Nature Yokai
/Gardeners, as you start to see your plants begin to sprout, be cautious that there might be nature spirits lurking in your (garden) beds! This roundup, we talk about the various yokai that might be haunting your trees, fruits, and vegetables this spring and summer - gangly pumpkin spirits, dueling melons, and the BEAN BOIS!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, animal death, illness, sexual content, pregnancy, murder, child endangerment, defecation, and gun violence.
Housekeeping
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Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia and Amanda, hey, how's your garden going? Just want to check in real quick with you.
AMANDA: Julia, I'm feuding with the squirrels, man. I direct-sowed a lot of my early spring garden. We got some dill, some nasturtium, some what else we got there? Kale, carrot. And the squirrel said, yum, yum, thanks, Amanda. So, I am starting a lot of seedlings indoors right now in the hope that I can transplant out some more mature peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, good stuff a little bit later in the season.
JULIA: I mean, that's an ideal situation. Think also if you decide to direct sow, you could put a little bit of like, bird fabric over the beds until you start getting actual little guys, little sproutlings.
AMANDA: That's what we're gonna have to do. I let go and let god with these seedlings and squirrels, said, Thanks, ma'am.
JULIA: You're like, you can't possibly eat all of those seeds, please. the squirrels, the squirrels, the squirrels. Well, Amanda, I was checking in about your garden because I've been thinking about ways that you can optimize your garden better.
AMANDA: Thank you, that's so nice of you.
JULIA: Of course, I'm always thinking about you. So, I was thinking about ways that you can really make sure that your plants take off. And I think knowledge is sort of the key element to doing your best in any topic, really.
AMANDA: So true.
JULIA: So, I thought, hey, maybe Amanda needs to learn a little bit more about nature spirits. You know who has some really wild and fucked up nature spirits? Japan!
AMANDA: Julia, is this about Garden Yokai?
JULIA: This is, in fact, about some nature yokai, Amanda, but after we finish our general tree yokai, I do have some specific fruit and vegetable yokai for you.
AMANDA: Oh, my God, incredible. I'm sure we've all been there. We've like pulled a carrot from the ground, and it looks like Cthulhu in some way, or there's like one tomato that is like seven pounds. We're like, why? Where did this come from? I am so excited.
JULIA: I'm really excited to share these with you. You know, one of my favorite things is just really fucked up interesting yokai. And while the nature spirit yokais are perhaps not as fucked up as like Bigfoot or—
AMANDA: Single eyeball.
JULIA: -single eyeball, eyeball and butthole, know, yokai who is also umbrella. Like there's a lot of really wild yokai out there. These ones I would say are like mid-tier in terms of weirdness.
AMANDA: Okay, Love it. It's like a mild horror movie you can have on in the background.
JULIA: Exactly, exactly. It's like the movie Gremlins.
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: Where it's like, I forgot how fucked up the movie Gremlins is. There's a whole scene about how this one character's dad died because he was posing as Santa Claus and then he got stuck in a chimney and they just left him up there.
AMANDA: And how does that relate to our nature yokai?
JULIA: I was just talking about the level of fucked up, it seems really cute on the baseline and then you realize, wow, it's pretty fucked up actually.
AMANDA: Julia, you know I'm with you almost all the time in anything unquestioningly, but I needed a little clarification on that one.
JULIA: Fair enough. So, Amanda, are you ready to hear some nature yokai in this good old fashioned spirits roundup?
AMANDA: Yes, please.
JULIA: Alright, we're going to start with a bunch of tree yokai because I think these are kind of important for sort of laying the groundwork of the difference between, I guess, sort of like the wild yokai versus the sort of cultivated yokai. think there's an interesting difference in those that you'll see as we go on.
AMANDA: We're laying the roots, if you will.
JULIA: Exactly. So, we're going to start with the Kodama (木霊 or 木魅), who in terms of yokai are just sort of tree spirits generally.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So, when trees become very old, which is just kind of the classic yokai origin story, like something got really old so it turned into a yokai, right?
AMANDA: You know that umbrella what's been kicking around the pub for, you know, 40 years? That's a yokai.
JULIA: You remember that cheese grater that's been around for a hundred years and is all rusty? That's a hedgehog yokai now. So, when trees become very old, the spirits that inhabit the trees become animated and are known as Kodama. Now, when this happens, they are able to manifest and sort of wander outside of the physical tree that they embody.
As they do so, they tend to spend time tending to the area around where their tree is, essentially imbuing the land around it with supernatural energy. So, they'll tend to their groves and that will help to maintain the balance of energy around.
AMANDA: I mean, Julia, can you imagine being, you know, in a tree for 80, 100, 150 years and like being able to like see across the grove at like something that is out of place and being like, I wish someone would fucking fix that! And then finally you get old enough that you can step out of your corporeal form and fix the, you know, rock arrangement that's been bugging you for a couple of decades.
JULIA: Have we considered that's how babies feel?
AMANDA: Oh! they're like, wow, I wish that someone would stop playing that music. I wish I could see outside. What is happening? I think so.
JULIA: I wish I could be fed.
AMANDA: Not through my umbilical cord.
JULIA: Ah. Good point.
AMANDA: True
JULIA: What is really interesting and like the reason that these Kodama take care of the area around them makes a lot of sense when you realize that Kodama's life force are directly tied to the tree that they inhabit. So if the tree were to be destroyed or cut down, the Kodama would die and vice versa.
AMANDA: Makes sense.
JULIA: However, they are very rarely seen by humans. So, on the rare occasion where they are, it's usually as a orb of light among the trees or a vaguely human-shaped shadow that disappears as soon as it's noticed.
AMANDA: Just vague enough that out of the corner of your eye are like, what? Is that? Is there a big old tree around here?
JULIA: So, because the presence of a Kodama brings energy and vitality to the natural landscape around them, humans have the utmost respect for Kodama. It is considered absolutely taboo to cut down older trees because it can bring down a powerful curse, absolutely ruining not only a person's life, but the entire community's life.
AMANDA: It’s the ecosystem, man
JULIA: Yes, and it is even said that if you were to cut down an old tree, it might actually bleed, which would be an indicator that a kodama resides within it.
AMANDA: Yeah, dude.
