The legend of the isolated Japanese village

Author: Scott Weatherly

When I was a kid there was an old, abandoned house on my estate. It had belonged to an elderly gentleman with no family and when he passed it took a long time to be purchased, so it stood empty and boarded up for several years. Of course, that wasn’t the story we told on the playground. To us, it had been the site of an unspeakable murder by a witch and was now incredibly haunted. We would dare each other to run up and knock on the front door or boarded-up windows. It became such a legend in the local area that when the house was purchased and fixed younger kids would still not go near it. A legend growing up around one house is typical, I’m sure that at least some of you reading this will smile, knowing a similar story from your childhood. But in a part of Japan, this type of legend grew up around a whole region.

The Inunaki region of Japan sits just outside Fukuoka, in the country's south. It is considered one of the most haunted areas in that part of Japan, and home to a violent isolated village that exists outside the Japanese constitution. However, much like the story we told in the playground, the place is creepy, but the story is a fabrication.

The centre of the story is a blocked-up tunnel. The original tunnel was opened in 1949 and stayed in service until 1975 when it was replaced by a newer tunnel through the mountains. While not open to traffic the tunnel was still open and people would use it to walk through, but over time it started to fall into disrepair and was considered dangerous.

The final straw came in December 1988, when a group of youths attempted a carjacking, which resulted in brutal murder. The victim, Umeyama Kouichi, was pulled from his vehicle, and beaten unconscious. Believing they had killed him the youths agreed to dispose of the body in the tunnel and set it on fire. However, when they started pouring the gasoline on Umeyama he reacted and started to panic. They quickly set him on fire and his screams filled the tunnels as he finally died.

The group of youths were arrested after boasting about what they had done. The story can now be told as each told what had happened, throwing each other under the bus. Following this, the tunnel was closed up by concrete blocks, but there are still reports of noises and screams coming from the closed tunnel.

This is enough of a story to make a legend of a place, but there is more. In 1999 a letter was sent to a TV station laying out a new legend of the area and suggesting they investigate it. The legend stated that, not far from the blocked tunnel there is an overgrown path that leads to a large metal gate, on which is a sign explaining “The Japanese constitution is not in effect past here.” Allegedly beyond this gate is a village that has been cut off from the rest of the country since the late 1800s, the end of the traditional Edo period. It is populated by vicious residents who will kill anyone who enters without being invited. To make this point the bodies of two people have been left just beyond the gate, for visitors to see.

This village has never been found, and plenty have gone looking by foot and using drones. It’s clear this is not a real place but makes for a great story. The likely source of this story is an actual Inunaki village in another part of the region, that was absorbed into another village in 1889, which coincided with the end of the Edo period. The location that was the Inunaki village has been developed over time and is now partially underwater.

Despite the violence of the true crime that occurred, the area has acquired additional notoriety in the way that most local legends grow. The truth has taken a back seat to a weirder story.

The Magnificent Seven – Part One Highgate

Author: Molly Malone

Highgate Cemetery is a monument to the neo-Gothic vapourings and dramatics of Victorian Londoners. Designed as a ‘garden’ cemetery, it was built in the early part of the nineteenth century in an effort to prevent the over-population of the City of London by the dead. Nowadays it is a tourist destination as well as a functioning cemetery, and a celebration of managed decay and Victorian symbolism.

In 2024, if you wander around the City of London, you will inevitably come across countless tiny, well-kept and verdant gardens squeezed between offices, many of which are lined with gravestones that have been placed haphazardly against walls or, memorably, stacked around a tree in Old Saint Pancras. You don’t need to look too carefully: there are graves everywhere. Bunhill Fields off of Old Street is a wonderful larger example. Some are dotted with tombs worn smooth by centuries of exposure. These were the burial grounds of the Square Mile, which became an affront to both the sensibilities and the nostrils of Londoners. These supposed resting places were managed by unscrupulous clerics, who profited from each interment and piled bodies in pits twenty feet deep, before covering them with a mere dusting of earth. Bones, and worse, littered the ground. Grave robbing was a lucrative business, frowned upon by polite society but quietly encouraged by hospitals desperate for cadavers to train surgeons on.

