Looking for ghosts in Japan/Tokyo Area!

17 comments

1. Suicide forest!

2. Aokigahara aka “Suicide Forest” comes to mind, but it’s northwest of Mount Fuji and not exactly a day trip type of deal.

   Himeji Castle has a ghost bound to a well called Okiku. Not exactly like Sadako but still sufficiently creepy in my opinion.

   Don’t know about occult stores, that’s probably something you’ll randomly come across while wandering through Shinjuku or Asakusa late at night.

3. [deleted]

4. When I used to live in Kagoshima, there were famous tunnels known for haunting. Look out for those. I would assume audio recordings would be interesting in a tunnel.

   Also, a little hard to come by but there was a comedian known to rent out discounted apartments where someone passed. If you can get a short stay in one of those…

   Japanese doll museum or shops always creeps me out, I remember seeing a video about people who donate dolls to a shrine or temple. Sorry can’t remember details.

5. Aokigahara, at the base of Mount Fuji, is a beautiful forest (but very dangerous to wander in outside of the designated paths) with also a few nice caves to explore. The forest has a reputation for being haunted because of the very real reason that it is a spot used for suicides.

   If you go there, be respectful. Remember that this is where a lot of people went to die and it is not something to be excited about.

   Sakaiminato in Tottori has put emphasis on yokai stories because Mizuki Shigeru, the author of GeGeGe no Kitaro is from there. You have a street in the city and a museum dedicated to the author and to yokai legends as a whole. (not haunted per se but interesting on the paranormal thingies)

   Sendagaya Tunnel in Tokyo, build over a cemetery, tons of legends about the place. Be careful because cars go through it.

   The ruins of Hachiōji Castle in Hachiōji (Western Tokyo metropolitan area) known to be haunted with people hearing women’s screams.

   Okiku’s Well in Himeji Castle in which a women called Okiku was thrown into a well to die (I might not remember the legend perfectly)

   Ōkunoshima (Hiroshima Prefecture) is known as the “Rabbit Island” but before becoming a touristic spot about cute rodents the place was a secret military base to experiment on and produce poison gas. The ruins of the base are very eerie to visit. (The island is a little annoying to reach but it’s nice as a half day trip from Osaka/Kyoto)

   That’s what I remembered from the top of my head. Like always remember to be respectful of other people and their beliefs, being there as a tourist doesn’t stop people from living normally where you go.

6. here are sine video that present haunted or eerie locations

   Haunted Ryokan [https://youtu.be/Qk7IipIQipE](https://youtu.be/Qk7IipIQipE) and [https://youtu.be/viAKFZ5lMrQ](https://youtu.be/viAKFZ5lMrQ) both are the same location.

   Haunted tunnel [https://youtu.be/U2QBEZW5RDY](https://youtu.be/U2QBEZW5RDY)

   Different tunnels across Japan [https://youtu.be/ta_RQX6ybp0](https://youtu.be/ta_RQX6ybp0)

   Field of statues [https://youtu.be/S4qVIisBRnU](https://youtu.be/S4qVIisBRnU)

   Yanaka Cemetery [https://youtu.be/4FhezuCyTBo](https://youtu.be/4FhezuCyTBo)

7. People here saying Aokigahara like they are the first ones to consider it. It’s a place where depressed people go and kill themselves. Show some respect, y’all are gross. If you wanna be like paul logan go ahead.

   There are other haunted places you can go without desecrating actual corpses. Please have some decency and ignore the other posts suggesting Aokigahara.

