Sunday, September 6, 2009

Prayers

I was having problems sleeping at night, and I was going through "Kanashibari," almost everynight. I think a lot of it had to do with me moving out of my old apartment, moving into this one. I wanted to stay at a more "up-Scale" place, so I can could bring my friends over. There was nothing wrong about my new place, except for the "Kanashibari."

Kanashibari is a phenomenam where your body wont move. It is quite commen in Japan, where many Japanese people have said to experience this.
It is said to be caused by the supernatural.....

By Kanashibari got worse, and I realize that everytime I felt my body going numb in my bed, I could see someone standing in the corner of the room.
I cant move, or talk during "Kanashibari," so I just move my eyes to glance over to the corner. It is a man, and he is not someone from this world.
He seems quite content, standing and staring at me.

At first, I was annoyed and scared of this ghost, but I realize he doesnt do anything. He just causes my Kanashibari, and he stares.
Soon, I will fall back to sleep and I will wake up the next day.

I thought he was harmless, until months had passed by. My body was weak, and I was losing weight because of lost in apetite. My hair was starting to thin out, and I always had dark circles under my eyes. When I went back home during a weekend, my mother made me go to the hospital. The doctors couldnt find anything wrong, so I told her about the ghost that lives in my new apartment.

She was furious.
We went to a temple together, and told the monk about my story. He told me to pray during my Kanashibari. In my head, instead of thinking about how to go back to sleep, I should pray.

Namudaidabutu.. are the chants for my prayers.

When I went back to my apartment, I felt a chill. It felt like, something was angry that I left for a few days. Before, this ghost wasnt much of a threat. But soon I realize that it might be something more than a man's ghost.

That night, my Kanashibari happened again. Soon as my body couldnt move, I saw the ghost in the corner of the room. I assumed, that the ghost will stay in the corner as always, but it turns out that it wont...
It took a step, than another.......
When he was close enough, I could see his face.

Oh Shit. There was something very wrong about his face....
It was way pass angry, but more like an insane frenzy going on in his head.

I started to pray, and I prayed fast as I could..
Namudaidabutu, Namudaidabutu, Namudaidabutu......................
I kept on going and going.

The ghost, seemed to notice I was praying....
He started to twist his face, and he let out a big scream like he was in pain.
After a minute, he was gone.....

I kept on praying for a few minutes, but soon I realize everything was ok.
That's when I heard

"Do you think praying helps?"

The words came from right beside me, fallowed by a deep low laugh.
I fainted...

The next morning, I moved out of the apartment as soon as possible....
I am never going back there again
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More about Kanashibari? Check Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

An old hotel

I ended up staying in a hotel in Nagasaki. It was only for a night, since I had a conference for work. It looked refurnished, but you can tell it was old.

But my friend warned me. A lot of people were killed here caused by a fire from the bombings during WWII, and some guest staying at the hotel encountered weird occurrences. Before the fire, the hotel was said to be a jail or a mental institution. I didn’t care that much, since I wasn’t much of a believer of the supernatural.

That night, I put myself to sleep with the little help of vodka. Work hasn’t been going so well, and the meeting I was preparing was making me nervous.

I waken up after I heard a huge BANG at the door.
I didn’t know what was going on, and I still was quite disoriented from all the drinking I been doing.
But the noise was persistent….

BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

Someone wouldn’t stop knocking on the door.

"I’m sleeping!!!! What time do you think it is!?" I yelled back.

"Get me out of here!! Get me out of here!!! "

I thought someone might be drunk, so I kept on ignored whoever was behind the door. It sounded like a man….
But then, I realized it wasn’t a drunk man. As the scream grew louder, the content of the yelling seemed to be way off from what a drunken man will babble on about. Not only that, there were several people yelling at the door.

“I’m burning in here!! I am burning Let me out of here!! Why are you letting us die like this!"

The people sounded angry, but pleading at the same time. I never felt so afraid in my life, and I hid under the covers… hoping the noise to go away.

The next morning, I told my friend about the incident. The same friend who warned me about staying at the hotel. After I told the story, we looked at each other… It was painful to think about all the people who were killed by the bombings in Nagasaki.

"I am just happy, that I was on the other side of the door. If those angry ghosts were in the room, who knows what they might do. "

I said, reminding myself how terrified I was…

My friend nodded, but took a pause to think

"But, if the ghosts said Let me out, doesn’t that mean that they were in the same room as you"

I froze. I realized I spent a night in a room filled of ghosts.

Bumping shoulders

I came back to my apartment one day, noticing the elevator was broken.
It is quite ferquent that our maintanance guy slacks off once in a while, and things won't work for days. I ended up walking up the stairs to my apartment.