JULIA: So as such, older trees that have been identified as having a kodama within them will be marked by wrapping a sacred rope known as a shimenawa (標縄/注連縄/七五三縄 , lit. 'enclosing rope') around it, lest someone accidentally attempt to chop it down.
AMANDA: Adorable.
JULIA: And they're very beautiful, the ceremonial ropes. They're very, very pretty. Now, Amanda, there are plenty more types of trees that have their specific spirits depending on what type of tree it is. So, for example, ginkgo trees have different types of spirits than let's say willow trees have, and those are different than what banana trees have. So, would you like to hear about some of those?
AMANDA: I really would. And I would especially like to know if there is, let's say, a sort of like high school anime where the spirits of different trees are in like different social casts and we can sort of understand how they relate to each other.
JULIA: Well, now I'm going to have to look that up later and see if that's a real thing that exists.
AMANDA: Or like a text-based adventure game, you know, like on Steam. That'd be really fun.
JULIA: Okay, that would be cute. So, let's start with Bake Ichō no Sei (化け銀杏の精), which is the Ginkgo tree spirit. So,whereas the Kodama does not have a particularly clear appearance, the Bake Ichō no Sei have a very distinct appearance. So, they are tall with a strangely shaped bright yellow body that is said to match the same color that Ginkgo leaves turn in the fall.
AMANDA: Ugh! Among the best colors in the world.
JULIA: So, in Japan, ginkgo trees are held in very high esteem, not only for their beauty, but because they are said to be more resistant to fire than your average tree and are also very useful as border trees because they help break up the wind very well.
AMANDA: And I think one of the oldest organisms on record is like a Ginkgo tree grove.
JULIA: It is indeed, you are correct. Part of the reason that that is the case, Amanda, is because they are considered holy trees and are often planted in temples, shrines, and public places. However, they are not supposed to be planted in gardens of private residences, as that is considered unlucky.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: It is believed that if they are planted in a private garden, their roots will grow underneath the house and will spread sickness and ill fortune.
AMANDA: Oh, damn.
JULIA: So, families with ginkgo trees are said to become sick more often and will die sooner than those without.
AMANDA: Damn, I guess it's an important thing for the community, but not something you can concentrate in, you know, personal hands.
JULIA: Exactly. So as such, old ginkgo trees in the way of yokai, which we already described, will become Bake Ichō no Sei, and when they do, they start to wear these old black kimonos and they will carry around these small little gongs. A lot of times, yokai will take the appearance of monks, and I find that very interesting.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: They will go about striking their gongs with little mallets and especially if they are in the presence of a private home, it is said that this will make the families within either feel strange or they will fall ill. And it is also said that their presence will interrupt or alter the flow of the energy of the home, which is also what causes sickness and death.
AMANDA: Damn, fascinating. I wonder if the sort of monk appearance is because, you know, religious figures are, by definition, a little bit out of time. Like they are, you know, they're dressed in a really identifiable way. You know their vocation from their clothing. And in many ways, I mean, almost all the time, that is a more kind of perpetual look than the changing of fashion day to day.
JULIA: That is true. That's a good point for sure. And I think it's also like there's a certain amount of veneration that happens with a person of the cloth, whatever your religion is.
AMANDA: Whichever cloth it is.
JULIA: Whatever cloth that is. In a somewhat similar vein is the Bashō no Sei (Bashō-no-sei / 芭蕉精), who is the spirit of the Japanese banana tree that manifests basically as a human face on the broad banana leaves.
AMANDA: Yeah, am I silly for not realizing until right now that bananas can grow in Japan?
JULIA: Yes, so I believe the banana tree that we're referencing here is originally like grown in China and then spread to Japan, but I am not a botanist, so you can't quote me on that.
AMANDA: call Dr. Vikram and see what he says about bananas.
JULIA: So mostly what these yokai try to do is just like surprise and scare humans. Basically, just like manifesting on the leaves next to them as they pass a banana tree. Essentially, it's a jump scare situation.
AMANDA: Hell yeah, brother.
JULIA: However, there are a few stories in which they're just like impregnating women.
AMANDA: Oh! Interesting.
JULIA: Like it said that if there's a particularly old banana tree nearby or a banana tree is suspected to house a Bashō no Sei, women are warned not to walk past them, especially at night.
AMANDA: It's a real like, I think this picture of, you know, insert celebrity here got me pregnant. And it's actually like, there's a old banana tree in the park and oops, that's, I guess how that happened.
JULIA: The way that the story goes, like the sort of boogeyman version of this tale, is that if a woman is to walk by one of these trees, they either run into some sort of monster, but more often it is the appearance of a handsome young man, yada yada yada, nine months later, that woman would then birth a baby, and then when the baby is born, it is said that the baby would have demonic tusks like an oni.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: It doesn't end there. So, on the birthday of that demonic baby every year, the woman would then give birth again to another demonic child. And then again, the next year and then every year after that, essentially.
AMANDA: Does this compound? on the second birthday when she births the second baby—
JULIA: No, I think we’re just doing a single baby every year, thankfully.
AMANDA: Oh, god. I mean, okay, banana trees reproduce wildly. Like they, with not a botany degree, they do like have pups. Like they are constantly, you're constantly every year supposed to like cut down the new bananas if your goal is to cultivate, you know, fruit. And so there is something about like the prolific nature of banana and plantain reproduction that makes sense here. But like, I guess, I'm not sure what I expected for the world's most phallic fruit, but like that really is as always, the yokai beat my imagination.
JULIA: There you go. There you go, Amanda.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: That is good botanical insight. So, I appreciate that.
AMANDA: I don't want that botanical inside of me, if you know what I mean. I'm good.
JULIA: Fair enough. Fair enough. So, I will say a woman could rid herself of these demonic babies if that woman was to then feed them a drink that was made out of powdered bamboo grass.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: And so that would hopefully just like the baby is appears slash is born. You feed it to them and then there's no problem left there.
AMANDA: I mean, I should hope that that's a pretty straightforward resolution and you're not like, it's fine. Let's just wait till it's first birthday. Oops!
JULIA: Nope, nope, the teeth are there as soon as that baby is born just so you know.
AMANDA: I don't want a birth, Julia an organism with teeth.