The outcry against both this treatment of the dead, and the ‘miasma’ of decay that emanated from these burial grounds (which was considered toxic enough to be deadly) was a topic of heated discussion among those who were forced to bury their dead there, the newspapers and, eventually, the Houses of Parliament. Although it took several more decades for legislation to pass that would adequately address the sheer number of dead bodies resulting from the increasing population of London, work on the building of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries began in 1833.

Arguably the most famous of the Seven is Highgate, which opened in 1839 and is home to more than a few famous architectural wonders and notable inhabitants. In its heyday, Highgate was manned by enough security to warrant the cost of both burying a loved one there and the not terribly convenient necessity to travel to Highgate. The idea of garden cemeteries had been developed on the Continent, and Victorians were encouraged to stroll through a secure, beautifully maintained, and carefully curated space. Highgate could be seen from the centre of the City, and it was so different then to its current state of overgrown wildness. Sunday picnics were commonplace, although they are emphatically discouraged these days. Dozens of gardeners were employed, and the cemetery was run as a profitable business.

Walking around Highgate, you are struck by the symbolism associated with death. A grave was a Victorian Insta account, and clues adorn many of the monuments as to the achievements, and hubris, of those buried beneath. There are plenty that are common in all British and Christian cemeteries; a broken column indicating a young life cut short; a draped urn representing the veil between the living and the dead; three stones supporting a cross which are symbolic of the father, the son and holy ghost. The cross itself had been out of fashion for a few centuries but made a big comeback thanks to the Victorians. The grave of a world-famous champion bare-knuckle fighter features a carved dog, his faithful companion who was his chief mourner. Tom Sayers was a world-famous fighter and a working-class hero, and his funeral procession stretched from Highgate to Tottenham Court Road.

The tomb of George Wombwell is topped by a sleeping lion. In life, George was a celebrated zoo keeper, with his own private collection of exotic animals including, you’ve guessed it, a very tame lion called Nero.

The list of those laid to rest at Highgate is fascinating. Nearly two centuries of the notable, the rich and the inspirational are amongst the 170,000 who can be found there. George Michael, Bob Hoskins, Michael Faraday, Joseph Lister and Karl Marx are just a few. There is one relatively recent grave that particularly catches the eye, however, as you follow the main path into the West Side of the cemetery. That of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector who was poisoned by Putin’s regime in 2006. The grave is strikingly modern. It features a photo of Litvinenko, itself an exceptionally unusual feature at Highgate. Most of the West Side of the cemetery is being slowly worn away by the weather and swallowed by mature trees and spring flowers. The graves are shades of grey and often barely legible. Litvinenko’s grave is pinkish-red and was, by necessity, dug deeper than most. His lead coffin is buried twelve feet below visitors’ feet as a precaution, after his murder through the use of polonium-210. This radioactive substance admittedly has a half-life of less than five months, so is unlikely to cause any further mischief.

Highgate is also home to a particularly rare type of cave spider, which is monitored by London Zoo and can be found in the overgrown tunnel enveloped by trees that is the Grade I listed Egyptian Avenue. The locked crypts lining each side of the Avenue are not full, and if you can prove lineage to those already interred there you are guaranteed a spot. However, the eye-watering cost of spending your afterlife in Highgate might be a consideration. It is currently estimated that a pretty basic full-body plot costs between £25,000 - £30,000. A place in an Egyptian Avenue tomb in 1839 cost the modern-day equivalent of up to £150,000.

Beyond the Avenue is the beautiful Circle of Lebanon, lined with tombs, including that of the activist and writer, Radclyffe Hall. Atop the Circle stood a famed cedar tree, from which the Circle took its name. The 200-year old tree was recently lost to a fungus and in its place now grows a baby cedar, but the loss of the original tree is felt keenly by those working and volunteering at Highgate.

The Terrace Catacombs, which visitors are only able to enter whilst on the official tour of the West cemetery, speaks eerily and eloquently of the turbulent history of Highgate, and the general stupidity of people. Originally, each entrance to the Catacombs had been guarded, which reassured both the families of the dead and the particularly practical. Doctors, being more aware than most in the nineteenth century of the prevalence of grave robbing, were keen to be safely ensconced in the locked and guarded Catacombs after meeting their maker.  Coffins were lead-lined and placed on shelving. This practice left them exposed and vulnerable in the late 1960s. A sensationalist newspaper report of a ‘vampire’ roaming Highgate Cemetery led to the vandalism and destruction of much of the cemetery, including the desecration of the bodies laid to rest in the Catacombs. I will cover this more extensively in another blog, as it makes for very interesting reading. The damage took years to repair, coming as it did after several decades of cemetery-wide neglect after the Second World War. In fact, it was only addressed when The Friends of Highgate group was formed in 1975 to repair and protect the site.

