Youkoso, please come aboard! *bows*

Even though I call it a yakata-bune, I've acquired this charming little junk here in tuodo, and guess what? *whispers* I think it came with a ghost! But I'm not quite sure. Sometimes at night when the wood creaks I could swear I hear a voice, distant and etheral. And when the night is darkest, I often think this voice is telling a story.

I shall relate it to you on the next night before O-Bon, when in Japan the game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, A Gathering of 100 Ghost stories, is played.

I wonder if the Chinese celebrations are very different from ours? In the night preceding O-Bon we use to gather and light one hundred candles. Each of the flames represents a ghost story. When a story is told, a light is extinguished and someone else starts another tale - thus shrouding the place more and more into darkness as tension and anxiety grow.

And slowly, very slowly the ghosts become visible...

Credits
• Main image: Chinese Sampan © powaliandy •• Food images: • Tea Eggs, Zong Zi © jeanner • Rice Cookie © AveQute • Prosperity Cakes © tobym • Spring Roll © (nutmeg) • Layered Coconut Kheu © Aimei's Creations • Offering Cakes © nahcnivek • Squid Bits © dietkoke • Dumpling © foodtrails • Stufed Cabbage Leaves © ryo@flickr • Shao Mai, Har Gao © Passionate Eater • Stuffed Leaves © marisa_u • Shen Jian Pao © ieatishootipost • Mushroom Dim Sum © theofel • Other images and page design: Yoshinda • • Background music O-Bon thread: "Ushiwaka's Dance ~ Playing with Ushiwaka" by Hiroshi Yamaguchi from the album "Okami Original Soundtrack", hosted at at imeem.com •