(Tokyo) Ghosts and zombies with bloody eyes advance toward visitors in one of the haunted houses in Tokyo, Japan. Halloween may be only a few months away, but the haunted house season is already in full swing in Japan.
The search for a big scare is a well-established summer tradition.
In the country, summer is closely associated with the dead, as it is believed that ancestral souls return to their home altar during the Obon festival in mid-August.
Haunted houses are also a way to escape the heat as the country experiences its hottest summer since records began 126 years ago.
The average temperature in July was 2.16 degrees Celsius above the 30-year average.
Heatwave warnings were issued across much of Tokyo and western Japan on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching around 34 degrees Celsius in central Tokyo.