JULIA: Nope, absolutely not. Absolutely not
AMANDA: Not for me.
JULIA: Most animals are though, which is crazy. They're born with teeth, which is wild.
AMANDA: Yup.
JULIA: Anyway, sorry, I got distracted thinking about how things are born with teeth.
AMANDA: This is a Yokai roundup, to be fair.
JULIA: Fair, fair, fair, fair. There is also another story, which is slightly less sinister than the demon baby story—
AMANDA: Great.
JULIA: -that tells of a monk who is sitting in a bamboo tree grove one time and he's meditating; he's reciting sutras as monks typically do during this time period. And then while he was doing that, suddenly a beautiful young woman appeared beside him and is attempting to like distract him from his meditation, even trying to attempt to seduce him.
AMANDA: Yikes.
JULIA: So, as she continues to press, the monk gets really angry and he stands and he draws his sword and he stabs the woman.
AMANDA: Oh, that was an escalation.
JULIA: Yeah, and also does not feel very monk-like, but no, I don’t know.
AMANDA: Monks contain multitudes too.
JULIA: So, she flees, she leaves a bloody trail behind her. And then the next morning, I like that this guy like waited overnight for this to happen.
AMANDA: Well…
JULIA: So, the next morning, the monk follows the bloody trail left behind. And then the trail leads to the garden of the temple that the monk is from, where he finds a banana tree lying on the ground cut into.
AMANDA: Shit
JULIA: Cleft in twain.
AMANDA: Shit.
JULIA: And it was only then that the monk then realized that the woman was actually a Bashō no Sei.
AMANDA: Now, did this monk have to bear demonic children?
JULIA: He did not because instead of being seduced he stabby stabbied.
AMANDA: Smart.
JULIA: Now there is also a quite similar spirit which is that of the Rose of Winter tree which is also known as the Furutsubaki-no-rei (古椿の霊, "old camellia spirit").
AMANDA: Beautiful name.
JULIA: It is a beautiful name. Now in general the Rose of Winter tree or the Tsubaki is an evergreen tree that grows flowers. However rather than those flowers losing their petals like a little bit at a time the tree tends to drop all of the flowers all at once on the ground.
AMANDA: Scary when that happens.
JULIA: Kind of spooky, right? It feels like what's wrong with this tree, but no, that's just the common practice for this. So, because of this somewhat odd behavior, the tree is associated with death and illness in Japan. For example, you would never give someone rows of winter flowers if they're sick or in the hospital because that's basically like saying like, die bitch.
AMANDA: What do want me to do, perish?
JULIA: So, as you can imagine, a yokai develops when a tree becomes old enough, yada, yada, yada, and develops a spirit that can manifest outside of that tree. The legend tells that one day two merchants were walking along a road through the mountains when they passed a Tsubaki tree. However, they stopped when suddenly a beautiful young woman appeared on the road ahead of them.
AMANDA: Mm-mm.
JULIA: Now she approached one of the merchants and breathed a perfumed breath onto him, which smelled exactly like the blooms of the tree.
AMANDA: Mm, mm-mm.
JULIA: Now when she did that, he suddenly transformed into a bee.
AMANDA: Oh! Wow! That's a transformation of mass I was not expecting.
JULIA: Before the other merchant who is there and not a bee currently realized what had happened, the young woman disappeared and then the bee flew to the flowers of the tree. However, when the bee tried to feed from those flowers, the fragrance of the trees turned into poison and the bee dropped to the ground dead, followed quickly by the flower of the tree.
AMANDA: Oh, shit, that's so mean!
JULIA: I know, right? It's kinda like, hey, fuck you for even walking by.
AMANDA: And smelling my sweet breath.
JULIA: So, the merchant, realizing the bee was his friend, scooped it up, rushed the body of the bug to a temple, asked the monk there to pray over the bee, but the monk was unable to bring the bee back to life or even return the merchant to his human form.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: Yeah, a little sad.
AMANDA: I love that this buddy was being such a good bro though, he really tried.
JULIA: I like that he was like, man, my friend is a bee and dead. Maybe we can correct one of these things.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: However, I will say they are not always malevolent. Sometimes they are there to warn of something bad that is coming to pass. There was said to be a monk who was hearing this sort of sad and lonely cry coming from a Tsubaki tree one night. And then a few days after he heard the cries, a disaster befell the temple that he was a part of. Now this happened again a few months later. He heard the cries from the tree and then a few days later another disaster happened. And then soon the monk realized that the Furutsubaki-no-rei was attempting to warn them that something bad was coming to pass. And so, the monk sort of learned to anticipate the danger that when the Tsubaki would cry, means disaster was coming.
AMANDA: Helpful.
JULIA: Extremely helpful. And that is why it is said that this same tree remains to this day at Kamonji, which is a temple where the tree has now stood for over 700 years.
AMANDA: That's insane, dude.
JULIA: Isn't that cool? It's so neat. It's also giving me Mothman energy of like Mothman's just trying to warn you all that something bad's going to happen. Mothman is not bringing the bad stuff. Mothman is saying, hey, a bridge is going to collapse, and you're all like, who is this crazy Mothman?
AMANDA: Exactly, like don't shoot down the messenger or chop it down as it were.
JULIA: The last two tree spirits that I wanted to mention are both spirits of the willow tree.
AMANDA: Very nice. I mean, such an expressive tree, Julia. Like, I would have to guess that the ginkgo and the willow are two of the trees that I think even folks who don't know a lot about tree species are like, that's willow tree over there. So, I would imagine that they have some special lore.
JULIA: Yes, so these are the Yanagi baba (柳婆, "willow crone" or "willow grandmother") and the Yanagi onna (柳女). Now, what's interesting to me is that these spirits are associated with each other in a sort of like very specific timeline. So, it is said that if a willow tree turns old enough, like all of the other trees that we've talked about, they will develop this Yokai, which is the Yanagi onna. And then if a Yanagi onna becomes old enough, they will then age into becoming Yanagi baba.
AMANDA: Oh, man, this is like the Charizard of Willow Yokai right here.
JULIA: The Yanagi-onna is the willow woman. Onna usually just typically means woman and kind of denotes a younger woman specifically. This, as the name suggests, takes the form of a young woman and often she will be seen carrying a child in her arms. Now this kind of sounds a little familiar to a sort of frosty Onna that we've met earlier in the series.
