirit's coming home. But at the same time, there's some things you got to be really careful of. So there's certain like festivals with certain dances and this and that too. But for example, water is dangerous. My wife will say this all the time. She's like, you don't go swimming during Obon. That time of year, you don't go swimming. Because there's a chance that you're going to die. You're going to drown because there are negative spirits that will pull you underwater. And there's certain things you have to be careful of and respectful of.

1:04:52And again, it just seems it's a very big cultural thing. And at the end of Obon the last night, a lot of people across Japan will light fires. And oh gosh, what is it now? I'm having a brain fart with their called. I don't know every time. Don't worry about that, Laura. I had an episode just a couple of episodes ago called Summer Scars in Japan. And I had a friend of mine was on the show and he was talking about, he lives in Kyoto. And he was just watching on TV. They have these big fires in the mountains. And people will light smoke fires by their homes on the countryside. And those fires guide the spirits of their ancestors back to the spirit world. And this is just again, common practice. Yeah. Yeah. Most people, most people type part in those. Oh yeah, they do. But you know, they're not going to talk about like Japanese people are very, hmm, how what's the term? I mean, they're very private people as a culture. So they're not out there talking about this.

1:05:54But they're not at like, oh, I saw a ghost or this or that. Or if they do, it's maybe like, you have to know that person really well and have a lot of trust. And maybe just in passing, like where my wife was like, oh, you can't go, don't go near the water tonight, Kevin or don't go, don't go by the beach. I'm like, why? Oh, just don't do it. I'm like, why? Why? Because it's all gone in the spirits. I'm like, huh, I didn't know you believed in this stuff. She's like, just don't, okay? And then it's like, don't, don't talk anymore about it. Don't ask me anymore about it. Don't ask me about my interesting because that's kind of how our great, great, great grandparents used to be. But in our culture, it would be, yeah, don't talk about this stuff. We believe it. We respect it. But we don't talk about it. We don't talk about stories at Christmas and things like that. When you were with family and stuff. But it was very much, you talk about this stuff. You hear that in so many different families where grandparents... And by the way, the time of year to tell ghost stories in Japan, and people do love to tell ghost stories. But that is during the summer season, oh, born in August, because it's so bloody hot in human in Japan that people like to tell ghost stories to send a shiver down your spine

1:06:58and chill you and make you cold on those hot summer nights. Yeah. So there's actually a tradition that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years of telling what they call kaitan, which are ghost stories. And again, that's why August is spooky month in Japan. That's when people believe the spirits are all back. They come back and then they go again. That's the time to tell ghost stories. So people do enjoy telling ghost stories and stuff. Maybe they won't be like, this happened to me. They just tell these tales. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So it's pretty cool. That is cool. What I always like fairy, you mentioned fairies at the start of fairy culture. Obviously, it's been a big part of Western culture, fairy lore and things like that. And we're the wisps and these kind of things. Is that the same in Japan as well? Are there these fairy lore type things? There is something called Yokai in Japan. And Yokai are, I mean, gosh, there's a pantheon of them. There's like just hundreds of thousands of Yokai. And Yokai are kind of like, are they monsters? It's kind of like monsters, kind of like spirits.

1:08:00If you took like spirits and monsters and mixed them together. And they all have kind of purposes and stories to tell. A lot of moral lessons, a lot of life lessons. But then there's other things. For example, fairy lights, just things called Onibi. And I've done an episode on that, which are these like orbs, these lights that are seen. People will sometimes say they see them around cemeteries or certain lakes or ponds. I went hiking in a friend of mine who's off done on my podcast. A British guy actually named Phil Jackson who writes lots of great books about spooky Japan. And he's a pretty regular guest on my podcast. And I don't normally have guests. It's usually just me like reading narratives or reading my research, I suppose, with atmospheric music. But he showed me, he brought me hiking up this really place in Kyoto near Kyoto. It's a prefecture called Mount Oiwa. And he brought me to this one of the coolest, funkiest, neatest, weirdest, creepiest,

