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1.5-meter snake discovered in home, owner couldn’t be happier
On 18 June in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture, 48-year-old Kaoru Kurosawa came home to find a 1.5-meter Japanese rat snake on the second floor. Kurosawa quickly took a picture of the serpent before it...
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Fat earlobes, flowers, and cheap tea: Superstitions in Japan
All of us have our own little habits and quirks that defy common sense. It’s human nature to harbor even just a little superstitious tendency now and then, whether it be not watching a pot boil or...
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Clipping your nails at night may cause death, according to a Japanese...
When in Japan, if you open an umbrella indoors, no one will bat an eye, but if you start whistling at night or kill a spider during the morning hours, you’ll probably be stopped in your tracks and...
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People in Japan are growing concerned that another major earthquake might hit...
We don’t think we have to tell you that when some lunatic wearing a sandwich board starts telling you that the earth will open up and swallow humanity whole if you don’t do seven Hail Marys,...
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Phantom Pikachu photo gives thousands the chills
Optical illusion? Smoke and mirrors? Or is this creepy photo of Pikachu the work of the supernatural? A Twitter user going by the handle of Otonashi posted this unusual photo on the evening of 6 May...
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What is Teru Teru Bozu? The tragic history behind the Japanese fine weather doll
While many believe the tradition of making the ghost-like doll can be traced back to a bald-headed monk, history suggests it actually began with a small girl. In Japan, children are taught from an...
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Japanese mythbusting: Is it good luck to stumble upon another person’s poo in...
We put the cold comfort that fecal encounters bring good fortune to the test. From time immemorial, in Japan poo has been associated with luck, in no small part because the Japanese word for crap...
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Find a red envelope on the ground? Here’s why you should never pick it up
Especially for men, snatching an unassuming red envelope from the ground can lead to a shocking proposition. Red envelopes in Chinese culture are considered a lucky item. Traditionally stashed with...
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Shizuoka City orders mysterious torii of unknown origin torn down, sparks...
Local government finds new way to invite misery to 2020. At an intersection along Highway 407 in Shimizu Ward, Shizuoka City, there stands a rather large torii, a gate traditionally found at Shinto...
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Does changing your smartphone lock to 8376 bring good luck, as one Japanese...
We try to harness the magical power of a new passcode. I’m always looking for new ways to improve my life, but at the same time I want to do it by using the minimum possible effort. So, when a Twitter...
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How Kyoto’s shrine of severing ties helped our reporter escape from a “black...
Yasui Konpiragu worked its magic, but for once, not in the terrifying way it usually does. In Japan, there are a lot of places that have superstitions attached to them, and some of them are taken...
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That time our reporter’s classmate became possessed by a dead child at school
Kokkuri-san is a Japanese ouija board that shouldn’t be messed with. In Japan, 26 July is “Ghost Day”, as it was the day when one of Japan’s most famous ghost stories, Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (“Ghost...
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