Chill-seeking: Japan's haunted house summer tradition
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.
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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.