Happy Halloween: Japanese Ghost Stories

Japanese people traditionally tell ghost stories in the summer... they think that by 'getting the chills' you can stay cool in the summer heat. Here are a few (true) ghost stories from The Japan Times. They originally appeared a few months ago, but I bookmarked the page and saved it for today.

Feel free to add any (true) ghost stories of your own.

Happy Halloween!

Summer is the season of ghostly encounters. That's because the spirits of the dead choose this time of year to return briefly to Earth, according to Japanese legend.
In keeping with this ghoulish tradition, the weeklies are in the habit of detailing the country's most haunted locations in their August editions.

Friday picks eight such places and accords each with a rating of between one and five, as indicated by skull-and-cross-bone icons.

Judging by the article, Saitama Prefecture is an especially scary place, as three of the eight haunted spots are located here.

One such location is along the highway connecting the prefecture to Tokyo's Ikebukuro district. As with the other seven spots, the area's name is not given, presumably so as not to anger the local authorities who fear the negative publicity that residents of the netherworld tend to bring to a place.

Still, readers are told it's at the point on the highway where a forest begins to appear. Push through the trees and you'll suddenly be confronted by a looming tower attached to what appears to be a crumbling European castle. The building was, in fact, a love hotel, although these days it's dark, empty and abandoned.

According to the locals, a hotel guest murdered his lover about 10 years ago, leaving the walls of their room splattered with blood. However, repeated attempts to paint over the stains had no effect -- they just kept resurfacing. They remain there to this day.

What's more, in the aftermath of the killing local residents told of an apparition of the dead woman wandering the hotel's corridors. The widespread rumor was enough to deter amorous couples from checking in, and the hotel's owner was forced to close the place down for lack of business.

Nowadays, people who try to enter the building don't stick around long: Once inside they are confronted by the ghost, who reportedly has blood dripping from her left eye and stares silently at the intruders.

But the scariest place of all, with a rating of five skulls and crossbones, is a residential area of Tokyo.

Years ago, an elderly woman brutally killed all four members of her family here. A court found her insane, so she was sent to a mental hospital rather than jail. But she returned to the house several years later, from which time she became obsessed with her murderous rampage. Perhaps as a catharsis, she recalled the events by writing them out in lengthy detail on numerous pages that she stuck on the exterior walls, doors and anywhere else around the house.

One reads, "The organs flew right out when I stabbed with the knife."

Neighbors say that for years they have been hearing strange sounds and the voices of several people emanating from inside the empty house. The faded pages remain stuck to the walls.

Among Friday's other scary spots are a cave in Shizuoka Prefecture where nearby motorists report seeing a samurai's face in their rearview mirrors; a wooded area in Osaka Prefecture that was an execution ground for criminals in the Edo Period; and a road in Hyogo Prefecture where frequently spotted ghosts are believed to be behind an inordinate number of traffic accidents in a local tunnel.

It's enough to add an ominous chill to the hottest summer weather.

Click to expand...

Tsuka,

I'll catch your story later man but I gotta share this one. Back in my freshman year at college, I took Beginning Acting and our ice-breaker this one Japanese guy, named David, told us a story about midnight madness in the streets.

He and his girlfriend were speeding on their motorcycle or whatever, near an allegedly haunted zone. A lone cop on duty chased after them. The g/f happened to wore all white.

She managed to put on some makeup...

When the policeman caught up, he said:

"Sir, I'm gonna have to give you and your girl...friend a ticket."

*blink blink* "Uhhh, what girl?" David asked puzzled.

The cop looked at the girl who put on pale makeup.

And he took off screaming.

Halloween Ghost Stories huh?

Well I do remember the story of the Anal Pirate. Story has it that if you're boating off the Gulf of Mexico around Halloween, you'll feel an odd chill come about you, followed by your arse hole feeling violated. LEGEND has it that an infamous Pirate once did his deed there... along with his fellow mates, going after "Booty"... only he was only interested in Ass Spelunking. The man, if I remember correctly was Biggums Johnson but he's been dubbed The Anal Pirate ever since some ppl onboard "The Pride of Galveston" found their rectums the size of a sewer pipe, bleeding profusely from it, and only heard the laughs and taunts of a man who's tormented soul lingers in search of Ass.

*Moral of the story... don't go out in the Gulf of Mexico during Halloween. He's supossedly out there between then and Thanksgiving... so avoid it like the plauge.

MD20XX / Storm Rider

never mind...

Just check out the photo labs in cal-state northridge. They're so creepy that even security will never go down there. They're underground (about 5 stories) and well known for hauntings.

