Chill-seeking: Japan's haunted house summer tradition

AFP English

Halloween may be months away, but it's already peak haunted house season in Japan, where seeking a bone-chilling fright is a long-established summer tradition.   Summer is closely associated with the dead in Japan, because it is believed that ancestral souls return to their household altars during the mid-August "obon" holiday.

Transcript

00:00♪

00:04Ahhhh!

00:06Ugh!

00:08This is not good!

00:10Welcome to the event!

00:12Please come this way to the front!

00:16You stubborn kids!

00:18Hehehe!

00:20You guys have already noticed.

00:24You can sit here until the end of class.

00:26Last year, it was really hot, but this year it's even hotter, so I wonder what will happen in a few years.

00:56In Japanese, we often use the expression that it's like your liver is getting cold.

01:03But at the Onryo Festival, it's actually the feeling of being frightened and cold,

01:09or the feeling of being surprised and your liver is getting cold.

01:15I think that's one of the ways to feel the coolness of summer.

01:21I think that's one of the ways to feel the coolness of summer.

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