AMANDA: Madam Yuki onna [21:42], we know you.
JULIA: Exactly. So, it is said that a long time ago, a young woman was walking at night carrying her child when suddenly a strong cold wind started blowing. And so, the woman attempted to seek shelter under a willow tree. But the branches of the tree started whipping around violently, entangling the woman and her child among them. The branches even wrapped around her throat and the harder that she attempted to struggle, the more that they choked her until she was finally strangled to death.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Now it is said her spirit embodies these older willow trees and she will appear under the willow trees at night cursing the willow that killed her.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: And from beneath the tree, she is said to appear to passersby and beg them for help to protect her child, only to then disappear when the passerby attempts to help or engage with her.
AMANDA: And does the passerby get entrapped or harmed in any way?
JULIA: No, no, it's just a spooky spooky.
AMANDA: I love Julia the Yokai that are just like, it's scary, nothing you can do. Like they're only, they're not trying to teach you a lesson, they're not trying to disincentivize certain behavior, they're just like, hee-hee!
JULIA: I feel like a lot of times the like, you pass a woman on the road. A lot of it is like, hey, maybe a sex worker is going to approach you—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: -don't let that happen to you. And I think that is usually the case of like, don't talk to strange women.
AMANDA: Fair. Yeah.
JULIA: Which is, hey, we're pro sex work here. We don't we don't fall under that category of this being a warning. I just think they're neat stories.
AMANDA: Also, talking to strange women is my primary hobby.
JULIA: Fair enough. Fair enough. As the Yanagi-onna becomes older and older, they begin to age, which then causes them to become a Yanagi-baba who are known as the Willow Hags.
AMANDA: Sign me up, Julia. Whatever this is, if this is like a trivia team, if this is a cornhole league, if this is like a gardening association, the Willow Hags? Come on.
JULIA: Anytime I feel like I include a hag in a Spirits episode, I'm like, and Amanda's going to relate to this extremely hard.
Yes.
JULIA: Shout out. I love it.
AMANDA: I thank you.
JULIA: As Yanagi baba. They will lure men in to help them, but instead of simply disappearing like their younger counterpart, they will lure men in for their deaths. So, some are bewitched by her call and end up being lured away from the road or the path, which leads to them getting lost in the wilderness. Others end up tripping and falling off of cliffs or down hills, becoming injured and then unable to seek help. And then others are simply struck with illness after interacting with the Yanagi Baba. And then others will just straight up get eaten.
AMANDA: You know, whatever she's feeling like that day. She's like, I feel like a big crunch from up.
JULIA: Exactly. She's like, I ate a big meal of two merchants yesterday, I really don't need another one, so you can just trip down a cliff—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -that'll be fun for me.
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: But Amanda, as I suggested at the beginning of this episode, trees are not the only yokai that are associated with nature, and as you're starting to get your garden going, I think it's the perfect time to tell you about some yokai fruit, and vegetables. Just as soon as we get back from our refill.
AMANDA: Let's go!
The Refill
Hey, this Julia and welcome to the refill.
Thank you so much to our newest patron Amber who signed up for our Patreon after doing a free trial. Thank you so much Amber and hey, you too can sign up for a seven-day free trial by going to patreon.com/spiritspodcast where you can check out our cool rewards like ad free episodes, bonus Urban Legends each and every month and so much more. Check it out. That is patreon.com/spiritspodcast.
And hey, thank you to our supporting producer level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Scott, Anne, Matthew, Lily, and Wil, as well as our legend level patrons, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Audra, Sarah, Bea Me Up Scotty, Morgan, Rikoelike, Chibi Yokai, and Smolive.
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Both of their takes on Pale Blue Pod, I especially really loved an episode they did recently where they rage watched one of those ancient aliens documentaries from the History Channel. Oh, boy, if you want to be mad about stuff but also find things hilarious, that's a great episode to start with. Check that out. Pale Blue Pod has new episodes every other Monday and you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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JULIA: And now let's get back to the show.
End of Refill
JULIA: We are back and one of my favorite cocktails in the summer, which is a nice combination of sweet and tart is the Japanese slipper. This is an equal parts cocktail that combines Cointreau, lemon juice and Midori, which is a melon liqueur. I think Midori has a bad rap. It was used a lot in the early 2000s on like very, very sweet cocktails and it's like also electric green. So, people are like, I don't want that, but it's actually a very good tasting liqueur.
AMANDA: Yeah, the appearance suggests Appletini, but it is very delicate. And if you've ever loved like a Japanese dessert, if you like those little melon flavored hard candies, like in a sushi restaurant, you should give it a go.
JULIA: Absolutely. What I'm going to suggest in a twist on a Japanese slipper is that I think you can add a little bit of watermelon juice to this to make it even more melon-y or like if you want to like a cantaloupe juice or like a regular what's the green melon called?
AMANDA: A honeydew.
JULIA: A honeydew juice perhaps. I don't eat a lot of melon personally. I don't find it a particularly enjoyable flavor. I like watermelon, but the cantaloupes and the honeydew melons not for me personally, but, love it in a cocktail, actually.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: So, with this in mind, I really want to tell you about two Japanese yokai that I think you're going to get a little bit of a kick out of. Makuwauri no bakemono (真桑瓜の化物) and Suika no bakemono. Now, to be fair, there's not a ton of information about these two spirits and they are specifically melon spirits.
AMANDA: Hell yeah, man. We learned Julia to throw out our bad pumpkins from the Romani folks several weeks ago. And now what do we do if a melon looks like it has a little bit of personality to it?
JULIA: Well, these have a little bit more than a little personality to them. These seem to originate from the work of a famous poet and artist whose name is Yosa Buson, who really enjoyed drawing bizarre yokai. And these particular two are from a scroll that he created called Yosa Buson yōkai emaki (蕪村妖怪絵巻), which features images of several different yokai, but really only had like the names and not like their actual stories or origins. So, we have to kind of extrapolate a little bit about.
AMANDA: And what year was the scroll made?
JULIA: Who they are or what they did. It was actually made somewhere between 1754 and 1757. like sort of the mid-18th century.
