5 places to find strange and scary Japanese ghost stories

If you’re a fan of spooky Japanese mythology and folk tales (kaidan), then you probably know a few Japanese ghost stories and yokai (an umbrella term for Japanese monsters, demons, and supernatural creatures of every weird and wonderful kind). I adore yokai and the folklore that accompanies them, hence their appearance in my books. If [...]

Read Full Post »

Monster app for learning katakana and hiragana

Want a fun game to teach yourself hiragana or katakana? Like monsters and manga? Check out these fun apps! A few months back I had the pleasure of working with Jessica Perrin on Japanese language and culture workshops for Year 9s. Jessica’s husband is also interested in Japanese and has just released two apps designed [...]

Read Full Post »

8 body parts you will want for your own: Super Cool Japanese demon anatomy

Want some super-human anatomy? Super-strength and super-speed are so passé. What you need are some Super Cool bits of Japanese demon anatomy. Check these out: 1)     SKIN: Ushi oni (Cow demon) 牛鬼 (うしおに) A nasty yokai who loves sinking ships and eating fishermen, the ushi-oni (also known as gyuuki) lives in the ocean. He has [...]

Read Full Post »

Let the Book Week begin!

Woo hoo! Childrens Book Week has begun! I spent this morning at Belmont’s Ruth Faulkner Public Library with students in Year 6 and 7 and it was terrific fun! It’s SO GOOD to scare readers share with readers some of the legends behind the Japanese demons from my books. The kids had heaps of great [...]

Read Full Post »

Quick quiz: Is your persimmon haunted?

Ever thought you might like to munch a chocolate bar instead of an apple? Prefer to eat banana cake and not bananas? Well, you’re probably wise. Fruit can be dangerous for your health! Take the persimmon, for example. Persimmons are shiny orange fruit full of vitamin C and calcium and iron and lots of other [...]

Read Full Post »

4 ways to recognise a Japanese iso-onna vampire

Introducing the aquatic vampire: iso-onna… The iso onna (磯女 or ‘beach rock woman’) is a super-scary Japanese yokai found in fishing villages all over Japan. She has many different names, and all of them seem friendly enough: – iso onago = rock girl – umi onna = ocean woman – umi hime = ocean princess [...]

Read Full Post »

You’ve heard of the headless horseman? How about the headless horse?

You’ve heard of the headless horseman, right? He’s a famous legend that grew from a character in a story published in America nearly 100 years ago. But…have you heard of the headless horse? The headless horse is the favourite method of transport for a Japanese ogre called Mr Yagyo, or Yagyo-san. Introducing Yagyo-san Mr Yagyo [...]

Read Full Post »

More top teaching resources from the Dept of Education and Hyogo Centre’s Year 9 Japanese workshops

This month I’ve been working with the team at the Hyogo Prefectural Government Cultural Centre on some workshops for Year 9 students of Japanese. The workshops were great fun and involved: – lots of useful Japanese, – some spooky Japanese art and culture (thanks to the Art Speaks Japanese language resource kit from the Japan [...]

Read Full Post »

There’s a tanuki in the classroom! Japanese language learning and yokai demons

Creative language teaching ideas Today I was at the Hyogo Prefectural Cultural Government Centre as part of a series of workshops organised by Ms Yuko Fujimitsu, Japanese Language Advisor for the Department of Education as part of the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP). We worked with Year 9 students from three [...]

Read Full Post »

The Filth Licker on Facebook! Share your akaname and yokai links…

Hooray! Takeshita Demons: The Filth Licker is published today in the UK!! Have you got your copy?   LIKE ME! LIKE ME! Any yokai or monster trivia you want to share? Any cool filth-licker links to pass on? Check out the Filth Licker on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/filthlicker) and add your questions and cool demon facts to [...]

Read Full Post »