Kowabana: 'True' Japanese scary stories from around the internet

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Ever hated your job? Try working at these places. What if the true horror wasn’t the low pay and poor working conditions but the other things lurking nearby? Find out what’s haunting these people at work. It’s not just their boss… BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0...

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Japanese houses. So comfortable. So inviting. Yet what creeps across the tatami mats and hides in the deepest nooks and crannies of the closet? Discover 5 haunting tales of residents who just refuse to move on. After all, there’s no place like home! BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By...

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! August in Japan marks Obon, the Buddhist festival where the spirits of one's ancestors return home and ghosts return to the living plane. Discover six stories of the strange and supernatural that occur during one of the biggest festivals of the year. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By...

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Like a good old-fashioned meal of oden, this week comes with a wide variety of short horror tales to scratch all those hard to reach itches and satisfy your hunger for the unnatural. Ghosts, curses, creepy traditions and more, there's a bit of everything. BGM thanks to Myuuji & Kevin MacLeod. Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0...

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Japanese horror at its finest. Five tales of things that go bump in the night, the yurei hiding in the nooks and crannies of your safe space. Find out what's haunting these houses and never look at your home the same way again. BGM thanks to Myuuji & Kevin MacLeod. Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Cryptids in basements, impossibly tall figures, floating severed heads and other things the eye just can't explain. Six tales of the unbelievable and unexplainable fresh from Japanese shores to your ears. This is Japanese horror. BGM thanks to Myuuji & Kevin MacLeod. Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! Things that go bump in the night. Things that make no logical sense. What is real and what isn't? Discover five tales of the unexplainable from the land of the rising sun. But be careful. Sometimes there's no going back. BGM thanks to Myuuji & Kevin MacLeod. Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Join our Patreon for early access and bonus episodes and help support the show! You think you've got it bad? Try going to these Japanese schools of terror. Five terrifying tales of ghosts, haunted classrooms, things that go bump in the night and more scares than you can throw a piece of chalk at. Maybe homework isn't the real horror. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative...

Episode Notes BONUS EPISODE Listen to the very first episode of Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends. Go to Kowabana.net for how you can subscribe to this new podcast! "Am I pretty?" she asks before removing her mask, revealing her mouth cut from ear-to-ear. Kuchisake-onna is the Japanese urban legend of urban legends. Find out how she came to be and the truth behind her story right here. More information at Kowabana.net or get early access at Patreon. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro...

Episode Notes Japanese horror is full of iconic ghosts and creatures of the night. But have you heard the story of Kankandara? The monster hidden deep in the forest with a curse so terrifying that all who come across her true form are doomed to an excruciating death. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Sadako from The Ring. Kayako from Ju-on: The Grudge. Noroi, or curses, are a Japanese horror staple, and once one latches on to you, it's impossible to escape from. Discover five creepy tales of ghosts, grudges and inescapable Japanese curses. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Yurei. Those misunderstood spirits everyone blames for everything wrong in the world. They just want you to join them... in the afterlife. Five creepy tales of Japanese ghosts and how they haunt the living world. Beware. They could be watching right now. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Discover the truth behind of one of the most fearsome urban legends of all: the Kotoribako. What is the truth behind this mysterious box, and why do people keep dying around it? Some curses weren't meant to be broken, and some grudges were never meant to fade away. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes Be careful of mistreating your dolls, they may remember what you did to them. A young woman discovers the terrifying secrets behind the family doll that scared her as a child, and a young man gets more than he bargained for in a home teaching job. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes A young medium receives a request for help; something supernatural is going on in this man's home, and it's not going away. The truth will shock them both. And there's more than meets the eye with this dark transfer student. What's his real secret? BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes A young boy visits his grandparents' chicken farm for the summer holidays, but why do they check the incubator at midday and midnight every day without fail? Another young man muses on the strange boy he befriended as a child that changed his life. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes A woman gets on the train but it doesn't take its normal route. She ends up in a place called Kisaragi Station, where no-one is around but she can hear drums in the distance. Find out what happens, plus other train hauntings that'll send you off the rails. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes In this week's episode we're looking at the gods, monsters and yokai that haunt Japanese villages! Find out who Gomiko-san is, the mysterious woman who lurks in the mountains of Hokkaido. Who is Yorikata-sama, the monster slash deity that haunts a young man's village and dreams? And find out why a beautiful young woman is shunned by her entire village. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed...

Episode Notes This week's episode is a school hauntings special! Find out about the creepy ghosts, games and places that are terrifying Japanese schoolkids today. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Episode Notes This week's episode is a cursed village special! Find out what really happened in Sugisawa, perhaps the most famous cursed village of all. A young man relays the tale of a local legend called "Kotori Kozou" and the fate that befell his small village, while another man talks about the history behind his village's founding. BGM thanks to Myuuji Intro & Outro BGM thanks to Kevin MacLeod Sound effects thanks to Free Sound and freeSFX Licensed under Creative Commons: By...