1:09:02awesomest shrines in the middle of the forest, like abandoned, neat place. You don't find tourists there. And there was this pond, he showed me. He's like, a lot of people say they see these Onibi or these spirit lights above the water. So there are similar things to that. And then the yokai, oh gosh, there's so many. There's everything from the famed Kitsune, which is the Fox spirit, to the Tenoki, which is the raccoon spirit, which are very clever. And they like to trick people. They're tricksters. They'll take the form of, you know, long time ago when people would have to walk from say Kyoto to Tokyo along the Oltokido road, you know, before there's vehicles, they would have to walk. And, you know, you're always warned to be careful of strangers because that stranger could be a raccoon dog spirit or a Fox spirit to trick you, to steal from you. They take the form of a person and con you, steal your money, get you do something dangerous, or just to take the piss, to do something, to play a shenanigans, essentially. You know, there was the kapa, which is a yokai that looks kind of like a frog and a fish

1:10:08person that was said to be in ponds and rivers. And you know, you were told to be careful because they like to fight people or drown people. A lot of stories where they would drown children or drown travelers. But what's really cool about a lot of these is that there's lessons. So like, you know, hundreds of years ago, a lot of people died, you know, crossing rivers. A lot of people drown, you know, trying to swim in a lake or do this or that. And there weren't the safety, you know, standards that we have today. So they would tell these stories, you know, the old people in the village would tell their grandkids, don't go to that river, especially don't go there alone. Don't go there alone because if you go there alone, the kapa might pull you into the water and drain you. And what does that do? That prevents the kids from going to the river because it scares the hell out of them, you know. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of cultures that have similar stories, you know, those kind of creatures. I just the other day, there's one called the azuki at eye and the azuki, azuki are beans for red beans that are traditionally used. So sweet beans and a lot of the Japanese make a lot of sweet traditional treats.

1:11:11With these red bean paste across Asia, China, it's popular, Southeast Asia. And this, this is apparently a creature that would be in the forest by the rivers. And you'd, if you're hiking on trails, you'd hear this weird song being sung and he'd be singing him, he'd sing a song like, I'm washing my beans, I'm washing my beans. And I think I might eat some people. And he would sing about eating people. So they'll like, if you hear that, you don't go near the river. You stay away from the river. And it was like, he was like a goblin who would like wash beans by the river. So I just, warning, warning to stay away from the water. Yeah, yeah, which is what we have in, you know, the western world as well, you know, these legends of the law are normally, you know, to stop kids going in the forest at night and hurting themselves and things like that. Exactly. Interesting man. So interesting. Yeah. I've got to ask you as well, I know it's something else that you focus on. It is the cryptid law and. Oh, yeah, yeah. Bigfoot in Japan. Yeah. Are they out there in Japan?

1:12:11I know there's a part in China, I believe. There's, there's a, well, yeah, there are people who believe, absolutely. And there's, there's one, one man in particular, I've had on my podcast a couple of times. He's a researcher, a hebegon researcher. Hebegon. Hebegon. Hebegon. So it was a man named Kyle Brink, who is a Canadian who lives in Hiroshima prefecture and a kind of southern part of the main island of Honshu in Japan. And there is a, so there was a creature that some believe exists. There was a lot of sightings in the late 1970s near an area called Mount Heba, this very rural forested area. And for whatever reason, this creature was called nicknamed Hebagon. And you know, there are basically essentially like a Sasquatch in Japan. And there is definitely lower that these, these creatures exist in different parts of the main island of Japan. And this guy I've had on my podcast a few times, he's written a book, he's got a book called

1:13:14Hebagon, Japan's Bigfoot, which I think is on Amazon. Well, it is on Amazon. And he's very passionate about this topic. He's, I interviewed him in 2023. No, sorry, 20, early 2025, I re-released that episode in the summertime when I was on holiday. And then I got him on again just a few weeks ago. And it was really fascinating. For anyone listening, if you're interested in Bigfoot, go listen to my episode about Hebagon. There's one called Hebagon, Japan's Bigfoot, and Hebagon, the search continues. And you know, yeah, I mean, I don't know what to think about this one myself. I mean, where do I stand on Bigfoot? Bigfoot is something I hope exists. I do listen to Bigfoot podcast. I listen to Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff Farrick and Gobo. Yes. I listen to that. I love that show. You know, very entertaining. I guess that's what I was able to kind of actually have a decent bit of an interview with Kyle because I do listen to that podcast often. So I'm like, I do have some things I can share and things they talk about.

