Japan Lover Me

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Ōkubi, or giant floating heads in the sky! 😲 

Ōkubi are generally harmless, they often like to scare people and blow their hats or umbrellas off. 

However, it is said that once an ōkubi appears, it is a sign of an impending calamity, like a storm/hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or fire. 😱 

It is also said that instead of flesh and bones, or a ghostly gas, they are jelly-like and squishy in texture.😦 #japanloverme Art by @chichilittle 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tanuki or the Japanese raccoon dog 🐻 

Tanuki are considered as powerful magical creatures, much like the kitsune (foxes), which are basically their rivals in magic and mischief. 

Tanuki are generally jolly, playful, and loves to have a good time playing tricks on humans. They also like to shape shift, and their most notable feature is their giant testicles 🙈 which can shapeshift into anything they want (an umbrella, a parachute, a cart, etc) 😅

They also love to drink and eat tons of food. In fact, sometimes they can even possess a human, causing the human to eat and eat and eat until they pass out. 😵 Tanuki possess humans either to punish them for violating nature, or more often, just for the sake of pranks. 😑 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Today's #JLMyōkaioftheday is a bit scarier than the rest: the te-no-me 🙌🏻👁👁 The te-no-me comes in the form of a blind old man that literally has no eyes on his face. 

Instead, his eyes are on his palms! 👋🏻

He often roams in graveyards, where he is said to hunt for humans. He is allegedly incredibly fast, and his very strong sense of smell makes up for his lack of eyes on his head. 😬 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tsuchinoko 🐍 

Tsuchinoko is a mythical creature in Japan that resembles a very fat and short snake. Legend has it that it can talk and likes to lie or make up stories. It is also said that it loves to drink alcohol. 

Sometimes, it swallows its own tail to form a round form and "roll around like a wheel". 😂 Imagine seeing a fat round rolling snake!#japanloverme Art by @chichilittle 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Kappa ! 💦 

Kappa are amphibians in nature, but they are more dangerous when in water than in land. They swim very fast and are known to trap humans by pulling them deeper underwater. 😨 

On land however, they are somewhat clumsy, often moving carefully to avoid spilling the water on the top of their heads, which give them energy. They love playing games and can be very courteous, so one way to trick them to spill their water is to bow to them, which makes them bow back, spilling their precious water. 😅 

After outsmarting them, you gain their admiration and friendship, and kappa are known to be loyal friends once befriended. 😚 Aside from human intestines, they also love cucumbers. 🥒#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Futakuchi-onna or the "two-mouthed woman" 🙀 

It is said that a second mouth grows at the back of the head of a woman due to a curse that often targets girls who eat so timidly and so little. Her hair would then act as hands to feed this 2nd mouth, which is almost always hungry, and demands A LOT of food. 

If not fed, the 2nd mouth would cause terrible headaches! 😨 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🍣

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Rokurokubi and nukekubi 👯

One of the most famous yōkai is the rokurokubi, which is a woman who can magically elongate her neck at night to scare men, or to find lamp oil to eat. A nukekubi is a variant of the rokurokubi, but her head detaches instead, and is usually deadly and vampiric in nature. 

Both are regular women by day, but when they fall asleep, they transform into yōkai. 💁🏻💁🏻 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Jinmenju, or the tree with fruits that have faces 🌳 

It is said that the fruits of jinmenju have such a shallow sense of humor, they will actually laugh at almost everything. 

In fact, they spend most of their time laughing! 😂🌿🤣🌿😂🌿🤣 And if you slice one open, you'll find that their seeds also have faces on them, which are laughing as well. #LOL #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Have you ever seen or been to a shrine or temple and wondered what are the two animal stone statues outside supposed to be? 

They're komainu, or "lion dogs"! 🦁🐕 Komainu are legendary creatures that are said to be guardians of holy places. 

Their statues are often placed near the gates of a shrine, often as a couple: one male and one female. 

