Chibilicious

The hot summer months are driving my crazy. The intake of anything cold and edible is not taking any effect. Even the nights are warm, bordering on being sweat on the bed (eek!)

I want to dip my feet on a basin of ice-cold water, sip lemondade, have someone fan me while lazing on an easy chair outside the house wearing an almost bare-it-all dress. Really, who cares about mode of clothing at this kind of heat?!

Then I remembered Youko of xxxHolic, who was in the same predicament as I am in episode 10. Much as I prefer summer over the rainy season, the heat could really seep out all my energy and I could imagine myself literally melting like ice cream in hot midday.

Youko being Youko, she easily proposed a group date to her store helper, Watanuku, together with his school companions, on a night of Hyaku Monogatari, or 100 ghost story-telling in an old temple, guarded by a monk’s grandson, Domeki, who happens to be Watanuki’s so-called friend.

Hyaku Monogatari immediately garnered my interest, especially since I am very much into anything paranormal and related to Japan. The game starts with each player lighting a candle. Each player tells a ghoulish story, whether a known urban legend or personal experience. After telling the story, the player blows out his candle. This process continues until the room gets darker and only one candle is left. It was believed the ritual makes the circle a beacon of death and when the last candle dies, a spirit will show up or something tragic will happen.

You can imagine the tension in a group especially since this game was initially thought of as an invocation for spirits during Japan Edo period. It was also stated it was a challenge for soon-to-be samurais to test their courage. The origin of the game is unknown and it is not done often nowadays. But Hyaku Monogatari is not dead with the aid of media publications and internet channels to propagate ghost stories for everyone to gain access.

I want to try this game out with my friends. I hope they will agree to this though as I can’t seem to find a ready group of friends agreeing to this. XD

As of now, I found a few stories to satisfy my cravings for ghost stories. This stories could be good for your own Hyaku Monogatari games in the future.

Hope you enjoy these stories.

NOTE: These stories came from seekjapan.jp. If you know any other sources of Hyaku Monogatari stories, please share them with me. It’s hard to find these. ^^

Under the Peony Lantern – A Cautionary Tale of Sex with the Dead

Long ago, on the first night of Obon, a widowed samurai named Ogiwara Shinnojo sat on his porch, watching the day fade into night. To his surprise, a beautiful young woman and her maid, who was carrying a lantern emblazoned with a peony, walked near. The pair paused to speak with Ogiwara, and he found the young woman’s name to be Otsuyu. An instant attachment was formed, and Otsuyu promised to return the following night, at the same time.

From that night onward, always at dusk, she would arrive with her maid, carrying the same Peony Lantern. Ogiwara and Otsuyu rapidly progressed in their affair, and she took to sleeping with him, always leaving before dawn. This relationship continued for some time, and both were happy.

However, a suspicious neighbor, wondering at Ogiwara’s new habit of staying awake all night and sleeping the day away, hid outside his house, peeking through a small hole in the wooden wall in order to observe the old man’s nighttime shenanigans. Much to his surprise, he uncovered the widowed samurai passionately entwined with a skeleton, packing only scarce, clinging bits of rotting flesh and cobweb-infested long black hair. Half-mad, the neighbor fled screaming from the scene.

The next day he confronted Ogiwara, bringing with him a Buddhist priest who warned of the danger facing his soul. One cannot dally with the dead. Ogiwara took this to heart, and vowed to free himself from the spell of Otsuyu. With the priest’s help, he surrounded his house with ofuda, strips of paper upon which are written Buddhist sutras, offering protection from the supernatural.  That night, Otsuyu and her maid came as always, but they cried at the steps of his porch, unable to enter the house.

Night after night she returned, begging Ogiwara to remove the ofuda so that they may be lovers again. Slowly, the lonely old man’s resistance slipped away, and one night he left his house to join his beloved.

The next morning, he was nowhere to be found. His friends looked far and wide, until the neighbor suggested they search the cemetery. At long last, they found the graves of Otsuyu and her maid, emblazoned with the same peony pattern. Opening the crypts, no one was surprised to see the corpse of Ogiwara, still passionately entwined with his skeletal lover.

So they say.

With this tale told, wet your fingers and pinch out the fire of the first candle.