Steve said:

Tsuka,

I'll catch your story later man but I gotta share this one. Back in my freshman year at college, I took Beginning Acting and our ice-breaker this one Japanese guy, named David, told us a story about midnight madness in the streets.

He and his girlfriend were speeding on their motorcycle or whatever, near an allegedly haunted zone. A lone cop on duty chased after them. The g/f happened to wore all white.

She managed to put on some makeup...

When the policeman caught up, he said:

"Sir, I'm gonna have to give you and your girl...friend a ticket."

*blink blink* "Uhhh, what girl?" David asked puzzled.

The cop looked at the girl who put on pale makeup.

And he took off screaming.

Click to expand...

Now that right there is a funny story!

-Nick

Great story Steve!

Anyone else got any ghost stories?

tsukaesugi said:

Great story Steve!

Anyone else got any ghost stories?

Click to expand...

the ghost of a father pacing back and forth is in the center of my room. it seems strange because at first I thought it was a shadow untill I shut the blinds and he was staring at me, mouthing "Is she alright, will my baby live?" I am used to him now, but I dont feel comfortable on the 10 of july because he sits down in a chair that I cant see and cries all night, then on the night of the 11th of july I can see his figure suspended from the ceiling on a neuse. I know weird but....he has never tried to hurt me so I dont bother him.

I saw these from a FUJI TV ghost story special.

I can't name most of these places but here's the stories:

1. The deserted suspended bridge

Rumor has it some woman committed suicide by throwing her body off this suspended bridge after her unrequited love went unfulfilled. People say on a black, starless night you can sight her still wandering on this suspended bridge, so a TV crew went to scope out this hot scoop. Among several bizarre supernatural phenomenon include:

The strap on the huge duffle bag of a woman from the television crew cleanly snaps apart at the shoulder strap when the wind on the bridge suddenly picks up for no apparent reason. Is this the work of the disgruntled spirit?

A camera is set on the grounds to capture any supernatural phenomenon. After what seems to be an incredibly prolonged period of inactivity, a white apparition slowly appears as if a smoke had risen from the arm of the supension bridge, turns, then walks to the other arm, and then dissipates gradually into thin air!

2. The burnt-out hotel husk

Years ago, a tremendous fire licked through one hotel and sent its owner into bankruptcy due to insurance payment that never materialized. While most of the people in the hotel escaped a deadly fate, the fire claimed the life of one trapped boy. Numerous sightings of a boy pacing back and forth corridors of the hotel have been made, and when the spiritual psychic visits the pool overlooked by the balcony where the boy is sighted, he says the boy may have actually gotten out, for he senses his spiritual energy in the pool; so has this boy, in his desperation for a bid to freedom, jumped from the balcony only to his death? If so, who is that lost soul that paces the corridors?

3. The abandoned coal town

An abandoned coal town is one of the modern tragedies of Japan. When the mode of energy production shifted from coal to petroleum energy, many towns slowly wasted away from attrition as young people left the towns to seek opportunities in other towns and bigger cities. Of course the danger of gas in the coal mine also is part of the concern that contributes to the decline, I can't help but shed a tear for forgotten towns. Maybe it's the Japanese and Shinto blood that courses through my veins....[/end emotional rant]

So anyways, one such coal town in Hokaido had been sighted as a spiritual hot spot. Their first stop was a coal refinery, and while they were engaging the psychic while she scoped out the refinery, there's a bizarre scratch and some unintelligible mutterings! In an amplified replay of the same footage, it sounds like someone is crying or struggling....!

One member of the crew jokes about the likelihood of discovering ghosts in this hospital, just as he descends the stairs down to the morgue of the hospital, he starts to shake and vomit uncontrollably! Out of concern for his welfare the crew hurriedly bundle him back upstairs for fresh air, and the psychic reprimands him for taking the spirits lightly....

The morgue is huge, and lightning brought with the crew proves inadequate since there is no running electricity for a better setup. The morgue is sterile but cracked and paint peels from the walls. Being the tease they are, they don't reveal any more new information after the commercials, and supposedly the crew felt very sick, as if some massive entity were telling them to 'Get Out!'


That's all the ghost stories I remeber from the Fuji TV special.

I wish I had a close encounter of the supernatural kind. Watching it on TV just doesn't satisfy me enough.

Good work striderpunk and bokmeow.

C'mon you guys, let's here some more.



SCARY STUFF KIDS!

tsukaesugi said:

Good work striderpunk and bokmeow.

C'mon you guys, let's here some more.

SCARY STUFF KIDS!

Click to expand...

I aint shittin ya if you are aware of the other world you can attest to my story

wish I had a close encounter of the supernatural kind. Watching it on TV just doesn't satisfy me enough.

