Horrific 'ghost town' where creepy human-sized dolls outnumber locals by 10 to 1
A tiny village on the remote Japanese island of Shikoku plays host to hundreds of creepy dolls, in a bid to keep the area 'populated'.
The dolls have appeared all around the village of Nagoro, including in schools, waiting at bus stops, inside coffee shops, and even at building sites.
The dolls' creator, Tsunami Ayono, based the dolls on actual people who used to live in the village, and it's since become a bit of a tourist hotspot, and is known as The Scarecrow Village.
Children are replaced by dolls inside a primary school (Getty images)While people are flocking to spend some time in Nagoro, they still say it's a tad creepy.
Google reviewer Gareth Morris said: "Equal parts fascinating, touching and creepy, the scarecrow village is an homage to the former residents of this now-near-deserted mountain village. The mountain roads make it more than a little hair-raising to get to, though the trip was definitely worth the trouble."
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Life-sized dolls outnumber humans 10 to one (AFP via Getty Images)Antonio Ezio Frascarelli added: "This village is... I don't know. A concept between scary, weird, peaceful... You'll see dozens of scarecrows on the way to the 'village center'. Placed where normally humans do stuff. An entire room has been filled with 'not-people' reading, sleeping or talking among each other. The most weird part is the school. Everything is clean, and well kept by the locals, but seeing the building, with shadows at the windows watching outside, and no other sound than the river and the cicadas is unsettling."
Nagoro was on the brink of becoming a ghost town, with just a few dozen people living in the village. It's now entirely made up of elderly locals, and a baby reportedly hasn't been born in the area for more than 20 years.
The number of human residents has plummetted in Nagoro to just a few dozen (AFP via Getty Images)Tsunami's dolls started as something small, but have since gained a life of their own, and outnumber locals by 10 to one.
She told ABC: "I've always made dolls as a hobby. I never thought that my hobby would turn out like this.
"Now that the number of dolls has increased, people from all over the country and even from abroad have come to see them. This town has become very lively."
Nagoro has become known as The Scarecrow Village, and has become a tourist hotspot (AFP via Getty Images)In the village, tourists can find dolls sat at school desks inside the local primary school. A German TV journalist is also spotted waiting for a bus, after documenting the village's quirky characteristics some years ago.
It was never meant for the dolls to outnumber actual humans, but as the village became busier with tourists, so too did the 'scarecrows'.
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