The Kiss of the Kuchisake-onna

One night, not so long ago, salaryman Taro was flushed with sake and success, having closed a deal that ensured money for his company and promotion for himself. In celebration, he had been drinking with his co-workers, and had more than his usual share.

In the bar, there was also a woman sitting alone. She was elegant and beautiful, with captivating eyes and glimmering black hair. Not unusually for the season, she wore a surgical mask that covered her lower face, as a protection from the various pollens and pollutions that tainted the air.

Salaryman Taro, feeling braver than usual, sat next to the woman and talked away at her, buying her a drink which she never touched and boasting of his success and promising future. She answered demurely but interested, and he suggested that they move to a more private bar that he knew, not so far away. She nodded, and with a wink to his co-workers the two moved out into the street.

Taro was quick to hurry her to a nearby, darkened alley, where he pulled her close and stared into her enchanting eyes. “Am I beautiful?” the woman asked, in a quivering voice, muffled behind the surgical mask. “Very beautiful,” he replied, moving his face closer. “Am I beautiful?” she repeated, reaching behind her head to undo the barrier between their mouths. “Most beautiful.” he said again, anticipating the kiss that was his.

The mask slipped from her face and Taro froze, unable even to scream. The woman’s mouth spread from one ear to the other, consuming her lower face. From the nose down, it was split, with two flaps of skin spreading to show her rows of sharp pointed teeth. Her hinged jaw opened impossibly wide, and her misshapen mouth somehow managed to form the words again: “Am I beautiful?”

Salaryman Taro, aged 30, was never heard of again.

So they say.

Another candle goes out, and the shadows around your home begin to resemble a long, gaping smile…

The Rule of the Dead

Perchance, with the extinguishing of your final candle, you should find that the evocation of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai has worked its magic, and a yurei has taken an interest in you and settled in your house. A word of caution: fear the dead, but most of all, respect them.

In Japan, the dead can be dangerous, and make demands on the living. These demands must be met with the utmost care. It is said: “To ignore tradition is foolhardy; to anger the dead by not providing for them tempts fate; to be in a place where others have died subjects you to forces beyond your control. Avoidance, care, ritual, respect, tradition. These are your bywords.”

Keep this in mind as you wet your fingers one last time, to protect them against the burning fire of the solitary candle illuminating this story. Keep your mind clear and your soul calm, ready to face that which is revealed by the encroaching darkness. Avoidance, care, ritual, respect, tradition.

Do you know where else I can find such stories? ^^ Please do share!

The Japanese culture and ways have been embedded in me as long as I can remember. I remember watching Astroboy and Voltes V as a kid but truth be told I can’t remember anything about Astroboy except an imagery of this courageous boy robot with missing legs from some, I believe, gracious reason out of the goodness of the heart. I don’t know what I am missing from not remembering anything about the series but I am very glad to know that in Japan, Astroboy is still revered greatly upon, especially since Astroboy started the known animated culture we know today called Anime.

Following this Anime culture is the Japanese drama series. All of my acquaintances know that my fascination for Asian drama series expounds more than known American shows. I remembered a time at the mall when I was browsing through Anime DVDs at my fave Anime store, when the proprietor mentioned he was selling at that time a comedic clay version collection of Star Wars. He even played to show us customers what he was talking about. I admit that I found the known Star Wars characters in clay amusing and their parody was something good but I didn’t get to appreciate it as much as the other customers did. This is for the simple reason that, I haven’t watched one single episode of Star Wars.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been living under a rock with regards to Star Wars. The store proprietor was so shocked, I was practically hearing the bolts in his head stop working. Even my boyfriend (who was still courting me at that time) couldn’t believe that someone so much into animation and fictional culture haven’t watched an episode of Star Wars. Haha, I believe they seem to realize that naivety for someone my age still exists. Hahaha!

Back to the topic at hand, I recently got into a phone discussion with my boyfriend that became quite a debate. It started with him asking what kind of movie we are going to watch a weekend when we hang out at his place. He said we could watch anything I want as long as it is not Asian. He mentioned he has nothing against my fandom over the genre but he wants to see something English (American) at that time. While my brain was mulling over titles I would like to watch, I relayed to him the story of the recent Japanese movie I saw titled, “Kimi wo Imouto o koi o suru (?)” (Translation: My Love, My Sister). It is the story of twin (a boy and a girl), who, by some work of fate and feelings, fell desperately in love with each other. Yes, it is also a story of incest and complications and I can’t help but feel pity and a bit of shock and disgust for the plot. Still, the concept does intrigue and I ended watching with feelings of pity for the two, for they are really siblings. There were no twists in the plot for them to be able to love each other freely.

