Haunted houses: Test your courage with these six bone-chilling attractions

In Japan, summer is the season for all things haunted. While the Obon holiday in August celebrates friendly spirits, Japanese people also like to take the edge off the oppressive summer heat with more sinister ghost stories. One popular way to experience a cooling dose of fear is visiting an obakeyashiki (haunted houses) in Tokyo.

While Japanese obakeyashiki share many things in common with haunted houses in the West, there is a distinct cultural flavor to the spine-tingling attractions, which have become something of an art form. They range from kitschy and family-friendly to genuinely nightmare-inducing. Here’s our ranking of six of Tokyo’s most terrifying.

Yureido (Yokohama Cosmo World)

Yureido, meaning ‘hall of ghosts,’ is a dark ride that takes you on a tour of a very haunted old Japanese house. Before boarding, you can choose your fear level from one to three. One being ‘a little scary’ and three being ‘as scary as hell’! The appealing exterior gives way to a genuinely eerie world of ghostly and grotesque animatronics with a classic Japanese atmosphere.

Since Yureido is a ride rather than a walk-through attraction, it requires a lot less courage than other haunted houses on this list. This makes it a great attraction for horror-curious kids or anyone who wants to dip a toe into the world of obakeyashiki without pushing their limits. You even get a free photo at the end, so make sure to scream!