1:14:14But I'm, you know, he says that there's lots of evidence in that area. That's very similar to that. He said this spring pass, a big researcher from the States came over and spent two weeks and they wrote every day and they said they both found lots of evidence, lots of these kind of tree structures and different things that are very, very, very similar to what you'd find in the North American forest. He's interesting. And he's invited me to join him on the expedition the next time I'm in Japan and I've got a few friends who were into the spooky and the interesting and, hey, I'm up for it. I'd be game, absolutely, to go and explore. Absolutely. I would love to go down to any excuse getting to the forest, to be honest. I love the woods. Absolutely. That's so cool. But yeah, so there is, there is Bigfoot lore and it's called Hebegon. That's what it's known as. Hebegon. Hebegon. So again, it's like, it's, again, it's like the ghosts, it's like the fairy law, it's like everything. Often these things are exactly the same. Like you mentioned tricksters.

1:15:15We've got tricksters. You've got the gnomes in the UK and things. Yeah. And all very trickster lore. It's the same stuff. People are experiencing all around the world. Right? We've just a different name. And that's, yeah. I've found so interesting. Yeah. Well, I mean, I was just, I was just listening today to, I was out for a walk after work and I was just listening to a, Miss Risa Monsters with Paul Bestol. I know I love that show. And you know, he was interviewing a guy who's written books about, he's written 10 books about strangeness in America, but they were talking about Alaska. And they were talking, he was telling us like a fantastic, freaky story about like this, this man and his son and his son's friend who were like, and this remote wilderness. You hear, they heard the voice of a woman crying for help in the forest, but they're like in the mid, like they got dropped off by an airplane, right? Like deep in the, in the, the Alaskan bush. And they hear like this woman calling for help and helping. This one teenage boy wanted to go and help and the dad's like, no, wait, stop. Listen, there's something that sounds weird about that. No, we're not going to do that.

1:16:15We're going to go into the cabin. We're going to lock the door. We're going to sit here with the shotguns. And then they heard noises and all of a sudden that woman's voice turned into like a little child's voice outside. Like help, help, can you help me? And he was like, no, we're not going to go outside. And then then all of a sudden it kind of changed like a grunting, growling noise and they could hear them, they could hear something walk away into the forest, you know? Oh, and you, I guess those are the stories you do here. Those kind of similar stories from Japan as well from the forest. So those tricksters trying to get you to come into the forest for a year. Yeah, yeah. And if you do the stories across cultures, absolutely. If you do follow your voice, what happens? Do you become a missing 4011? I guess exactly the missing 4011. I mean, is that something else that happens in Japan? I know that happens everywhere. People go missing. I would think, you know, that's something to look at. I want to look into now because actually my most recent interview with Kyle Brink, this he began researcher, he started talking about that. He started talking about this missing, the equivalent of missing 4011 and some of the

1:17:16mountainous areas of Japan and also kind of like coinciding with these hebegon sightings and stuff and like are there links or this or that? Who knows? But I'm sure there are and that's like these are, you know, I could make this show for the next 50 years and I'm going on topics. And please do. So interesting. I mean, even like right now, like the, the idea of missing 4011, I'm writing notes down here in Japan. Like that's something to look into for a future episode. Absolutely. Because there's that high strangeness happens everywhere. And then one of the interesting, no, no, you go. What are you going to say? Well, I was just, I was going to think, you know, like we, we, you talk about earlier, you're asking me kind of about these archetypes of like the woman in white and this and that. One of the things I do here throughout a lot of the stories I've researched and people have contacted me about directly kind of through primary research is that these, you know, Japan is Japan, right?

1:18:16The fashion of Japan is different. Oh, we put kind of kimonos this and that. I'll look you there for a second, brother. Just for a second, it dipped. The last thing I heard was the fashion in Japan is different. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So like the traditional, obviously the traditional fashion in Japan would be different than in in the UK or or in other parts of Europe, right? So what I do here are tales of people who see things that are dressed like old, timey Japanese people, you know, like there are stories of like people who are walking down a back alley in Osaka and they see a woman wearing a kimono kind of quickly walking along and all of a sudden they turn and that person's gone. You know, that's, we hear those same stories with the taxi drivers have all these stories. Like episode one of my podcasts, there was a tragic fire and I think 1974 in Osaka, a department store had a nightclub in the top floor and there was a fire. It was a and and all the fire escapes were changed shut, of course, because things like that