For those of us who find beauty, comfort, and peace in a walk around a cemetery, there are few like Highgate. My interest in these places stems from my local cemetery in Chingford, London. Not considered one of the greats, it is notable perhaps only for its two most famous residents, the Kray twins. I clearly remember their funeral processions, one of which I watched from my junior school window, attended by an interesting if, by then, anonymous cohort of 60s gangsters, molls and actors, glamour faded after thirty years. Chingford Cemetery also features a pauper’s grave, a mound of earth with a few markers sticking out haphazardly. There are Commonwealth war graves and an overgrown area completely obscured by feral ivy and holly trees, where the stone markers are almost as buried as those they are intended to commemorate and completely illegible.

Cemeteries are havens for wildlife. From the ubiquitous grey squirrels of Chingford to the striking green parakeets that have spread from central London to inhabit most trees within the M25 over the last couple of decades, many of which have made Highgate their home. Perhaps it is simply the knowledge that cemeteries of this type are dying out if you’ll forgive the pun. As cremation becomes a more popular and cost-effective option, the marble tombs of our recent ancestors are icons of a lost age. Life and death are no longer celebrated in stone.

Meet the team... Molly Malone

I wish I could say that I live my life with one foot through the veil and that I can sense ghosts nearby as easily as I can Tories. Despite desperately wanting to be one of those lucky few with a third eye open to the great beyond, mine seems to have conjunctivitis. Or at least to have been wearing a patch for the last forty years. No matter how many haunted pubs and hotels I visit, overnight seances in medieval castles I attend or cemeteries I frequent, the spirits of the dead seem to give me a wide berth. And the longer I go without seeing a spook, the harder it is to maintain my natural optimism and belief in the paranormal. So, to my disappointment, I have realised that I am becoming more and more sceptical of late.

To borrow a Mulderism, I want to believe. Life on this pale blue dot would just be too prosaic and binary for me to accept, without my belief that there is something more to it that only a lucky few are privy to. Surely, we as a species aren’t just carbon-based organisms that have evolved to the point where we are likely to destroy either our habitat or ourselves in the near future? I want to believe and, I have always felt, that the reason why humans feel the compulsion to explain our existence in terms of the fantastic, the mythological and the divine, is because we can sense that there is something just beyond our reach.

Now, the tiny sceptic perched on my shoulder tells me matter of factly that fear of death and the unknown is the reason why, as a species, we cling with bloody fingernails to a belief in a grand cosmic scheme, whether that takes the form of religion, tarot cards or skirting around a ladder leaning against a wall. Sounds like common sense, right? Well, to that I ask, where’s the fun in common sense? Too much weird stuff happens in this world for it all to be coincidence or accident. I prefer to believe that there are mischievous elemental forces out there that play with humanity like a cat plays with a mouse. Maybe I’ve read too many Greek myths or watched too much Buffy. But in the absence of fabulous wealth secreted in off-shore tax havens, what makes life more bearable than the belief that there is more to this world than the sheer mundanity that most of us navigate daily.

So, I’ll flick that little sceptic off my shoulder and ping him into the abyss, book myself a room at the Jamaica Inn, and keep trying to open that third eye. And I’ll write about my experiences and share them. Because I know I’m not the only believer out there who has never had a single paranormal experience!

Molly Malone lives in Essex, UK with her familiars (Mitten, a black cat (of course) and a hamster named Bodhi, after Patrick Swayze’s iconic character in Point Break).

Meet the Team... Mike Kennedy

I think if you have ever met me, I certainly fit into the category of Weird.  So, what better person to Co-host weird country? 

Since a young age, I have always been interested in the strange and unusual. I love the peculiar and embrace the strange.  I grew up in South Wales, in a sleepy mining village, where nothing really happened.  If someone sneezed in the village, people knew about it. It was a close community.   Around the age of 8, our local woods were subject to scandal. Within it was an alleged sect of Devil Worshippers, who were conducting rituals. The woods always had a haunting feeling, but the inclusion of satanic practice added another dimension to the place. My eldest brother Witnessed this taking place and was chased out of the woods by the worshippers.  My mother, a strong Welsh single Mum, hung a crucifix in our shared bedroom. That very crucifix turned of its own accord.  I remember my brother being terrified! 