When I finished telling him the story, he commented how weird it sounded and I had the notion it is something he would not want to see. That was when the following conversation happened and it brought on a discussion whether the things Japanese culture is currently getting known about in the country are good:

Me: It may be weird (referring to movie stated above) but it brought about a lot of feelings. And think of it this way, every kind of story we see is derived from a thought or a fact in reality. Who knows that these things really happen.

Him: True. It maybe true that such incest issues happen and their feelings maybe genuine. But think of how the media played the role of showing too much of the possibilities in any given situation and it is for those exposures that people are doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Just look at what happened with those twins. Maybe there is a similar situation somewhere. If the involved see that movie and get to think that the possibility is okay, they might end up regretting their action and be banned from their own points in their part of the society,

Me: True. But you cannot blame them for creating such shows. The Japanese are great story-tellers. Just see the Animes we watch. You admitted you like Battle Royale and Shinobi and they do deal with a lot of emotions.

Him: I admit I like Battle Royale. What guy wouldn’t like that kind of action? But it is still all so weird. It’s just plain weird. A lot about how the Japanese known here is weird and sometimes… well, not good. Just look at hentai. There was a time when only very few people knew what it was and access to it is very limited.

Me: Yea, I remember those times when there were very few of us otakus and it seemed we had an elite world of our own.

Him: Yes. That’s exactly it. Now, you just say the word hentai, and everybody knows it. And since we all know what hentai means, we can’t all say things in it are for everybody to see. Porn is porn. Access to it by a lot of people, especially with a lot of pirated products here, does not bring any good implication on the Japanese.

Me: Hey, don’t be like that. You cannot place hentai in a solitary spotlight since it is not the only porn source in the world. It just so happened the culture and the name reached here and it got a strong impact on the society. Whatever you say, the Japanese culture is something I absolutely adore. Nothing is black or white. Maybe it so happens the Japanese culture is seen differently here.

Him: Hey, I’m not saying they’re all bad. I couldn’t say that since nobody is perfect. But still, with regards to a lot of their stories, they’re weird.

Hehe, our discussion ended there and we talked about a more serious subject. Religion. ^^ I don’t remember what we had eaten on that day to have such serious discussion when we both knew we had to sleep early because of early work tomorrow.

Still, I love our discussions. I love the way he thinks.

For me still, whatever everybody else thinks, the Japanese culture has embedded a lot of things in me. Ideals, friends, stories, etc. Their way of thinking is something I adore about them. ^^

I am a kid at heart no matter what others say. I guess, being a woman, gives me a good excuse to be all girl and giggly once in a while. Really, its okay for women to go ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over cute and huggly stuff. It just so happens that the Japanese are really good with making VERY cute stuff. I haven’t been to Strapya.com for a very long time since I got a good but demanding job and I can’t get to surf websites at my leisure. Getting into a New Year though I knew I just had to visit my fave sites again and see what’s new in their updates.

When I Strapya.com again, I can’t help but go wide-eyed over the collections. *sigh* I want to have a collection of their products but cost of item plus shipment could really be a drag.

But it’s not bad to dream so I’ll just continue eyeing these goodies online until I get my money’s worth of the collection I want. ^___^

Feast your eyes on some of their cute goodies below. I’m just drooking over them!

By: Association for Japanese-Language Teaching

The book was compiled by four AJALT teachers: Mss. Kyoko Ishikure, Miyako Iwami, Satoko Mizoguchi, and Junko Shinada. They were assisted by Ms. Miho Shimada.

Size: 6.05MB; zipped pdf file

Description:
It is the hopeful aim of the authors of this book to help students master kana - both hiragana and katakana - much more easily and quicky than ever before. It is our further hope that our readers will consists not only of those whose native toungue is English, but also students of non-English countries, who don’t have workbooks such as this available in their mother toungue but who are conversant in English.

Download ebook here!