AMANDA: Oh, shit. Very cool.
JULIA: They're very cool. I'm going to actually send you a image. One of the ones that he is kind of famous for drawing is the noppera-bō (のっぺらぼう/野箆坊; < nopperi "flat-faced"), which is the one that is like faceless dude eyeball in the butthole.
AMANDA: Yessss!
JULIA: So, he kind of famously has popularized a lot of these that don't have existing stories anymore, but are just really interesting and really weird. So like, for example, he has an illustration of that Ginkgo Tree spirit that I mentioned earlier, which is very cool. But I have to show you the, the melon monsters because they are so funny, like genuinely really, really cute. Here's one.
AMANDA: Oh! Oh, it’s just a little guy. That melon looks a little bit sad, I'm not gonna lie to you.
JULIA: And then here's the other.
AMANDA: These are kind of like political cartoons, you know, of like a senator in a sort of exaggerated way.
JULIA: A little bit. So, in this scroll, Suika no bakemono and Makuwauri no bakemono are shown as being essentially these melon-headed yokai, but they have the bodies of samurai. You can see their little swords in the image and everything like that. Now in subsequent portrayals, they have been shown as sort of coming into conflict with each other, like doing battle, and it's giving real like fruit ninja energy. Remember Fruit Ninja?
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: What a simpler time when that was the app that everyone had on their phones. And Flappy Bird. I miss Flappy Bird.
AMANDA: Truly, we could probably chart, Julia, like our own loss of innocence from Fruit Ninja to Flappy Bird to like HQ. And then from there, was all downhill.
JULIA: Oh, boy. Yeah, yeah. We don't get a lot more about them, but I just thought the image is so fun that I wanted to mention them. But there are a lot of other fruit spirits that have more substantial backgrounds than just here's a cool image of them.
AMANDA: I mean, we certainly talk about someone being a melon head, that's thing we say, and they do look head-shaped. But I'd be very curious if anyone out there knows more about the linkage between these honkin' melons and samurai.
JULIA: These honkin' melons, oh, no!
AMANDA: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Samurai would like practice. mean, you imagine like people like cutting through a melon with swords. Like that's a, you know, macho thing people do.
JULIA: That is true. That's a thing. That's a thing. So, one example of one of these other fruit spirits is the Tantan kororin, which are the spirits of persimmon trees.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Now, unlike the other tree spirits that we've mentioned earlier, they are not the result of the trees becoming too old, but rather they become yokai when ripe persimmons are left on trees rather than picked.
AMANDA: Julia, we gotta text our new friend, Keala, because this is [33:52] horror!
JULIA: They will take the form again of giant monks who have these sort of large round red slash orange faces that strongly resemble persimmons.
AMANDA: And if you look too close, they're a little bit rotten.
JULIA: So, they will then spend their evenings filling up their sleeves full of the ripe or fallen fruit from the tree and then they will wander around towns at night spilling the ripened fruit and persimmon trees all through the area.
AMANDA: Gross.
JULIA: And then when they eventually run out of persimmons, they will return back to their trees until the fruit begins to ripen again.
AMANDA: Okay, so this sounds less like a horror trope and more like someone unhelpfully spreading out rotten persimmons.
JULIA: Yeah, so here's the context, like here's the legend of it. And you can kind of tell me whether you think this is a scary thing or this is sort of like a Johnny Appleseed sort of situation, right? So according to the legend, there was said to be a house that had five or six large persimmon trees in their garden. But because the people of the home were very old, they could not gather the persimmons from the tree as they once did.
AMANDA: Uhm-hmm.
JULIA: As the persimmons ripened and began to fall from the tree on their own, the old man who owned the home started to notice that a man dressed as a monk was wandering about his yard. Now, soon after, the villagers also reported seeing a similar figure wandering around town, his sleeves full of the ripe persimmons, which dropped from him and rolled away as he walked about. However, this is a giant sort of scary-faced monk.
And so, the villagers were quite scared of him, but also, they were curious. So, they followed sort of from a distance to see what he was doing. And so eventually he wandered back to the house of the old man and then disappeared into the persimmon tree, which led them to realize that he was a spirit of the tree.
AMANDA: Ooh, fascinating. Maybe he's trying to help spread the wealth. Like if the, you know, if the caretakers aren't able to do that as much, then either this, you know, helpful yokai or, I don't know, some local dogs or raccoons could sort of like nibble-nibble and then spread it throughout town.
JULIA: I think that's also like, it might be a thing where the spirit is saying, hey, people of this community, see how these folks are not able to do the thing that they once did? Maybe you could help them out with it.
AMANDA: Maybe this is what society is for.
JULIA: Exactly.
AMANDA: And it's time to help your neighbors. I think that's really sweet. I'd be friends with this monk.
JULIA: 100% I also think that it's like, hey, I've noticed that these things are being wasted when they weren't once wasted. Why don't we do something about that? That seems nice.
AMANDA: I spent so much energy growing these beautiful persimmons and you know what? I want someone to enjoy them. So, hey, far and wide. It's like doing a megaphone call. It's like, hello, persimmons are here. Somebody come get them.
JULIA: Now, there is one weird aspect of the spirit that I'm not going to go into too much detail about, but I just like I feel like I have to mention it, which is like there is a aspect of the story about this spirit having sweet tasting poop.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Like there are there are several stories in which this spirit forces people to literally eat his shit only for them to taste it. And they're like, it's sweet like persimmons.
AMANDA: We can leave out there.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah, I'm not going go into it any further, I promise. I will say, however, in doing the research for this episode, there was another spirit, which is the spirit of apples, which is the Ringo Nōkai, who has an extremely similar aspect also with the weird poop thing, which again, I'm not going to go into, but I wanted to mention only to be thorough.
AMANDA: You are nothing if not thorough, Julia. And, you know, it is true that what we eat affects what we excrete. And so maybe somebody once ate a lot of persimmons for a day and then the next day was like, whoa, that's weird. And then it made its way into the lore.
JULIA: No, no!
AMANDA: Like me, every time I eat asparagus, an hour or two later, forgetting I'd eaten asparagus and going, what's wrong? And then realizing its asparagus.