I also recall walking on a mountain in Wales with a friend and seeing a strange looking figure on the hill, next to a haunted quarry.  The quarry was allegedly haunted by the ghost of a woman called Zelda.  The legend goes that she was killed by being pushed off the cliff, falling to her death.  In the same location buried under rocks was the body of a dog.  It was believed that she was murdered, along with her dog. How true this was is unknown, but one thing is for certain, it haunted and terrified the children of my village. Not many people went near the quarry. 

On another occasion, we saw at the top of the quarry, a figure, as tall as a full-grown man, with what can only be described as a long beak. We certainly did not stay for very long afterwards and post hast ran down the mountain to the safety of our neighbourhood. 

Local myths, stories and legends plagued the village, from hauntings of mining disasters to alien abduction.  Our local milkman was said to have been abducted by aliens, disappearing from a field, only to appear in the same field three days later, with no recollection of events. It made national news and was quite a scandal for the village.

I have never seen a ghost! I have hosted many ghost nights and stayed and slept in over a dozen supposedly haunted properties. I find that either ghosts avoid me, or I am so used to being in these places that I take the abnormal as normal.  I want to see more, learn more and know more.  If there is more to see, let’s see it, let’s hear it and let's experience it.

I embrace all beliefs and views on the strange and unusual.  Who am I to say something is rubbish or not?  I want to learn more, I want to discover more and to quote the famous people of the world, “I want to Believe”. 

Weird Country will be a journey of discovery, exploration, and insight. What better way to start this journey than with my partner in crime Scott? I have to say out of the two of us, I’m probably the most foolish and probably the bravest or stupidest!  So, this will be epic!

Meet the team ... Scott Weatherly

When asked about whether I’m a believer in the paranormal or supernatural I explain that I’m an open-minded sceptic.  I am open-minded to the possibility and love reading about encounters, and theories and watching top 5 evidence videos on YouTube. However, I am still sceptical about the truth of it all and take all evidence with a pinch of salt. I really do want to believe, but I need to see and experience more. That isn’t to say I haven’t experienced anything, but even my own experiences I don’t fully understand.

So, let’s not bury the lead and I will explain my own possible encounters.

I attended a secondary school in Coventry called Coundon Court. The school was centred on a large Victorian building, we called the Old House, that was originally built as a house for the Singer family in the 1880s. There had been stories from several teachers and staff who had reported strange events such as hearing music from rooms no one was in, hand prints appearing overnight in fresh paint and even shadowy figures walking from room to room. There was even a legend of a maid who was killed when she was pushed over a bannister from the second floor. When I was 13, I was helping at a parents' event at the school one evening. I was with a friend, Stuart Bentley, and we were in the old house getting something from one of the classrooms (it was the English department). At the end of the corridor outside the classroom was a fire escape door. It was a heavy door, made to only open out, and only accessible outside from a secured fire escape staircase. As Stuart and I stepped into the corridor, the fire door started to shake loudly in its frame. The glass was rattling, and the door banged in the frame. We didn’t know what was causing it, so we ran out of there as fast as we could. Once outside we stopped, and Stuart asked why I had pushed him as we ran out. I explained that I was in front of him the whole time, but Stuart was convinced he felt two hands on his back pushing him as we left that corridor at speed. Did we encounter one of the ghosts that resided in the old house?

My second brush with the weird came while I was in university (2001 – 2003). During my second year, I experienced sleep paralysis for the first time. I was living in a house in the Evington area, my room was on the second floor. One night I woke up and couldn’t move. I could see the wall and feel the duvet, but I was not able to move. As the panic started to set in, I was convinced I could hear someone at the far end of the room. Not knowing what else to do I think I must have fallen to sleep.

After this, there were two experiences in quick succession. First, I fell asleep on my bed one evening and woke to see a figure huddled by the far wall. I convinced myself I was seeing a bundle of clothes or something similar, but then the figure stood up. I rationalised it as being a dream, so I closed my eyes and woke up in my room in the dark. Quickly turning on the light the room was normal, and I was alone.