Click to expand...

no you dont a disgruntal spirit can really uck with you, really my uncle's house is haunted by an eight year old who like to tear up papers and pull the dogs tail and move chairs, that's why I want to have christmas

it was a haunted, haunted day. sadly everyone in the small country town had explosive diarhhea due to some rotten beef and moldy potatoe that they all eat every day. the fatter ones had bigger explosive shits because they eat so much more of the rotted beef. it seems like it would be no end and they would shit all over until they die and they were scared.

finally this one guy came into town and opened a school to learn how to kill people and some of the people in the little villiage take this class. very soon though the new teacher got even bigger diarrhea than everone else because he wasnt used to the rotted beef and moldy food. he shit so very hard he would cry for help. late at night on the haunted days people would hear him crying.

finally holloween comes and the new teacher is used to moldy now so he has moderate explosive diarrhea and little did everyone know he teaches TWO different classes. everyone knows he teaches how to kill people but also in the underground he teaches how to MUNG. anyway he was teaching and gets very upset at the students who cant MUNG right he says FORGET U!!! and runs away to home and the students are very sad to get yelled at so they try very hard to MUNG right. they all try to MUNG but the get it all over the faces and into their eyes and ears. scared from all the giblets and penises and vaginas all over their face they run out and scream.

all the trick or treat see the goblin people with rotted faces running for them and get scared. OH NO! PROTECT THE CHILDREN! they cries and some of the better students who learned how to kill people jump through the sky and strike down on the MUNGER people. the people who did not learn how to kill people cuz they were too poor to take the class or their diarrhea too bad simple stay by the children to cheer on the attackers. some did moonwalkes all over the place while others take the children candy buckets and turn them over to use as a drum.

one man chopped a goblin in the neck when he cried NO ITS ME UR FRIEND! but he didnt care all he see is MUNG all over the face and in his eyeballs. once he get chooped he falls down and cries cuz his neck hurts now. the other man just punched a goblin then bite him in the throat cuz he was so hungry due to diarrhea making all his food shoot out of his stomach.

the next morning the teacher waked up like normal and goes to work. in the street he sees his two MUNG students and wonder wtf they doing lying in the street. when he goes up he notice THEY REAL GOBLINS!!!!!!!!! NOBODY KNOW HOW THEY MAKE INTO GOBLINS!!!!!!

I have been told the following is true.

My grandmother from my father's side had some kind of connection with spirits. I was told whenever she would pass a poor person and put her hand into her pocket she would always take out some money eventhough the pocket was actually empty.

Also, there was this one time when someone lied or cheated someone else (don't know the details) out of money and when she asked the person she said she didn't do it and didn't have any money to give back. Then out of thin air someone starts slapping the hell out of that woman until she reaches into her pocket and gives back the money (that woman is still alive today).

I never knew her or my grandfather from my father's side because they died before I was born so I got these stories from secondary sources.

Click Here for Midi Backround Music

GO BACK TO CHINA!!!

AMERICA ROCKS YOU IN GHOST STORIES!!!

HEARD OF STEPHEN KING???? R.L. STIEN???? FUCKING AMERICANS!!! MEMBERS OF THE U.S. FUCKING A!!! BITCH!!!



IN YOUR FACE!!

OOOOH BURN!!!!!

its eerie my house gains its own life on halloween I hate the 31st

FeelGood: ROTFLMAO!!! Your story was the best so far, I almost chocked while laughing!!!

I used to have to spend nights at my Grandparent's house. It was this old fucking brick mansion with like black ivy on the outsides and it was always dark. My Grandpa used to go in the basement with me and tell me that it was haunted, and I never believed him. They had this hallway too, and there was this one room that was like a study- and it was always dark. For some gut feeling I was scared shitless to go near it. Also when you slept, you could hear definate movement and voices from above you. Like 7 years later my dad said that he experienced the same things when he was growing up there. And I found out that the haunted basement thing was real, and my Grandfather was not shitting me. All I remember was that it was always red down there, and there was one room that was connected to it without a door, just an opening. It was ALWAYS dark in there and there was nothing. Just brick. I hate that house.

I guess this isn't really a "ghost" story persay,
but when my father met my stepmother - and
she came back to memphis, she stayed in her
mom's house (which we live in now.) I never
met the woman, but about 3-4 months after
the first time I had stepped foot in this house,
the mom died in her bedroom. It was a few
days before the maid found her - because this
woman was a hermit, and would literally never
open the door. (When the maid would bring
food, she'd have to leave it at the door to this
hallway leading into the room and walk away
- that is how insane this woman was.)

