Exciting news!

This fall, I’ll be part of the KaiKai Yokai Festival at Toei Kyoto Studio Park in western Kyoto! I’m both serving as an advisor to the event, as well as participating as a vendor during several weekends this fall, and I am super excited to be part of this festival!

One of the most common emails I get both here and at yokai.com are questions about yokai-related events, festivals, or locations to visit while people are touring Japan. Usually I have to give the unfortunate answer that, while yokai are everywhere in Japan, unless you go to one or two specific museums, or come at precisely the right time for one of a handful of specific festivals, you’re not likely to get to experience yokai culture in such an exciting or flashy way. It’s especially painful for people who want to see the big Kyoto Mononoki Ichi night parade, but will only be in Kyoto on the wrong weekend for the event.

This fall, however, you don’t have to worry about that, because every weekend is yokai weekend at the Edo period samurai film theme park! If you love yokai, and want to participate in the world’s most exciting yokai festival, this is your chance!

Uzumasa film studio is one of my favorite places to visit hands down, just because I love walking through the actual movie set that the theme park is built on. The atmosphere is wonderful, and the actors are entertaining. Afterwards you can go watch old samurai flicks and see the very set pieces you just walked through!

This collaboration between the film studio and Kyoto’s incredible yokai art group Hyaku Yō Bako is a dream come true for yokai lovers. So if you’ve got any plans to visit Japan this fall, make sure the KaiKai Yokai Festival is on your must-do list!

Check out the official website for more details: toei-eigamura.com/yokai

See you there!