This was soon followed by the final experience in that house. It started much like the last encounter. I woke up and saw the bundled figure. Knowing what to do I encouraged myself to relax, knowing it was a dream, so I would wake up. I did and all seemed normal, so I went to leave my room, and as I opened the bedroom door the figure, I had seen, charged at me up a short set of stairs just outside the room. The shock shook me awake and I was in my bed. I stayed awake the rest of the night, but I there were no more encounters in that house.

It was the following year in a house two streets over that I had the next round of similar experiences. I had three consecutive nights of sleep paralysis, each night I would be facing the wall and could sense movement in the room behind me. However, I felt I had this sorted. Each time I would relax and slip back into sleep. However, on the fourth night, I woke, lying on my back I was facing into the room that seemed darker than I was used to. Nothing moved, but I was convinced there was a presence. I don’t remember falling asleep again, but I do remember waking up in the morning in daylight.

In 2013 I moved to my current house in the village of Oakthorpe, a former mining village. While here I have walked a lot of the rural public paths across fields and woods. It’s a beautiful location with a lot of history. Over the years I had two odd experiences that occurred within a single week in 2018. One early evening in the summer I was walking my dog, Skye, along a path with thick growth of trees on either side. As the lights started to dim, I could see a man sitting back from the trees about 50 or 60 metres ahead of me. He was sat on the embankment on the right of the path with his back against a tree. I could see the movement of his clothes and his head slightly. He was wearing a long coat and had shoulder-length hair. I was conscious of him being there as Skye was off her lead and has a tendency to jump up when excited.

However, as I got within 10 metres, I noticed that the man was gone, and the shadow of the trees did make a similar shape. It was like the figure had blended in with the shapes being made by the trees and their shadows. Even to this day I am convinced that there was a tangible person there to begin with.

Two evenings later while walking Skye closer to home down a street in the village I again spotted a figure standing at the entrance to an entryway, that leads to a public path that passes through a field. The figure was a similar height to me, wearing a long coat and a flat cap. The figure didn’t move at all. It just stood there, not even looking at me, almost indifferent to mine and Skye’s presence. Skye knew the figure was there and quickly moved on. I was uncomfortable, so did the British thing, gave a brief nod and moved on. Even as I walked past, I looked back and noted that the figure was still in the same position, not having moved at all.

I have walked those paths and streets hundreds of times over the years and at different times of day and never had these experiences again.

Of all these potential encounters mentioned, I couldn’t say any of them are actually supernatural. There are explanations, misconceptions and simple human nature that could explain them. However, these are the experiences that stick with me and have kept me interested in the supernatural and the weird. Doing Weird Country I hope to delve more into these experiences and challenge them and myself.

Welcome to Weird Country

What most of us know can be considered every day, normal. Going to work, paying bills, watching TV, and getting on that cheeky beach holiday. However, this everyday life borders Weird Country, and that is what we want to explore and celebrate. The things that happen in the world that most don’t think of as the norm or aren’t aware of at all.

This will include everything that is beyond the norm, such as investigations into the paranormal and supernatural, looking into ghosts, alleged haunted locations and time-slips. Searching the world for Cryptids and creatures of old and new folklore, such as fairies and black eyes kids. Going beyond Earth with UFO sightings, alien encounters, and conspiracies. Taking a look at history and the events that are still unsolved or surrounded by questions; the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, who killed JFK or who was Jack the Ripper? Finally, coming closer to home, we will attend and explore local festivals, and visit people that have a relationship with the Earth through their belief systems of Wicca, Pagan or Druid, and try the rituals and magic.

Everyone who is involved in Weird Country will come at each subject with an open mind and heart, with a desire to learn and experience. This does not mean we will take everything at face value, and we will challenge ideas and each other, in a journey to get to a truth. In order to do this, there are three rules that we will always follow:

• No subject is out of bounds for discussion and investigation.

• All beliefs, ideas and opinions will be treated with respect and open-mindedness.

• We will approach all subjects with honest skepticism, so we can consider all possible solutions.

All our content will be presented in regular blog entries, right here, a fortnightly podcast and videos on YouTube. So that we can ensure a variety of experiences, opinions, and topics, we will be building the team. Soon we will introduce you to everyone.

If you have a subject you think we should explore or you would like to write about please contact us.