Chill-seeking: Japan's haunted house summer tradition

Kimono-clad ghosts with bloody eyes convulse in agony and lurch towards visitors at one spooky establishment in Tokyo, roaming around groaning like zombies. Summer is closely associated with the dead in Japan, because it is believed that ancestral souls return to their household altars during the mid-August "obon" holiday. So a visit to a haunted house is seen as a refreshing respite from the season's often stultifying heat and humidity -- thanks to both modern air-conditioning and the less tangible chills sent down one's spine.