The male komainu is said to guard the place itself, while the female komainu protects the people inside the place. #JLMyōkaioftheday#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

Did you know that there's a Japanese version of the Loch Ness monster too? 😯 

Issie is a Japanese lake monster that is said to live in Lake Ikeda on the island of Kyushu. According to the myth, Issie was a white female horse that lived on the island with its little foal. 

One day, her foal was stolen by a samurai, and after being unable to find it, Issie jumped off a cliff into the lake in despair. 

Her grief transformed her into a black cryptid monster with two humps on its back, which resurfaces every now and then to try to find her lost foal. #JLMyōkaioftheday#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Noppera-bō or the "faceless ghost" 😶 

Although mostly harmless, noppera-bō are known for tricking and scaring humans by imitating someone else's face, then wiping it off to reveal a smooth, featureless blank surface. Their victims are often tricksters, stubborn people, and most especially, unfaithful lovers. 💔🖤😏 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tenko , or "Heavenly/celestial nine-tailed fox" ✨🦊✨

When a kitsune (fox yōkai) grows its ninth tail, it becomes a "kyūbi no kitsune", one of the most powerful legendary yōkai in Japanese mythology. 

Then, when it reaches 1000 years, it becomes even more powerful than that (and also turns gold)! It becomes a tenko. ✨ 

Tenko is the highest rank of foxes, and can ascend to the heavens and can command or punish lower-ranked kitsune. It can also possess a human being and grant that person divine spiritual powers. 😮✨#japanloverme art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Baku, or the "Dream Eater" ☁️😴☁️ 

With a trunk and tusks like an elephant, feet like a tiger's, and tail like an ox's, the baku is a legendary yōkai that protects people from nightmares, by devouring bad dreams. 

If a person wakes up and doesn't remember what their dream was, or if they don't remember having a dream at all, it is said that they must have had a nightmare and that the baku ate it. 

In some areas in Japan, children are even taught to chant "Baku-san, please eat my dreams" if they get scared of nightmares! ✨But be careful though, because asking the help of the baku too much may result in it devouring even your hopes and dreams, leaving you empty inside. 😶 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Onikuma or "demon bear" 🐻 

The onikuma is a bear yōkai who lives deep in forests and mountains, rarely seen by humans. It only comes out of hiding to snatch livestock, which is its primary food source. 

It is said that the onikuma is extremely large and strong, and can carry both a cow and a horse on its back! When its home in the mountains is threatened, it launches large round boulders down the slope to harm its attackers. 💥 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Ame-onna, or "rain woman". 🌧☔️ 

If you see a lady with pale skin, ghostly eyes, and long hair, standing in the rain, and holding an umbrella, there's a chance that she might be an ame-onna. 👩🏻 

The ame-onna is said to roam during rainy days, looking for a victim to take to the spirit world with her (get spirited away). 

It is said that children are usually taken by the ame-onna, but there are also tales of adult men and women last seen sharing an umbrella with a ghostly lady, never to be seen again. 😧 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Basan, or the fire-breathing chicken. 🔥🐔🔥 

While that sure sounds terrifying, the basan is a harmless yōkai. Its "fire" is made up of ghost light, and is not hot at all. Its appetite is composed of the remains of campfires, and bits of charcoal. 

The flapping of its wings creates a loud sound that goes "basa-basa", hence the name. 🔥 #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨

#JLMyōkaioftheday : Okuri-inu or the "escorting dog" 🌲🐕🌲 

Okuri-inu is a dog-type yōkai that sometimes follows or "escorts" people traveling alone at night. It protects travelers by scaring away other creatures that may harm the person. 

However, the okuri-inu will attack and eat the traveler of they trip/stumble or hesitate anytime during the journey. 

The trick is to pretend that you're resting when you stumble, in which the okuri-inu will patiently wait for you to get up and continue walking again. It is said that in some parts of Japan, it is customary to say "thanks for guiding me" out loud when you eventually reach your destination, and the okuri-inu will bow and disappear. 🙏🏻 #japanloverme #heprotecbuthealsoattac 🐺 Artwork by @littlemisspaintbrush 🎨