The most popular contemporary Japanese ghost story is a manga called Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. Kitaro is a peace-loving "yokai" (Japanese ghost) boy, the last living (haha) member of the Ghost tribe. This naked guy with a giant eyeball for a head is his father, Medama no Oyaji, who speaks in a really high voice and is always giving his son sage advice on how to survive in the ghost world.
BTW, the 80s Kitaro videogame for the Family Computer was one of my all-time favorite games ever. You get to ride flying ghosts and shoot the enemies. It's like playing Resident Evil, but with cute 8-bit Japanese ghosts instead of ugly zombies.
Anyway, this replica of the cute/creepy ghost dad is actually a standard webcam. A USB cable attaches to the head/eyeball, you can move the guy's legs around to position him to get the right angles.
Product page (Japanese)
This is seriously cool!
Posted by: kungfupiggy | August 07, 2007 at 08:27 PM
As an avant-weird music fan, I am of course obligated to point out that the Medama no Oyaji webcam looks an awful lot like a member of the Residents. No wonder they're so popular in Japan...
Posted by: StrangeInterlude | August 07, 2007 at 08:30 PM
ahh that looks familiar...can any one verify that Medama no Oyaji gets drawn on by someone at some point in the anime/movie?? it looks very familiar
Posted by: Galei | August 08, 2007 at 01:38 AM