Haunted Tokyo Tours | Michael Weening: a few pictures

The American government set up in one of Tokyo’s oldest temples, Zenpuku-ji temple, after the signing of the first commerce agreement in 1859.

They have a monument set up for Townsend Harris who played a pivotal role in Japanese – US relationships. Our guide Lilly provided colour to his life. While he did great things for the countries, he did it while ruining the life of a poor Japanese woman. She was a serving girl and in love with a carpenter (as the story goes), but Townsend wanted her for himself. Forced by the Japanese government to spend time with Townsend (either to improve relations between the countries or as a spy), she was forced to become his mistress only to be discarded when he left Japan;

She was labelled a “Toujin” (mistress of a foreigner), though she was not a mistress like “Chocho-san“.

Becoming a mistress of Western men was regarded as shame and Kichi was despised as “Toujin”. The disdain and prejudice of the society disturbed her seriously and she gradually indulged in alcohol. She could not live a peaceful family life with her beloved Tsurumatsu. She ruined a restaurant presented by a sympathetic patron and could not run a hair salon in Shimoda due to the disdain of local people. In her 40s, Kichi became homeless and killed herself by jumping into the Inouzawa River.
Toujin Okichi became a heroin of popular novels and her stories were staged many times. Though the truth still remains a mystery, her story was interpreted in various ways and exploited as a tourist attraction.

Read more here. The relationships was also incorrectly romanticized in a John Wayne movie.

As with all shrines, a cemetery accompanies it. Right beside the shrine is the grave of Fukuzawa Yukichi, the man on the 10,000 Y note ($100).

Fukuzawa Yukichi (福澤諭吉^?, January 10, 1835 – February 3, 1901) was a Japanese author, Enlightenment writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneurand journalist who founded Keio-Gijuku University, the newspaper Jiji-Shinpo and the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan. He is called a Japanese Voltaire.

It is also home to the oldest ginko tree in Tokyo with a girth of 10m and estimated age of 800+ years.

As one would expect, the cemetery is well tended with people decorating the statues and leaving behind flowers, offerings and other remembrances to honour the departed.

An interesting tour. Thanks for dropping by.

As previously mentioned, we went on a Ghost Walk tour on the last day of the New Year holiday. One of the frustrating things about Japan is that they are not that interested in sharing their rich and diverse history. Everything is either hidden away or only in Japanese. They really don’t care about sharing. This is not a stretch, just look at their history, foreigners have never been popular in Japan.

However, there are a few gaijin who have been here long enough to assemble the history. If you are in Japan, I would highly recommend taking one of Haunted Tokyo’s tours. The tour we were on was positioned as a ghost tour, but it quickly became obvious that it was more of a shrine tour filled with history, culture and Japanese mythology. We loved it and will definitely take their other tours.

We wandered around Tokyo FINALLY learning the history (beyond what we have dug up on our own). We started here … a building that she is convinced is haunted with pulled curtains and odd sculptures. Not sure. But I think someone was looking out at our group through the curtains …

We stopped off at Shitaya shrine, where our guide explained how the corner is guarded by foxes as there is only one location that the demons and bad spirits can enter from. A beautiful shrine .. with a demon entrance.

While looking at the shrine we were told that many of the shrines are being disassembled and stored by developers and the government. If you want to bring a shrine to your home, you simply need to agree to reassemble it and pay for transport (although I can find no reference to this on the web).

Still amazes me to see berries and flowers in January (especially after that snow fall)

As we wandered the streets we came through an area which was home to many geishas at one point in time. One of the few areas in Tokyo where very old buildings remain.