logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2021
55m 40s

Scary Story Time: "Go-Away Monkey" (Ep. ...

Uncanny Productions
About this episode

For the spooky month of October, I'm reading my short horror story, "Go-Away Monkey" from my collection The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales. It's set in an older Japan in a small village that has been ravaged by smallpox. If you remember Episode 4 (Monkeys and Monkey Lore), you'll understand the monkey show coming to town to drive away all the bad luck and disease. But does it work?

Written a full five years before the pandemic, it feels quite prescient to me. What do you think?

Visit the Uncanny Japan website to read the show notes and transcript.

Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Her other shows are Uncanny Robot Podcast and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out her books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. If you'd like to help support the podcast and have a bedtime story read to you monthly, please visit Patreon.

Please join our community forum! https://japanforum.uncanny.productions/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Website: https://www.uncannyjapan.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UncannyJapan Mastodon: https://famichiki.jp/@UncannyJapan Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyJapan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncannyjapan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyjapan/

Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan

Credits

Intro and outro music by Julyan Ray Matsuura

Up next
Oct 7
Japan's Most Famous Ghost: My Retelling of Oiwa and the Yotsuya Kaidan (Ep. 179)
It's October. Time to pull a blanket around your shoulders, light a candle against the dark, and listen to a good old-fashioned ghost story. There are many versions of the tragic tale of Japan's most famous ghost, Oiwa-san. But today, let me tell you my own retelling of her class ... Show More
35m 5s
Sep 16
Sanshi: The Three Body-Parasite Problem (Ep. 178)
I finally got to go on a walk again after all the oppressive August heat. I live around rice fields, mostly. There are some houses, of course, along the main road, and then every so often, a knee-high stone tower or stele. These are called kōshintō. What I found particularly intr ... Show More
26m 55s
Sep 2
A Handful of Deadly Beach Beauties (Ep. 177)
Japan's summer heat is inescapable, driving people to seek relief at the beach. But what if I told you there are supernatural dangers lurking along Japan's 14,125 islands that make rip currents seem harmless? In this episode, I share what I discovered about two particularly decep ... Show More
26m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2021
223A-Samurai Legends: The Devil went down to Kyoto
Three connected stories of samurai from medieval Japan. On the first, Kintaro, a buff eight-year-old, discovers his destiny. On the second, Watanabe no Tsuna, a samurai warrior in his prime fights a demon that's been terrorizing a gate in Kyoto, and on the third he's recruited by ... Show More
40m 24s
Apr 2022
265-Monkey King: Out of Your Gourd
A super-powered monkey from Chinese folklore meets more than he bargained for: a sloshing hollow gourd full of pus. The creature is the Mikaribaba (箕借り婆) from Japanese folklore, a great reason not to shower (because she will literally gouge out your eyes). -- Scoundrel! New episo ... Show More
54m 2s
Mar 2022
262-Japanese Folklore: Fatal Attraction
Three stories from Japan about love gone wrong. On the first, the fairest youth in all the land is set to marry the daughter of a rich noble. The problem? His father kind of oversold his looks... On the second, we'll see why moths and other nighttime bugs go toward the light, and ... Show More
41m 9s
May 2021
223B-Samurai Legends: Dinner Party
There's a killer on the loose in Kyoto. Young women are disappearing from the streets, never to be heard from again. Minamoto no Raikō, the legendary samurai, knows that it isn't merely a serial killer, but the demons. After he and other samurai like him drove the demons away, th ... Show More
50m 7s
Sep 2022
286-Japanese folklore: Cat Dad
Tokutarō is not going to be tricked by fox monsters. He's just not. Also, a dad has a big problem with the new pet cat. Two stories from Japan about things not being what they seem (or things being exactly what they seem). -- New Scoundrel out this week! Some of the most famous p ... Show More
39m 56s
Feb 2021
214-Japanese Folklore: Take Your Lumps
Two short stories from Japan. On the first, an old man is in a tree surrounded by demons and faced with a desperate choice. On the second, a man has a pet that his wife is not thrilled about, so she makes that known. With scissors. The creature is a sad cow! Or a vampire! Either ... Show More
32m 58s
Dec 2020
207-Monkey King: Girls Before Swine
We're back in the tale of the Journey to the West, where we'll catch up with the pious monk, Xangzang, the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and the incognito dragon horse, Yulong as they continue their trek to India. This week, they stop off on what they think is a side-quest - helping a ... Show More
43m 30s
Sep 2019
MONSTRUO SEASON II
MonstruoPodcast.comFrom the collective minds of Jack Luna (Dark Topic), Tyler Bell (The Westside Fairytales) and Mike Boudet (Sword and Scale) comes Monstruo, the most disturbing podcast ever made. Nine stories, carefully crafted, one year in the making. Each two part episode of ... Show More
27m 50s
Jul 2016
38B-Korean Literature: Master of Two Worlds
The Conclusion of the "Story of Hong Gildong" takes us from the household drama of last episode to a story that spans the entirety of the Korean peninsula, with Gildong earning his title of the Korean Robin Hood. It then moves beyond Korea to mythical lands, where Gildong battles ... Show More
48m 26s
Jan 2022
255-Chinese Folklore: Picture Me This
A story from China where we see a young man embark on a dangerous journey for love that definitely isn't a knock-off version of "The Journey to the West" and/or "The Hobbit". Then, we learn how the world's first selfie resulted in kind of more death than you'd think. The creature ... Show More
37m 27s