JULIA: Entirely unrelated to shit is our next yokai which is the yamanashi no kai or the wild pear spirit.
AMANDA: Great.
JULIA: This one I'm just going to dive straight into the episode. The other ones have been very nice. This one's fucked up. It was said a long time ago, a husband, a wife and their young son lived in a small village. And when the wife was pregnant with their second child, she was suddenly hit with a very specific pregnancy craving, which was wild pears.
She was so possessed by this craving that even though she was quite pregnant at the time, she took a large sack and hiked up into the mountains in order to try and find a pear tree somewhere in the forest.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: So, she climbed and she climbed. And finally, deep within the mountains, she found a pear tree, an absolutely gorgeous pear tree that was absolutely covered in ripe pears with ripe pears just littering the ground around the tree as well.
So, absolutely delighted. She filled her large sack up with pears, slung it over her shoulder, and then turned to head back home. But realizing that she had hiked a very, very long way, and by the time that she had found the tree and loaded up the sack, the sun was starting already to go down, as someone who had already grown up in these mountains knew that it would be dangerous for her to try and climb down to the village during the night.
So, she decided instead, tie her bag up onto the branches of the pear tree and then climbed into the pear tree herself in order to spend the night sleeping up in the tree until morning.
AMANDA: Good decision making so far, therefore I'm very nervous.
JULIA: So, she manages to fall asleep, but then in the middle of the night is awoken by, of all things, the sounds of drums and cymbals that indicated a funeral procession.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: So, from a distance in the darkness, she heard a voice call out, where is the wild pear tree? Where is the wild pear tree? Now this terrified the woman because the only time a funeral procession that would be happening this late at night and also up in the mountains would be related to an evil spirit. And it was clear that they were trying to find exactly where she had hid herself.
As she is there in the branches of this wild pear tree, the voice grows closer and closer until finally it called, here it is, here it is. Now the woman couldn't see who the voice was coming from, but at the foot of the tree, she could see that something dug a hole in the earth and buried a corpse, a human corpse, at the foot of the tree.
AMANDA: If it's her existing son, I'm gonna freak out.
JULIA: Still terrified, the woman tried to climb higher into the tree to get away from whatever this thing is, but the spirit on the ground heard her move in the tree and so reached up with, as the story describes, a cold and slimy hand, which grabbed her by the leg, pulled her from the tree, and gobbled her up.
AMANDA: Noooo! Fuck!
JULIA: When she did not return, her husband, her son searched for her, but only found the sack of pears tied to the branches of the tree with no sign of the woman.
AMANDA: God, that's so sad.
JULIA: They concluded that an evil spirit must have taken her as they couldn't find any evidence of what had happened to her. Now, because of this, the son grew up with revenge in his heart. And one day when he was older, he took a hunting rifle because this is like, you know, the 1800s, and climbed into the mountains to try to find that pear tree and then waited there until it was night. And then he heard that same funeral procession that his mother heard, the voice calling, where is the wild pear tree? Where is the wild pear tree? Now realizing that this must have been the spirit that took his mother, the young man fired in the direction of the voice in the darkness, but only horrifying laughter emitted from the shadows.
AMANDA: Oh, fuck.
JULIA: Now from the trees, a giant ball of blue flame floated towards him and essentially threatened to eat him. Now the man, shocked, managed to ground himself. He squares his shoulders and he shoots at the flame. Now this flame emits a terrible scream and then all of sudden the flame is extinguished.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Now in the dark, the young man could not see what was happening. But when he waited until morning, he saw the body of an enormous badger, which must have been the evil spirit that devoured his mother.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: So, he carried the badger back down to the village and held a feast for everyone in the village.
AMANDA: I mean, also what a great way to like establish dominance over other malingering malevolent spirits that might be around like, hey, hey, you take whatever and we'll fucking eat you at a feast.
JULIA: Yeah, so, giant flaming badger spirit that likes to eat people and haunt wild pear trees. That's the Yamanashi no kai.
AMANDA: Okay, you go, son.
JULIA: Now, fruits and fruit trees are one thing, but how about some haunted vegetables?
AMANDA: Yes, please.
JULIA: Let's start with the Tōmorokoshi no obake, which are essentially kind of fucked up little corn monsters.
AMANDA: Okay, great. We've talked about corn sweats. We have talked about children of the corn. We might as well have fucked up little corns.
JULIA: Exactly. So, have you ever seen like, you know, when a corn on the cob has some sort of like mutation or deformity, you know what I'm talking about? Like the kernels aren't like neat and orderly. Yeah, there are some that are bigger than others. Sometimes it's just weird looking. I don't know how else to describe it, really.
AMANDA: It's the closest thing I've ever seen to like a computer glitch in nature. It's wild.
JULIA: A lot of times these are just the result of like a temperature or a water fluctuation. But sometimes when they have these sort of mutations, they end up looking like eyes or mouths. Or sometimes they become like discolored and they end up looking like human flesh or fur or feathers.
AMANDA: Not that I've seen, but I can get there.
JULIA: So, the first instance of the Tōmorokoshi no obake is from 1845, where it was said that an ear of corn had grown in the appearance of a chicken.
AMANDA: Whoa.
JULIA: So according to the owner at the time, he had had a beloved pet chicken who had died, and so he buried the chicken in his garden. Then, right on top of where he had buried the chicken, the next day he awoke and he found that there was a corn stalk that was growing there.
AMANDA: Maybe the chicken ate corn before it died and then the kernel popped into a stalk.
JULIA: Over time, as the corn grew, the ears of corn from this particular stalk of corn ended up looking sort of chicken-like.
AMANDA: Hahaha
JULIA: So, it was said that the soul of the beloved pet simply didn't want to leave his owner, and this is how it manifested.
AMANDA: That's actually really cute.
JULIA: Yes, it's extremely cute. I love that one so much. Of course, it's a yokai, so there is a fucked-up version as well.
AMANDA: Mm-hmm.
JULIA: One of the other more notable versions is a woman who is murdered by her husband and then dumped into a swamp and it was said that an ear of corn with the kernels twisted to resemble her face would arise from the swamp seeking revenge against the husband that murdered her.
AMANDA: I mean, I'm for that.
JULIA: Yeah, I think both of them are heartwarming in their own ways.
