-
Blog Search
Latest Articles- Forum Topics
- Obscura Day Is Here!
- 50th Anniversary on Obscura Day: Photo Updates
- Obscura Day Is Here! Updated With New Photos!
- SyFy Announces Crypto-Possible Series
- Illinois’ Recent Puma Kills
- When Did William Roe Die?
- Them’s Fess Parker Dies
- Boggy Creek Trailer
- Cryptozoology Milestone
- New “Black Panther” Sighting in Decatur
- Sierra Sasquatch: What Did You Think?
- Multiple Bigfoot Witness Opens Bigfoot Themed Bar & Grill
- Flying Wolpertinger
- Flying Wolperinger
- Obscura Day In Maine: Celebrate 50 Years In Cryptozoology
- The Dobharchu
- The Cryptid Factor: Update
- Voting EXTENDED For Cryptozoology Museum / Phoenix
- Sierra Sasquatch: Habituation Dissected
- Happy St. Patrick’s Day ~ DT vs MQ
Google Search
Podcast
Social Nets
Click to subscribeRecommended Podcasts
Member of:
It may seem odd, but the locals swear it is true. People in a Japanese mountain region have reported a number of kangaroo sightings, and journalists are now trying to stalk the marsupials.
The descriptions given by the apparent eyewitnesses seem close enough. For years they have spoken of a beige animal with large ears, one to 1.5 metres tall, that stands by the roadside and then hops away.
The sightings were all reported in the Mayama mountain district of Osaki city in Miyagi prefecture, a community of 441 households, located about 350 kilometres north of Tokyo.
The city has received about 30 reports of “kangaroo-like animals”, including three cases since December, when the mountain area was often covered in snow, said local official Tetsuya Sasaki.
Read more:
ABC News: Phantom kangaroos spotted in Japan
Recommended Books:
Related Posts
Japan is bracing itself after dozens of rare giant oarfish – traditionally the harbinger of a powerful earthquake – have been washed ashore or caught in fishermen’s nets.
The appearance of the fish follows Saturday’s destructive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile and the January 12 tremors in Haiti, which claimed an estimated 200,000 lives.
A quake with a magnitude of 6.4 has also struck southern Taiwan.
This rash of tectonic movements around the Pacific “Rim of Fire” is heightening concern that Japan – the most earthquake-prone country in the world – is next in line for a major earthquake.
Those concerns have been stoked by the unexplained appearance of a fish that is known traditionally as the Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace.
Read more:
Telegraph: Oarfish omen spells earthquake disaster for Japan
Recommended Books:
Related Posts
In the Meiji period (1868-1912), Japan ended centuries of isolation and entered a period of rapid modernization after opening its doors to the world. The ensuing social and technological changes inspired a number of interesting urban legends.
- Phantom trains
Railroads played a key role in the modernization of Japan. After the first trains started running in 1872, railroads quickly expanded across the country. But as the number of trains increased, so did the frequency of phantom train sightings.
Most often seen by train conductors working late at night, these phantom trains — which looked and sounded like ordinary trains — tended to emerge suddenly from the darkness ahead. Shocked by the sight of an oncoming locomotive, conductors typically reacted by grinding their train to halt. Phantom trains usually vanished just before a collision occurred.
These phantom trains, whose sightings have been documented by scholars such as ethnologist Kunio Yanagita and folklorist Kizen Sasaki, were often thought to be the work of shape-shifting animals such as the kitsune (fox), tanuki (raccoon dog) and mujina (badger), because the carcasses of these animals would often be found near where sightings took place.
According to one old Tokyo tale, a phantom train used to appear frequently on the J?ban line. One night, while passing through Tokyo’s Katsushika ward, a conductor spotted the notorious phantom train barreling toward him. Convinced it was nothing more than an illusion, he kept charging ahead without applying the brakes. At the moment of impact, there was a loud shriek as the phantom train disappeared into thin air.
Read more:
Pink Tentacle: Urban legends from Meiji-period Japan
Recommended Books:
Related Posts
Forget your run-of-the-mill imaginary bogeyman — children in one part of Japan are haunted by demons.
Or, at least, marauding men dressed up as monsters … but does it really matter to a little kid?
In what has to be one of the world’s more unusual child-rearing traditions, the youths of Japan’s Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture get annual visits from straw-clothed, mask-wearing Namahage demons. The demons — usually young men from the area — carry torches and go door-to-door, visiting each home in search of young miscreants and “lazy” new brides. The demons usually threaten to drag any offenders off into the snow-covered mountains.
As the children scream, the parents usually assure the demon that all the kids (and new brides) in the home are good — and offer up a sacrifice of snacks and sake.
Read more:
AOL News: ‘Demons’ Terrify Japanese Children
Recommended Books:
