Hey hey, this is Thersa Matsuura and you’re listening to Uncanny Japan, the podcast about mysterious yōkai, fascinating folktales, endearing superstitions and more.
When’s the last time I told you a story? Oh, last episode? Well, that was Lafcadio Hearn’s “The Peony Lantern”. Okay, when’s the last time I told you one of my stories?
So Richard and I finally did it. It took literal years, but I recorded “The Carp-Faced Boy and other Tales” and Richard did all the fancy stuff and heavy lifting, so now the audio version of my horror collection is up wherever you buy your audio books. Audible, Libro, etc.
The whole book is six hours of creepy and disturbing goodness. Here’s a quick run through of the stories.
*The Spider Sweeper (A story about love and jealousy and revenge and spiders in all the right places)
*Sasa’s Rouged Cheeks, Sasa’s Reddened Lips (A story about what happens when a young oni falls in love with a human, also wicked fight scene)
*Four Guys Walk into a Bar (How to explain this one? Four expats in an izakaya, hijinks and horror ensues.)
*Go Away Monkey (I talked about the deeper meaning of monkeys in Japan in episode 86. This is a story about the only sane person in a monstrous town, and then a stranger and his monkey arrive.)
May be Dim (This one’s a riff of the old tale “ubasute yama” or “granny dumping mountain”)
The Unharmonious Man (A frighteningly autobiographical story, and why I’m still here today)
My Dog Bucky (A story about a punk rock band that hired a new theremin player. What could possibly go wrong? Answer: everything.)
The Carp-Faced Boy (This one I wrote when I wanted to flip the idea of jinmengyo (the human-faced fish, episode 30). There’s a tengu and a little dental body horror thrown in for good measure)
The Mother of All Devils – A story about Kishibojin (I talked about her in Episode 5). She’s still alive and being kept deep in the mountains. Some visitors show up.
Pinwheels and Spider Lilies – Mistakes were made, spending the night at a graveyard, who should show up?
All right, today I’m going to read to you Go-Away Monkey. If you like it you can check out the whole audio book. The Carp Faced Boy and Other Tales. I’m also putting a different story up on patreon this month, and if you’re a $15 dollar (kappa) or above patron, I’ll send the whole audio file. If you’re currently a kappa or above and haven’t gotten it, let me know and I’ll shoot it to you.
Okay…settle in and let me tell you a story.