AMANDA: Yes. It depends which version. Is it my heart that seeks vengeance or is it my heart that shows empathy, you know?
JULIA: Depends on the day. So now, whenever an ear of corn has a particularly strange appearance, it is said to have been possessed by the spirit of the Tōmorokoshi no obake.
AMANDA: Not gonna lie, Julia, this is giving a little bit like those TikTok videos that my mother sees on Instagram and then sends to me. That's like, pop a whole egg in the hole of your tomato plant and then your tomatoes will grow real good. And it's like, that's, I don't—
JULIA: Also, another thing that Dr. Vikram reviews often is how those make no sense. How a lot of times they'll show like, here's a pumpkin seed and then it'll start spreading. He's like, that's a tomato.
AMANDA: That's simply a tomato.
JULIA: It's just a tomato.
AMANDA: The plant prof, follow him.
JULIA: Another creepy yokai that is not actually malicious or evil is the Nasu babā or the eggplant hag.
AMANDA: Again, you're right, Julia, just the word hag has me tuned the fuck in.
JULIA: So, she is a horrifying spirit with a face that is said to resemble an eggplant, but with teeth.
AMANDA: Okay
JULIA: She mostly spends time lurking in dark rooms around temples, occasionally scaring worshipers or the priests there.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Now, if she happens to come across a human or one discovers her hiding place, she will greet them with a big smile, which reveals her sharp and terrifying teeth.
AMANDA: Sick.
JULIA: Now the shock of her appearance is said to often cause a person to faint, but when they awake they find that they have been moved to a safe location, like their bedroom, and supposedly revived by her magic.
AMANDA: Oh, damn, okay, there you go. Don't be judging the hags that you see by their shape of their teeth.
JULIA: Exactly, we've had two hags, one eats people and the other one protects them. It's very nice.
AMANDA: You can't judge a hag by her dental work.
JULIA: You can't judge a hag by what tree or vegetable she represents.
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: She is said to care about the people who live in her temples and it said that when disaster strikes the temple, she will be the one to warn people there by ringing the temple's bell.
AMANDA: Sick.
JULIA: Now her origins say that she was once a human woman. Specifically, they'll say she was a high-ranking noble woman who served in the Imperial Court. However, during her mortal life, she supposedly committed some sort of crime. Sometimes they say it's murder. Sometimes it's just like, she ate some animal meat after pledging not to.
AMANDA: You know, just equivalent crimes.
JULIA: Yes, totally equivalent crimes and definitely a reason that you should be damned.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: She was supposed to be condemned to be damned in the afterlife. But because in her life before she died, she was so repentant of her sins and she begged the Buddhist monks to forgive her, her body was sent to the underworld to be damned. But her spirit remained at the temple and was transformed into this eggplant hag.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: So, grateful that she isn't damned alongside her body. She is said to protect the temple that she haunts, warning them again when disaster strikes.
AMANDA: Incredible. I wish I had the option to yeet out of this mortal form and into a kind of misshapen eggplant. I feel like that's just a good option that I would like to have.
JULIA: So, you mentioned the fact that we recently talked about pumpkin vampires. How about pumpkin yokai?
AMANDA: Oh! Of course.
JULIA: This is the Sunamura no Onryō (砂村の怨霊), which is the walking pumpkin monster that haunts pumpkin patches.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So, its head is made up of the kind of classic bright orange pumpkin, but that head is just barely supported by its body and limbs, which are made up of the pumpkin vines and leaves all tangled together.
AMANDA: Mm-hmm.
JULIA: Because, like, you know, pumpkin really heavy.
AMANDA: Very heavy.
JULIA: The vines that sort of support pumpkins, not very strong.
AMANDA: No, that's why they grow on the ground. And if they dangle, you have to support them with like a little, like people cut up stockings to like make little supports for their pumpkins because it's too much.
JULIA: I know, know. So, this actually originates from a neighborhood of Tokyo called Sunamura, which was famous for its pumpkin production.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: Now, according to the legends, it was not happy about all of its siblings being grown and then harvested just to be eaten. And so, it would appear night after night from the growing fields in the village and anyone out at night would then be chased down by the Sunamura no Onryō, which sounds scary, right? But luckily for these people, its limbs are made out of these vines and leaves, so it was too gangly and weak for it to really do much chasing or running.
AMANDA: That’s sad. Because, like, in a way, that is a proportional response to people coming most days to, like, cut away and then eat your siblings.
JULIA: Sure, sure, sure, sure, but I do think it's just kinda funny.
AMANDA: I know it's like a little kid trying to step to a bully and they're just like, they've arms like noodles.
JULIA: Or it's like, you know, watching like a little kid like running full force and then right on their face. You're like, Oh! Oh! Oh!
AMANDA: Oh, baby!
JULIA: But also, oh!
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: That one's a short one. I did save the best for last.
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: Remember how we were like, we should tip drag queens with heirloom beans.
AMANDA: Yes, I do remember that and I stand by it.
JULIA: So, when I saw this trio of yokai, I knew I had to include them, the bean boys.
AMANDA: The Bean Boys!
JULIA: I'm gonna lovingly call them the bean boys. So, this is azuki arai, azuki baba, and azuki hakari.
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: Now, all of these spirits are related to azuki beans, which are also known as red beans, which are often sweetened and used as an ingredient in a lot of different dishes. Usually it's sweets, sometimes they use them in savory dishes. Like I really like a red bean taiyaki for example.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: It's like little fish shaped cakes that are filled with red bean paste. They're delicious.
AMANDA: I love a red bean paste in any form.
JULIA: So, a little context in case you've never heard of azuki or red beans. They're very good. But let's talk about our first bean boy, which is azuki arai or the bean washer.
AMANDA: Okay. Important job
JULIA: The azuki arai hides out in the mountains of Japan, deep in the forest, but they tend to pop up specifically around streams. Now they're not often spotted, but when they have been, the stories say that they are these sort of like short and squat men with big round eyes and notably large hands that have only three fingers on each hand.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Now in the forest along these streams, they spend time washing azuki beans. And while they're washing these beans, they sing a terrifying little song and they shake their beans in the wash basket as a little like kind of percussion element.
AMANDA: Oh, my god.
