BTW, I was lucky enough to meet Laughlin before he died and got him to autograph my old copy as well as an old copy of "Ghosts Along the Mississippi" and an essay he had written for American Heritage magazine back in the 50s. (I thought the book store owner was going to kill me - but Laughlin was pleased. And I would have done a LOT worse than that to get his autograph!)
Hearn's Japanese ghost stories are guaranteed crowd pleasers - I have told them to a skeptical audience (fifth grade boys) with resounding success (I dress up in my black five-crest kimono and sandals on Hallowe'en to tell them - this was a regular feature of my daughter's elementary school years). When I told "The Boy Who Drew Cats" and "Hoi-Ichi the Earless" I could actually see the boys' eyes getting wider and wider. (The girls, I am sad to say, were hiding their heads and shrieking). Something about a "goblin rat - as big as a cow - lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the temple floor" . . . And there's another one about goblins whose heads came off, and they ran around sucking people's blood -- until they met up with a fearless samurai who had become a wandering monk!
. . . I love that stuff.