Hey guys, I'm your host, Tara A. Devlin, and welcome to this week's episode of

Koobana, true Japanese scary stories from around the internet. The latest volume of Kowabana, Volume 14, is now out.

Collecting even more of your favorite stories from the show, you can find tales of creepy

monsters, terrifying ghosts, bizarre curses, haunted buildings, and much, much more.

That's Kowabana Volume 14. Out now.

This week, we're looking at some strange, weird and often terrifying tales from various shrines

around Japan.

Sometimes you might find something beneficial there, but sometimes, well, the best course

of action might be to stay away.

First up, a young man on his way home from a funeral gets directions to his grandmother's

inn, but for some reason, despite following them exactly, he ends up somewhere entirely different,

somewhere much more dangerous.

Find out why in, way back from the shrine.

This is a story I personally experienced. Around June or July last year, my grandfather passed away, and so we had to go back to my

parents' family home in Hokkaido for the funeral and wake.

We carried his body to the shrine on the day of the funeral, and that night my cousins, aunts, uncles, etc., stayed

and lit candles and incense for him. Then we brushed our teeth, washed our faces, etc.,

and got ready to spend the night there. Of course, there were no baths at the shrine, and I really wanted to get the wax out of

my hair, so the urge to bathe was even stronger than usual.

My grandmother ran an inn, about 10 or 20 minutes away, and she had customers, so my parents

went back there with her.

I decided to call my mother to see if I could have a bath there.

...