1:19:19happen sadly. And more than 100 people died. And a lot of the the hostesses that would have worked there were women would have been women wearing kimonos and you know, there were people who tried to save themselves by jumping out of windows and you know, they died and people died in the fire and died of smoke inhalation. And one there's a lot of stories connected to that that place. And I've been in there many times since then. It's now an electronic shop. I go there shopping my son always wants to go there to buy like like video games and stuff. But you know, there's one of the things that for years afterwards were reported were like taxi drivers like a woman in a kimono would fly down the taxi driver right in front of that area, hop in the back of the taxi, tell them where they want to go. And as a driving along the road, the taxi driver looks in the mirror and there's no one there. You know, that's yeah, we hear those you hear those taxi driver stories a lot in Japan. Like up in Toho Kuhi, the area where the big 2011 tsunami was.

1:20:21That's a very common one of of people sitting on the side of the road and taxi drivers picking them up. And then those people are gone. And there's a wet spot in the back of the car. You know, there's a there's an episode unsolved mysteries did a reboot a few years ago on Netflix. And there's an episode called Ghosts of the tsunami. Your listeners should watch that. It's all in Japanese with subtitles and it's and it's it is incredible. It was so well done and that's they interview they actually interview some of those taxi drivers who had picked up ghosts essentially and they interview a Buddhist priest who over the years has dealt with all this stuff and talks about is really incredible. But the and there's a wet patch on the sea. That is yeah. Well, because they mean it was like, yeah, I mean, that whole idea is there. These are these are people who died in that tsunami so quickly and they don't even know that they're gone. You know, it happens so quickly and so suddenly. And then their whole communities were wiped off the map. So they've come, they've come home to look for their houses that are no longer there. And they're asking, yeah, it's so sad to like really try to.

1:21:25It is. But also that connection to the water and the spirit world. There seems to be a connection and then yeah, that's interesting man. Yeah. I've got to ask you this before it goes out my mind. I've just run it down. There's this is in China, I believe. There's a forest that's protected and they actually they say it's protected because big for it. I've forgotten the term already of the Japanese Chinese big for it. Do you know what I'm talking about? There's a forest that's and it's got statues of like what look. I have to admit, I can't like the word like a name's don't come to my mind. The Japanese one is called hebergon. It's like a wild man and I believe I think I really see. Is it yearin in China? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. And I think I son episode of like a finding bigfoot where they came to China and they were looking for us. And that's all I know. That's like the limit of my knowledge. The famous statue and it's like it's kind of like a bigfoot is quite a human as well

1:22:25like between the two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like a mother sesquatch kissing a child sesquatch a bigfoot yearin and it's like yeah, yeah, it's a protected park. And it's this old traditional statue that's been there for a really long time. Why would people make that right? It's so cool. It's so interesting, man. It's so interesting. That is. I've got to ask you as well. The topic of high strangers is UFOs and it's a big talking path in all over the world. Is that the same in Japan as well with the UFO? The US government have just released documents and things like that. What are your thoughts and is that a talking path? Well, I mean, it is. It's like it comes up in the news that the Japanese government are doing the same. If anything, the Japanese government seem to be a bit more progressive than other governments with that, with wanting to do research into it and announcing stuff. You know, there is up in Fukushima Prefecture, there is a UFO museum up there. I know that Ryan Sprague from the somewhere in the sky's podcast was recently in Japan.

1:23:28He was in Japan earlier this year and he visited some locations. I did an episode about the the the the very old UFO tale in Japan from like I think the 1600s and it would have happened in Ibaraki prefecture north of Tokyo where I did I did a real about this to my Instagram where basically there was a bunch of fishermen and some very strange looking bowl shaped strange ship came in to the harbor and some woman came out with like long orange hair who was holding some kind of strange box and speaking in a language that none of them understood. And then apparently later on she got back into this boat and went back out to the sea and there was like these like huge crowd of fishermen on the beach who had seen it and interacted with and there's all these like ancient drawings of it and scripts and stories and it's a story that's very well. Like a very kind of well known historical high-strange in this tale from Japanese culture called the hollow ship of Hitachi and yeah I didn't episode that on super national Japan and is very weird and very cool so if anyone does even a Google search hollow ship of Hitachi.

