[RacerX]

Those of you interested in Japanese spirits and monsters, I strongly encourage you to read "Kwaidan" by Lafcadio Hearn.

Hearn was in some ways the original gaijin otaku - he moved to Japan more than a century ago, took a Japanese wife, learned the language, and adopted many Japanese customs.

As he travelled through Japan, he heard so many spirits and ghost stories the he decided to write them in English... the result was "Kwaidan," a collection of short stories about these spirits and demons. I think it was published around 1904, but it's still in print today.