The ghostly Japanese fireball spirits that live on in Pokémon

A mysterious stone chamber, 'ghost-hoaxers,' and how to build a haunted house. Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. October 31, 2019 Japanese Fireball Spirits Yōkai are ghoulish creatures in Japanese folklore that take on many forms such as Sōgen-bi, a floating head in a fireball, Waniguchi, shrine bells with reptilian bodies, and Kasa-obake, umbrellas with one eye and one leg. Yōkai gained mainstream notoriety during Japan’s Edo period, and today the digital descendants of the ghouls can be spotted in many games, particularly in the world of Pokémon. Read More → UPTON, MASSACHUSETTS Upton Chamber No one is quite sure who built this mysterious stone chamber in the forests of Upton, Massachusetts. Because of this, the structure has been a point of curiosity for decades among locals and a matter of debate among archaeologists. Read more → Atlas Obscura Trips Bat Caves and Beyond Join us next May on an illuminating four-day journey into the caves, karsts, and aquifers of central Texas. Alongside local experts and bat biologists, we’ll witness firsthand how bats help maintain balance within the Hill Country’s fragile ecosystem. Learn more → To Build a Haunted House This year, Troy Yu and Aaron Bolton spent more than a thousand hours building Gothic Hills Cemetery, an elaborate haunted house in California’s San Fernando Valley. But two weeks before opening night, vicious winds tore the roof off of a majority of the walkthrough and damaged other central set pieces. They thought they would have to close, but with the help of the community, their haunt continued. Read more → Community Witch Places and Artifacts In the small town of Oudewater, Netherlands, sits a 17th-century weigh house with scales that were once used to weigh crops, livestock, and accused witches. If the accused weighed a certain amount, often on rigged scales, they were found guilty. There are many places and artifacts like this that are still tied to the history of witches and witch hunts. Tell us about the most unforgettable ones you’ve seen. Share now→ From the archives The ‘Ghost Hoaxers’ of 19th-Century Australia In 1882, in the southeast Austalian state of Victoria, repeated attacks on the general public were carried out by a white robe and sugarloaf hat-wearing figure known only as the “Wizard Bombardier.” It was part of a series of 19th-century “ghost hoaxing” pranks where some Australians donned sheets and menaced the public in an attempt to stave off boredom. Read more → Did Monte Carlo Have a Suicide Epidemic? Whether threatened or carried out, real, exaggerated, or imagined, suicide stories darkened the reputation of Monte Carlo’s seaside casino playground for the first half-century of its existence. Read more → Frangokastello, GREECE Frangokastello Castle Every spring, the people of Frangokastello, Greece, see the shadowy figures of a ghost army of slain Greek soldiers descend upon this ruined 14th-century fort. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222