I came across an interesting article the other day. It begins with the following interesting tidbit of information:

If a person dies in a sudden or violent manner, the reikon is thought to transform into a yurei, which can then bridge the gap back to the physical world.

The yurei tend to remain near where they died. They usually appear between 2 and 3 a.m., which is like the western world’s bewitching hour of midnight, and a time when the veils between the world of the dead and that of the living are at their thinnest.

Pretty interesting huh? Well, this article summarizes some of the most haunted places in Japan. They include a hangar bay where disgraced kamikaze fighters killed themselves at the end of WW2, and the Himuro Mansion on the Tokyo outskirts which has been the site of some strange occurrences. From the site:

Many weird happenings have been reported in and near the old mansion; including apparitions of those who once lived there, bloody handprints and sprays of blood, which mysteriously appear on the walls.

Brutal, eh? The mansion has such a haunted history that it was the basis for a video game, Fatal Frame, which I slightly remember from my college days.

[Via Weird Asia News]