by Yukio Obata
Ghost stories abound in Japanese folklore: from the haunted castles of the olden days to more contemporary urban legends.
There are several classes of monsters, spirits and ghosts in Japanese folklore. Typically, obake are monsters or spirits that emanate from very old objects or dead animals and humans. Yokai are imaginatively shaped creatures (e.g. a woman with a three-metre neck) that serve to explain unaccountable phenomenon. And yurei are usually ghosts with no physical body component.
The Japanese love horror stories. They especially enjoy telling each other scary stories in the summertime. Kimodameshi, a popular game among young people, is a nocturnal group outing to creepy places such as graveyards or tunnels where many deadly accidents have occurred. Near my home, there?s an abandoned mental asylum in the mountain where, needless to say, quite a few young people lurk in the dark, seeking the thrill of fear.
The success of Japanese horror films is significant too. For instance, Ring (1998) and The Grudge (Juon) (2000) triggered a flood of horror film making. A new TV series based on the famous cartoon GeGeGe no kitaro (roughly "Cemetery Boy") debuted this year with some success.
Not surprisingly, the Japanese gadget enthusiast can explore the ghostly world with an array of suspicious toys. A simple one, called Baketan2, senses obake (ghosts) in the atmosphere (well, according to the manufacturer it does). With its own algorithm and according to air pressure variations, it presumably detects a supernatural presence. Wow, how innovative! The manufacturer claims that if something is fishy in the atmosphere around the gadget, its LED light turns red. Yellow indicates a warning, green is OK, and turquoise to blue means very good (maybe guardian angels are around you?).
Obviously this is a joke toy. But if you can scare your friends, what?s wrong with that?! It might be the perfect excuse to tell a chilling horror story... on a dark and stormy night!
Baketan2 (?1,980, $18.75)
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/sastore/c/0000000317/
http://technology.sympatico.msn.ca/Wasa ... st_Busters