JULIA: So it'll go, shall I wash my red beans or shall I cash a human to eat shoki shoki! which is the sound of the bean shaking
AMANDA: Oh, no!
JULIA: There you go, shoki shoki.
AMANDA: I'm going to start singing that when I wash rice. If.
JULIA: They catch a human looking at them. They will grin with a sort of silly smile. And between this and the scary little song that they're singing, it is said that often humans will become scared and slip and fall into the river. Now this loud noise will then scare away the azuki arai.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Which will disappear into the mountains again. What's interesting is like, again, they're not seen very often. They're said to be able to mimic the sounds of animals and other natural noises, and they'll use that to sort of hide themselves. But despite their scary appearance and their spooky little song, because they are so elusive, it is said that spotting an azuki arai will actually bring good luck, especially a good harvest.
AMANDA: Right on. I mean, they're enjoying the fruit of a harvest, and so I'm glad that they bring good harvest luck.
JULIA: Exactly, exactly. Now, the next bean boy is in fact not a bean boy, but rather a bean babe. She's not a babe. This is Azuki Baba, which again means bean hag.
AMANDA: Bean hag! Hey!
JULIA: So, she is rarer in her sightings than the azuki arai are, and while the azuki arai are creepy but otherwise relatively harmless, the azuki baba are decidedly not harmless.
AMANDA: Harmful, baby!
JULIA: So, she is a fearsome looking creature as well dressed in all white, but having a sort of decayed and monstrous appearance. She is very rarely spotted, even more elusive than the bean washer, but is usually identified by a husky quote unquote ugly voice that she sings with. Also, usually only sort of like floats through the night. She only appears at twilight and it's usually only on rainy or misty evenings.
AMANDA: Julia, if I met a bean hag with a husky voice on a misty evening, I'd propose.
JULIA: Well, I don't think you'd get a chance to, but we'll get to that.
AMANDA: OK.
JULIA: A lot of times when she is seen, she is described as appearing in a thick white mist at first that has an eerie white glow to it.
AMANDA: Sexy
JULIA: And then from within the fog, you'll hear that husky voice singing a ghastly song and also washing beans by the river, but also counting them as she does so.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Because she also has a separate name besides Bean Hag, which is Bean Counter. If you were to continue and try to follow her or to see her, you'll notice that she is singing a very similar song to the azuki arai about washing her beans or eating a human. However, unlike that creepy little threat, the bean hag will actually go ahead and eat anyone that she notices watching her wash her beans.
AMANDA: Okay, so I guess this is more of an admire from afar situation. Good to know, good to know.
JULIA: Exactly. Because if you see her, she can see you, and that means you going down.
AMANDA: What a death. What a way to go.
JULIA: And then finally we have the Azuki Hakari, which is the last of our bean boys, whose name also means bean counter. Now, whereas the other two bean boys are only found in the wilderness, the Azuki Hakari can be found in rural villages, including homes and attics and gardens. These specifically are usually referred to as a poltergeist, which means it doesn't have a physical appearance. It only like creates sounds and physical effects on the household that it's found in.
AMANDA: Mm-hmm.
JULIA: So, they usually, like I said, are only heard and usually are heard in the house in the middle of the night, especially after midnight. So how it would go is first, you'd hear heavy footsteps above you somewhere between the attic and the roof. And then scary enough on its own, right? Certainly, if you were like, I'm laying in bed and there's heavy footsteps above me, not a great situation.
AMANDA: I have that now, Julia, but it's raccoons on the roof. And that is, they're just heavy enough that I'm like, ugh, what else could this be?
JULIA: Hey, don't fall through my roof, raccoon.
AMANDA: No, please don't.
JULIA: So, after that, you would start to hear a sort of rhythmic sound against the windows or the sliding doors that lead outside, which is a sound that is reminiscent of someone taking and scattering dried azuki beans. Now, as the night goes on, the sound grows louder and louder until it shifts to the sound of splashing water.
AMANDA: Don't like that.
JULIA: Now, as the evening goes on even more, you would begin to hear the sound of wooden sandals, like kind of traditional Japanese wooden sandals, just outside the room you're in.
AMANDA: Yikes.
JULIA: Now, if you were Team Investigate and you got up and you opened the doors and the windows and everything like that, the noises will stop. However, you won't see any creature nor any sign of the beans or water that you swore you heard. And they don't really do anything besides scare folks, fortunately, but a poltergeist is scary enough to make beans a scary thing for you to consider growing in your garden, Amanda.
AMANDA: Yeah, I... Are there any ways that you can avoid attracting these spirits or it's just sort of the whims of fate?
JULIA: Just the whims of fate, especially in this circumstance, it's just like you can make it stop by going and looking to make sure that nothing's there because Team Investigate wins in this situation.
AMANDA: Yeah, you want to check on things, make sure they're okay. I guess that's being a good gardener.
JULIA: Exactly. And so sometimes you just get haunted by a poltergeist and there's not much you could do. I mean, you could probably like go to your local temple and be like, I think I'm being haunted by a bean washer or a bean counter. Can you help me out with that? And they might come and do some purification rituals or some blessings on your home.
AMANDA: You know, Julia, we are recording this two weeks after tax day where we are all haunted by bean counters when you think about it.
JULIA: When you think about it, yeah, yeah, we are.
AMANDA: Right on. I'm still team investigate, except if it's a husky-voiced woman in the mist and then you better high tail it.
JULIA: I need you to remember that for future, Amanda. I need you to remember that.
AMANDA: Put it in there.
JULIA: Put in your brain, don't be seduced by the husky voice woman.
AMANDA: No!
JULIA: Well, Amanda, I also need you to keep that in mind as you finish planting your garden this season. It's very important and I don't want you getting haunted by a yokai.
AMANDA: Thank you, I am planning on growing cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkin. So, I really have three chances to bring some spirits or maybe three chances to get lucky and not have any yokai appearing in my home.
JULIA: My only suggestion is keep the cantaloupe and the watermelon separate so they don't feel like they have to do battle as samurai.
AMANDA: So true. Well, Julia, thank you so much. And folks, next time you see an eye blinking back at you from your banana leaf, remember,
JULIA: Stay Creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
JULIA: Later, satyrs!