S P O T ／ SPOT-018

Former Meki Tunnel (Onigami Tunnel)

旧女鬼トンネルきゅうめきとんねる

The name alone — Meki, written with the characters for "female demon" — seems to have been designed to ensure this tunnel would never entirely shed its reputation. Mie Prefecture's most notorious haunted site, the old Meki Tunnel sits in a fold of the Watarai mountains southeast of Matsusaka, its stone entrance draped in moss, its interior cold even in summer. The legends around it are specific in the way that the best ghost stories always are: a woman's figure that climbs into the back seat of cars; an engine that dies without explanation at the tunnel's midpoint; a chill that intensifies as you approach the old stone portal. The tunnel is currently closed to entry, and this is presented as a genuine warning rather than a formality. Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, the physical fact of the location — a moss-covered stone tunnel at the end of a narrow mountain road, surrounded by an abandoned hamlet, carrying a name that means "female demon" — is an exceptionally well-composed piece of environmental atmosphere.