Anyway, I've always been able to see and hear
things, ghosts - whatever you want to call them,
and for awhile - the house was pretty quiet.

After about a year or two, I started dating this
girl named jennifer - and we were at my house
alone messing around. I got up to get something
to drink and the door to her moms room - which
had been open, was now closed. I didn't really
think anything of it - I just happened to glance
over and see it. So I get some coke, walk through
the study and into the hallway and her moms
door was now open. I kind of stare at it for a
bit, but finally I decide to just continue into the
other hall that leads to my part of the house.
We start to mess around again, and I hear a
loud WHOOM - which kind of startled us both.
She starts freaking out, so I walk out and look
around the house, I don't see anything and all
the doors are locked so I start to walk back and
I see the door is now closed. Thinking maybe my
parents are home, I walk to the kitchen and look
out the window, but I don't see their suv - so I
walk back - stare at the door for a second and
walk back in the room.

We decide it'd be good to go out into the den to
watch some tv on the big screen, so we start to
walk through the hallway that leads to our living
room - which is connected to the den.

We sit down, turn on the tv and all the lights in
the room flicker - so we're both like "what in the
fuck." I get up, pissed off and walk to my room to
get my cell and I glance over and see the door is
now open.

I call my grandmother and proceed to tell her about
this door, and why I don't understand why it keeps
opening and closing. She tells me to calm down and
just forget about it, to come over if we have any more
problems and to call the cops if it continues.

I hang up, and jennifer looks like she wants to go, so
I tell her to just chill and we'll see if anything happens.

So about and hour later, we get to messing around in
the den, and we hear the door slam again - so finally
I tell her to get her shoes on and I'd go see what was
up.

We walk into the living room and into the hall - she is
headed toward my room to get her stuff and I decide
to walk towards her door. Bad idea.

I take about 10 steps in that direction and I hear glass
fall and break - so naturally I think "who the fuck is in
my house." I run to my room and tell jennifer to stay
there and I grabbed a wooden sword that was on my
floor and headed for the room. I get right next to the
door and I start yelling "get the fuck out here now."

I step through the door and into the hallway that leads
to the room and the door at the end slams closed. So I
call my dad on his cell, I call the cops and I grab a knife
in the kitchen and head back into the hallway towards
the closed door, ready to kick somebodies ass. I get to
the door and I hear this russling inside - I figure some
thief is trying to steal whatever he can inside my parents/
her room - (there is a glass sliding door that leads into
our backyard in their room, that I figure he probably got
in through) so I yell get the fuck out of my house and it
goes quiet. I decide to turn around and just get out of
the house and as I'm turning I see this figure at the end
of the hallway which about scared the shit outta me. I
look at it but all I can see is the bottom half - which looks
like something out of the 60's. Kind of wierd hippie pants
and this belt that I really couldn't tell what color it was.
I start walking towards this thing and I hear a loud noise
coming from the door, so I tilt my head toward the door,
turn back and whatever it was, was gone.

I know damn well that someone couldn't just take off like
that, so I poke my head out of the door - I don't see any
sign of someone around and I again hear this loud almost
smashing sound coming from the room. I turn around, fed
up with whatever this thing was and I start for the door
handle but I dunno, something felt really bad and almost
like I wasn't suppose to grab the handle, so I move hand
back and all of a sudden something sounds like it's beating
on the door. I get scared as hell and start to make for the
end of the hall and about halfway there the door in front
of me slams shut, so I about kick the fucking thing in, it
flies open and I bolt for my room, grab jen and I start out
toward the study - and as I walk out I see this thing just
standing in the doorway, so I stop - look at it, still can't
see the top half really, and I yell - whatever the fuck you
are get out of my house and I take off outside with jen.

She swears up and down she didn't see anything in that
hallway, but I know what I saw and after everything with
explanations to the cops and to my parents - it all seemed
like a bad dream.

For the next few weeks I kept trekking into their/her room
to look for anything I could use to prove somebody had been
in that room - but after awhile I gave up. Then about a week
later, we were going through an old photo box and she pulls
one out of her mom, hands it to me and I about fall the fuck
out. I stand up and almost scream, I start yelling about how
that woman was wearing the same fucking pants, just with
no belt that the thing was wearing. It about made me go
fucking cold.

Her mom hans't really been back since, I know she's in this
house - and occationally I hear the door shut, but I leave it
the fuck alone.

It only seems to happen when my stepmom leaves and there
is no one in that room. My guess is she just died and never did
leave the room - I mean she spent most of her last years locked
in there. Oh well, that's about it. It's just fucking wierd.

Later

shir0

Great stuff everyone.

shir0 wins. That was a scary fucking story.

I got cold with goosebumps over that story