Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

Amazing Japanese video with funny references to many classic Forteana, from cryptozoology to UFOs and ghosts.

As some of them are only famous in Japan, I compiled a list in order of appearance:

1. Mothman;
2. Chupacabras;
3. Bigfoot (with a ghost face in the background);
4. Tsuchinoko (crypto-creature famous in Japan);
5. Nessie (hand, this was a nice one);
6. Alien with FBI/KGB/Gestapo agents (actually a “Talk of the Times” newspaper hoax);
7. Flatwoods Monster;
8. The Doll with growing hair (another typically Japanese Forteana);
9. Aliens play with cattle mutilations and…
10. Crop circles, by drawing Doraemon;
11. A play on a famous Australian sea serpent photo;
12. An explanation for Japan’s mystery guardrail metal shards;
13. The standing Lesser Panda that was the sensation in the land of the rising Sun.

“This is a true story in Ras el Khaimah, United Arab Emerites. This picture has been released as a police report evidence in the UAE. The story is that a young man went in the caves in Ras el Khaimah to take pictures in caves known to be deserted, with a friend. He had been warned not to go. The person who had been with him called the police saying he had seen his friend’s flash go off and then his friend screamed. He called his friend but never got an answer and got scared that he’d fallen so went to the police. A few hours later they found the man in the cave dead and the single picture found in his camera is this one.”

The image circulated first in the middle of the 1990s in England, with a slightly different story. “John”, 33 years old, was said to have visited Saudi Arabia, and there he heard friends speak about a picture taken at the caves of the area. The alleged photographer didn’t die: he just thought he had seen something and shot the picture, noticing the strange creature in detail only after the picture was developed. The locals referred to the creature as a “Djinn”, a type of demon.

When he returned to England, “John” tried to sell the copy that he got. But with the publication of the image in the Bornemouth Advertiser, the “djinn” was soon identified as a sculpture. And not even an Arab sculpture, but part of the attractions of a theme park in the Cheddar caves, in Somerset, UK! Yes, the same caves from where the fungus that gives name to the popular cheese came.

The British magazine ForteanTimes had already clarified the picture in 1995:

The note on FT included another picture of the sculpture (without a crease) and a statement from Bob Smart, director of Cheddar Showcaves & Gorge. The illustration is part of the attraction “Crystal Quest” that attracted millions of visitors since its opening in 1991. The ‘djinn’, actually a goblin, is at a grotto with Lord of the Rings-like sculptures created by Rowland Pavey.

The explanation is simple and clear, however one can find in the internet what is supposed to be the email of an employee at Cheddar Showcaves & Gorge denying that the terrifying creature is one of its attractions. Things may be slightly confusing, but fortunately a Turkish newspaper visited the attraction recently and got many photos of the sculpture, including these:

Is it curious to note, as the Turkish newspaper highlights, that in the original sculpture the creature is holding a knife in its right hand. In retrospect, one can notice this even in the original creased image of the ‘djinn.’

The goblin of Cheddar, in a new digital version, also circulated some time ago as being a chupacabras captured accidentally while some friends were celebrating:

It is just the same ‘djinn’, inserted digitally.

That the image has circulated so much, and in so many ways, is probably due to the talent of Pavey, the sculptor. It is an impressive illustration, to find it in a deserted and dark cave could kill somebody sensitive. A heart attack, who knows.

- – -

Hat tip to Jorge Petretski and Andréia Tschiedel

- The Turkish newspaper page with the more recent images of Pavey’s goblin was Efsane cin’ enselendi, but it seems to have been removed since.

UPDATE 01/2009: Oh, the wonders of Internet, where you can now find this picture:

Or this one, another from Cheddar Showcaves & Gorge:

Alas, you can also find that apparently the impressive sculptures were repainted and now look ridiculous:

Rest in piece, El Khaimah Djinn.

A nice story from fellow Brazilian Gustavo Latorre, published on the Vigilia website.
Translated with their kind permission.

Could there be a better place than the so called “Island of the Witches” — Ilha das Bruxas — for the appearance of a Chupacabras? April of 2007, end of summer. Open sky and a breeze blowing, excellent day to wash clothes and clean the house. At least it was my mother’s choice. She and her faithful helper in cleaning, the maid that lives next door, seemed to work at full speed. And the subject of the strange corpse thrown in a wasteland of the neighborhood began to animate the talk. 

I ended up hearing the story: a big animal “that was not a dog” was supposedly abandoned dead nearby, thrown in a wasteland. It was what the people of the neighbourhood were talking about for some days. 

Unwinding the story, I went to the source immediately after my mother: the maid. The idea was to find out who had told to her, and so on, until I found the first witness – original source of the report. To my surprise – and convenience – she had seen the alleged corpse herself. With patience, she told that two streets from where we were, in a big empty area, nearly full of pasture and surrounded by a brick wall of about half meter in height, there was a body covered by a sack. The teeth were human, but the body was hairy. 

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“I’m completely stunned. Please, help me find out if this is true. Note: image taken on the Pinheiros highway, near the Joao Dias bridge”
[Sao Paulo, Brazil].

Skeptics would immediately think this is nothing more than a small guy in a costume, but careful viewing of the video reveals the head of the strange figure is actually on fire.

We blogged about it in Brazil, and soon Marcus Pontes came with an explanation:

“Some years ago a Brazilian artist wanted to make a movie about the curupira [a folkloric figure in Brazil], and he flooded the internet with videos and other false information to give the movie project some urban legend aura.”

Soon afterwards Marcus pointed a link to the original blog where the artist publicized his viral creations: http://neminventonemaumento.zip.net/

Alexandre Camargo also told us that

“It’s really a digital work: the ‘creature’ is the main character of a short horror film produced by Trattoria di Frame (in São Paulo), where I worked some years ago. The designer is the artist Eduardo Schaal.”

Check some more nice images and videos of the creature after the jump

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Back in April a nine meters basking shark was caught in a fishing net four kilometres off Hitachi, Ibaraki. Weighing in at 4,6 tonnes, it’s the largest basking shark specimen ever found in Japan.

To the cryptozoology enthusiasts, like me, one image of the news item immediately reminded the famous carcass of a supposed plesiosaur caught in 1977 by the Zuiyo Maru:

The similarity is no coincidence, as it’s suggested the carcass was actually a pseudoplesiosaur, which is, it was indeed a basking shark carcass. Glen Kuban has a nice reference about it on Sea-monster or Shark? An Analysis of a Supposed Plesiosaur Carcass Netted in 1977.