Japanese yokai, cryptids, urban legends, UFOs, mythical beasts and ancient mysteries, translated into English.
Entries: 431
The 1947 incident in which the American businessman Kenneth Arnold saw nine high-speed flying objects near Mount Rainier from his private plane. It gave rise to the term "flying saucer" and is the starting point of modern UFO history.
The original "contactee," who claimed to have met a Venusian and set off a worldwide UFO boom. He is known for photos of a bell-shaped "Adamski-type saucer," but many have pointed to fabrication.
A phantom continent said to have once existed in the Indian Ocean. It was a hypothesis proposed by a scientist in the 19th century to explain the distribution of lemur fossils, later tied to mystical thought and told of as a "lost civilization."
A giant white humanoid creature tens of meters long said to be seen in the Antarctic Ocean. A cryptid that spread on internet message boards in the early 2000s, it is told of as a sighting by crew members of a research whaling ship.
A large, hairy, ape-like "snowman" said to live in the Himalayas. It became world-famous with a footprint photograph in 1951. Recent DNA studies have found that most samples attributed to it came from bears.
A giant, snake-like sea monster sighted in oceans around the world since ancient times. Sighting reports by warship crews survive from the 19th century. Theories about its true identity include the oarfish.
The carcass of a huge long-necked creature hauled up by a Japanese fishing boat off New Zealand in 1977. It caused a sensation as a possible surviving plesiosaur, but the leading theory is that it was the rotting carcass of a basking shark.
A giant-fish cryptid said to live in Takanami Pond in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture. It is said to be 2 to 4 meters long and is seen as a carp-like fish. One theory is that it is a carp that has lived long and grown huge.
A giant-fish cryptid said to live in Lake Otori in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. There are sightings of fish over 2 meters long, and surveys have been carried out many times. The leading theory is that it is an unusually large char or similar fish.
A giant aquatic cryptid said to live in Lake Ikeda, Kagoshima Prefecture. It became famous after a group sighting in 1978. The leading theory is that it is a giant mottled eel. We explain the sightings and the theories about its identity.
A sea-serpent-type cryptid sighted off the coast of British Columbia on Canada's west coast. It was named by a newspaper in the 1930s, and a photo survives of a carcass said to have been found in a whale's stomach. Its identity is debated.
A dinosaur-like cryptid said to live in the lakes and rivers of the jungles of the Republic of the Congo. Rumored to be a surviving sauropod, it was investigated on site in 1988 by a team from Waseda University in Japan.
A plesiosaur-like cryptid said to live in Lake Dakataua on New Britain island, Papua New Guinea. A Japanese TV program filmed footage in 1994, but analysis suggests it showed saltwater crocodiles.
A dog-spirit possession believed to cause illness and misfortune. Belief in it was strongest in Shikoku, Chugoku and Kyushu, and there was also a folk belief that it was attached to certain families for generations, which caused discrimination.
A yokai known as a giant spider. Originally, in the ancient chronicles and provincial records, "tsuchigumo" was a name for local peoples who would not submit to the imperial court. The legend of Minamoto no Raiko slaying the earth spider is famous.
A yokai said to be a cat that has lived so long that its tail has split in two. It appears in the Kamakura-period classic Essays in Idleness, and is described both as a wild beast of the mountains and as a pet cat that transforms.
Time-slip experiences told on the TV program Yarisugi Toshi Densetsu by the comedian Chuei of Nagareboshi and others: in 2008 and 2018, fog filled the streets of Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, at night, and they wandered into shops that seemed to be from around 1980. Follow-up reports also discussed a parallel-world theory.
An urban legend about a train that arrives at "Kisaragi Station," a station that does not exist. It was posted live on an internet message board in 2004 and was made into a film in 2022.
A story of a terrifying cursed box that kills only children and women. It comes from an account posted to an internet message board in 2005 and is known as one of the most frightening of Japan's internet horror stories.
A scary story from the internet about a white thing wriggling in the distance across summer rice fields. Those who understand what it is are said to lose their minds. It spread on message boards in the early 2000s.