1:24:42It was called the Utsurobune and Japanese that's a weird one. There was and there's there's lots of reports I guess Fukushima prefecture which is the area near where they had the big nuclear meltdown in 2011 because of that tsunami like that area for like I guess decades and decades and decades has been known as a hot spot of UFO activity. Lots of stuff spotted in the skies there. Yeah I also sadly have never seen nothing like that. I got to get into the big city because I mean I just so much light pollution where I live I look up in the sky I can't see anything but not yet but I've seen you know I've seen the international space station that's cool. That's cool. But yeah yeah so they're absolutely there absolutely is a lot of UFO lore and I think that's it's something that's commonly on TV TV shows about it you hear about on the Japanese media. I think got like right are they within reach you got some toys here I bought in Japan this summer let's see here so.

1:25:49These are so cool I did I made one video where I unbox them but it's like I bought it at dollar store so there's like a mystery magazine and there's like the flatwoods monster there's a on this there's a. A weird cryptid snake called the Tsuchinoko which is this bizarre hopping Japanese cryptid snake this is apparently big foot the white one and then there's like a little alien here so you know. I've got all I bought all kinds of stickers in Japan this summer that like I cut alien themed stickers I bought in Japan. I love it so like they love with stuff so there's well yeah yeah yeah so. It's in that mean there's a TV show that's super popular now in the UK and in America called Dan the Dan. It's an anime and Dan the Dan has all these like aliens and it's got the flatwoods monster in it all kinds of creatures it mixes like Japanese cryptids and cryptids from all around the world and aliens at famous ones and there are. Mixed in together interesting so it's a lot of part of yeah fun part of Japanese pop culture you know so I was so excited to find a whole bunch of these like cool Japanese aliens stickers and stuff this summer I was like yeah.

1:27:00It is cool so it's it's it's kind of the and this is the thing that blows my mind the world is so much more similar than people think it's obviously there's differences yeah you know cultures are different slightly invariant you know we might do things in the world. You know we might do things in different months and things like that but ultimately we experience the same kind of stuff you know different terms on these things you know we might have different perspectives because of where we are but ultimately it's it's similar and we're all interested. Oh yeah we live in a weird world and there's a lot of things that happen that we can't explain and obviously in the different cultures that I've lived in there's sometimes different explanations for different connections but again I think for me what. The coolest parts finding those similarities because that that kind of like weaves together this tapestry of high strangeness and bizarreness that we live in which is so cool absolutely yeah yeah. Yeah. Robert I've got to say I absolutely loved talking to you today thank you so much for your time for for for breaking Chinese law and talking to me.

1:28:08I don't think I don't think I don't think I don't think hopefully the CCP is listening yeah we're fine. It's been amazing I hope it's the first of many conversations of absolutely love talking to you can you tell the listeners where they can find you and your awesome show and everything. Absolutely just search for supernatural Japan anywhere just Google at supernatural Japan Spotify Apple podcast all those places I'm on Instagram very active on Instagram at supernatural Japan. Supernatural Japan dot com is my website so yeah just Google supernatural Japan and you'll find you'll find my stuff all over the place and I guess I'm up to about a close to 150 episodes right now and lots more to come. Awesome man I've got a few to catch up on I tell you it's so good people need to go right now and listen right now all your contents amazing man thank you so much time brother and I hope as I say we can do many more I'd love to have you back oh absolutely yeah I'd love to come back it was been great talking to you awesome bro guys thank you so much for listening we hope you've enjoyed this episode if you have share it where you can that is a great way to support the podcast and we'll be back very soon for more freaky.

1:29:23Conversations in the meantime stay safe and keep it freaky but for now thank you very much bro no problem that was awesome that's awesome. We're just getting freaky. Some of you in your room you can't move you can't space. It's horrible horrible feeling. You're looking out the dark as soon as you see it figure but it's darker than the dark. I just get just like really creepy feeling and I see this it's like shadowy demon looking figure in the front seat of the car. She used to come into my room at night and stand right by my bed and I just was petrified. I remember I saw something fly by my bedroom window we heard the bathroom door shut so then we looked out my bedroom window down the hallway.

1:30:24The bathroom door was wide open. So we came around the bed and we saw a high shot this thing stood up I mean it stood up and it had high pointed ears it had a snout had long arm it just grabbed the deer. My God