8. You can see a little shrine for Taira no Masakado not far from Tokyo Station. He was a samurai from the Kanto region. He worked in the capital, Kyoto, but then had to go back to Kanto (Tokyo area) because his dad was sick. Anyway, a bunch of his relatives didn’t appreciate his presence and made a series of attacks on him, but he defeated them all. He gained a lot of fame for his strength and gained a following. He became somewhat of a local hero and championed local causes. This got the nobles in Kyoto worried, so people were sent to fight him. He was killed and beheaded. His head was put on display in Kyoto, but apparently the eyes would never shut and people would hear his teeth grinding at night. Apparently his head flew back to the Tokyo (Edo / Kanto) area in search of its body. The place where the head landed is right in central Tokyo, near Tokyo Station. The area is surrounded by skyscrapers, and it’s a very small shrine, so you might miss it, but it’s there. When a government building was built right beside it, a number of politicians mysteriously died. At the end of WW2 when the US were going to destroy the shrine to build something on the location, the equipment broke and someone died. This little shrine is right on some of the most expensive land in all of Tokyo and Japan in general, but you can’t mess with it.

9. Quick google search turned this up. (https://traveltriangle.com/blog/haunted-places-in-japan/) some of these are on US Military bases so you may not be able to access. The old race track building in Negishi Yokohama is also pretty spooky.

10. Not sure it’s exactly what you’re asking but I have a few places for you.

    Sengaku-ji in Tokyo. The graves of the 47 ronin are buried there. The well where they washed the head of Kira is still there, with an appropriate sign telling so.

    There are several temples in Kyoto that have blood on the ceilings. The short version of the story is that this was the blood of the defenders of Fushimi Castle in the 1600s. It’s believed the defenders all committed seppuku instead of surrendering. Tokugawa Ieyasu had the castle dismantled and the floor boards were re-purposed for use in ceilings at temples.

    Hosen-in, Yogen-in, Shoden-ji, Genko-an, and Kosho-ji are the ones with the most prominent stains. Some have footprints, handprints and some even have faces. I’ve been to Kosho-ji in Uji and it’s pretty cool to see, and the temple itself is worth going to.

11. The most famous Japanese ghost story is Yotsuya Kaidan

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuya_Kaidan

    You can visit where she is supposedly buried in Myogyo-ji, a temple in Sugamo, a neighborhood of Tokyo. As Wikipedia explains, it’s tradition for all actors and directors making her story (it’s been adapted for film over 30 times) to visit this temple.

    She is the inspiration for Sadako in Ringu

12. I wanna say anata no warehouse, but then I checked it, it closed down in 2019 🙁

    It is not haunted but they intentionally made it look decrepit. It based on old kowloon area. Google it (as that is the only way you can see this place now)

13. If you want something closer to central Tokyo, check out Hakone-yama. It’s near Shin-Okubo Station.

14. * Old Komine Tunnel in Hachioji has a reputation as a place where sighting of screaming young girl have been reported (it’s where one of the victims of a serial killer Miyazaki Tsutomu was found).
    * Sunshine 60 building in Ikebukuro has a reputation for being haunted by the ghosts of Japanese war criminals (they were executed at the site).
    * Toyama Park in Okubo is reputed to be haunted at night – it’s located at the site, where victims of Unit 731 were buried in mass graves.
    * Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple’s graveyard (Kyoto) has a reputation for singing with the voices of the dead – this is an entirely natural phenomenon, but still creepy
    * Okiku’s Well in Himeji castle is reputedly haunted by a ghost of female servant who had committed suicide to escape unwanted attention by the samurai
    * Osore-zan Bodai-ji (Shimo-kita Peninsula) has a reputation as a gateway to the Underworld
    * abandoned Round Schoolhouse in Bibai (Hokkaido) has a reputation for making visitors insane
    * Oiran Buchi near modern-day Tengutana Bridge on Highway 411 in Yamanashi is a site, where 55 women (prostitutes or female ninja) were murdered by Takeda clan in 16th century – these days near-by Highway 411 is known for a number of unexplained deadly accidents

15. Please DON’T go to Aokigahara. Be respectful to those who have passed on there.

16. Someone I know brought home a spirit from Osaka Castle when she visited there. Many castles and its surrounding area are said to be haunted because that’s where a lot of people died in the past. Ask the locals in the Japanese countryside and they most likely have some interesting paranormal stories of the village. Honestly any place in Japan is haunted because of its long history.

17. Yokai street in Kyoto. Although it’s not really very interesting.