Supernatural splendour

If demons appear, it must be summer. When the days turned hot and muggy in pre-modern Japan, people would tell each other stories of ghosts and yokai: a catch-all term for demons, monsters and shapeshifting creatures.

The storytellers probably did this for fun - and because of a belief that being frightened has a chilling effect on the body.

This tradition of scaring people to help them cool down has lasted to the present day, with haunted houses springing up in amusement parks and a whole host of supernatural-themed events taking place during summer.

For five days in August, humans can travel with creatures from the other world on board the the Yokai Densha, or Haunted Train - a special service that runs between central Kyoto and the scenic Arashiyama suburb on the Randen tram line.

Adults pay 200 yen (about S$2) each for the 20-minute trip. Children can travel for half that but supernatural passengers - defined on the company's website as "anyone who at first glance looks like a yokai" - can ride for just 50 yen (about 50 cents).

That may explain the strangeness in the ticket queue.

I spot demon masks, a fox woman and someone carrying a small skeleton.

The boy in front of me is accompanied by his mother, who holds a plastic case and a tape dispenser.

"Where do you want these?" she says.

She pulls out a stack of home-made paper eyes, coloured inexpertly with crayon.

The woman helps him stick the eyes to his hands and back.

An employee at the station is coming down the line. "Ticket sales will begin shortly," she calls.

"Passengers intending to travel as yokai, please assume your demon form now."

People in the queue begin slipping on masks; a girl drapes what looks like a tablecloth over her head. The boy in front of me sticks two more paper eyes on himself.

The railway noises in the distance rumble closer. A voice over the PA system announces: "The Haunted Train is approaching. For your safety, please stand behind the yellow line. The Haunted Train is approaching."

The train is scheduled to leave at 7.15pm but we are allowed to board before then.

At 7.07pm, the first child starts to cry.

Not because of the ominously dim lighting, nor because of the fake hands tossed about by the air-conditioning but because two yokai, courtesy of the organisers, have begun working their way through the carriage.

The crying has turned into full-throated screaming, aided no doubt by the yokai tendency of homing in on the children who seem the most afraid.

The grown-ups are smiling at the terror.

It's hard to remember that the yokai are humans in costume when they thrust their masked faces at yours.

Their eyes sunken in cavities, their mouths black maws filled with a dentist's worst nightmare - put me in a train alone with them and I'd start screaming too.

Not everyone goes down without a fight. One little girl tries to smack a yokai in the head before burying her face in her mother's neck.

The wailing continues all over the carriage, almost drowning out the soundtrack piped in over the PA system.

A distorted voice is chanting something, probably something frightening, but it's hard to hear over the bawling.

Equally heart-stopping are the yokai you don't notice at first.

In the dim of the carriage, it takes a while before you see the cat ears, the tiny ogre horns, the girl with grey lips, dark shadows under her eyes and a pale face that doesn't suggest bleaching creams so much as a freshly dug-up grave.

Someone points a camera in her direction - raising her hands in approved horror flick fashion, she lurches forward.

Zombie! Because this is a yokai line, you are trapped in the carriage until the final destination: The Haunted Train doesn't halt at any of the stops in between the first one and the last.

We hurtle through station after station, the commuters on the platforms staring at us, at this train with the window shades pulled down and the carriages filled with a strange blue glow, an apparition racing over mortal streets on a warm summer night.

GETTING THERE

Singapore Airlines and ANA offer direct flights to Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

From the airport, take a train, limousine bus or the door-to-door minibus shuttle service run by MK Taxi and Yasaka Taxi.

The journey to Kyoto takes about 80 minutes.

TRAVELLER'S TIPS

■ Ticket sales for the Haunted Train (Yokai Densha) begin two hours before the train leaves. To guarantee a place on a particular run, start queuing at the station even before ticket sales begin.

■ The university society behind the Haunted Train also organises flea markets with yokai-themed goods and roving yokai at the Taishogun Hachi shrine in north Kyoto.

A market is usually held on the Saturday of the Golden Week holiday period in early May.

For dates, see "News Event" at www. kyotohyakki.com.

This article was published by the Special Projects Unit, Marketing Division, SPH.

This article was first published on October 28, 2014.
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