My floor was only on the third, so it wasn't much of a problem getting there by foot. But on the way up, a man came running down the stairs.
Our shoulders ended up touching, but he didn't say a word...

"What a prick...."

I muttered to my self as I finished off walking to my floor.

When I got into my room, I turned on the light and noticed something VERY wrong.
There was blood on my shoulder... and it looked fresh...

I remembered about the guy I bumped into earlier, and felt disguested. I locked the front door, and my balcony door as soon as I can.
After I took a shower, I put the stained shirt into the trashcan, and went to sleep.

I woke up with the sound of the door bell. The degital clock next to my bed displayed the numbers 2:30.

Who could it be this late at night?

I tried to ignore the door bell, but it wouldn't stop for a whole 10 minutes. So I decided to ask what they wanted.

Without opening the door, I looked outside the peep hole. There was an officer standing right in front of it, and he looked quite nervous.

"May I help you sir?"

He jumped, putting his hand down from the door bell botton.

"Thank god you are home. I wanted to ask the residence in this apartment about a murder."

Ah, I probably saw the murderer earlier...
But, I don't want to get involved...

"Sorry officer, I don't know anything about that."

"But surely you know something! Did you see anybody suspicious? Can you atleast open the door to talk?"

"I am sorry officer, it's late. I need to go."

I could hear him say something behind the door, but I ignored it and went back to bed. There is no way I am going to get involved in such a thing.

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The next day, I wokeup for work...
Wondering how the case went, I turned on the T.V.
After a while, the murder case showed up.

"The murder involved in a killing last night at an apartment in Tokyo was caught this morning."

The news showed my apartment, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god that is over.." I muttered as I grabbed the remote to change the channel.
But soon, I dropped the remote as I saw a picture on the T.V.

"This is the man caught for the killing of two people last night in Ropponngi, Tokyo.

It was the picture of the police officer who came to my apartment at night....

I thank god I didn't open the door when he came.

Behind

One night, a father and a son got stuck on a snowy mountain. They were planning to go home after spending a night at a rented cabin, but at this weather it didn't seem to be such a good idea.

The father called his wife to tell them they were stuck in the cabin, and it might take another day until they can return safely.
As the father reassured the boy that they were safe, they decided to spend another night.

After dinner, they heard a knock from the door.
It wasn't snowing anymore at this time, so they were wondering who could possibly want anything from them. It wasn't dangerous to drive outside, since the road wouldn't freeze up at this temperature.

The father opened the door, and saw a man standing outside.

"Thank god there is someone here, I was wondering if you can let me in!"
The man looked nervous more than feeling discomfort from the cold. He added,
"I have to wait until my wife gets here, and I didn't want to wait in the car. I saw your cabin up the road, so I thought I could join you guys just for an hour til my wife gets here."

The father opened his mouth to give the man permission to enter the cabin, until he was interrupted.
His son started to cry out loud.
For some reason, the boy was terrified.

"What's the matter?" The father asked.

"Dad, please don't let anybody in. Please don't!!!" The boy yelled.

The man looked offended, and said nothing. While the father tried calming his son, the man gave up and went away.

Soon after the man left, the boy ran and locked the door to the cabin.

The father, curious to his son's behavior, asked why he was so upset. The boy just cried with fear, and told his father nothing.

So, after locking the doors, the father put some wood into the fire place to keep the cabin warm.

Around mid-night, the man came back again. This time, the man did not knock on the door, but he was trying to open the door by force. The boy noticed the noise, but the father told his son to stay quiet.
After a minute or two, the man went over to the windows, and started breaking them. The father was relieved to know that he had shut the wooden cover window inside the cabin.
When the man found out that there was no way to enter the cabin, he walked away.

The father stayed awake all the night, afraid that the man might come back sometime again.

Next morning, the snow stop falling and the streets were cleared up. The father checked the T.V., to see how the road conditions are.
He was shocked to see a familiar face on the news.

"Jeffery Will was caught early this morning for murder of his wife, Kathy Will."

The son woke up with the sound of the television. The T.V. had a picture of the man who visited the night before. Beside his picture, there was the picture of his ex-wife.

"The victim was found in the mountains, cut up with a knife....."

The father turned off the T.V., so his son doesn't get frightened.

"Son, thank you for telling me not let the man inside. How did you know?"

The boy looked up to his father, and pointed towards the television.

"No daddy, I wasn't talking about the man. I was talking about the scarry woman behind him. She was all bleeding, and she was right behind the man looking very angry. She is the same woman that was on the T.V."

Japanese idols

A group of Japanese Idols decided to go back to someone's house after a long night of drinking.
After some discussion, they decided to go back to Yui's apartment. (Japanese people call television personalities "idols")

When they got back to Yui's apartment, they had a couple drinks. Soon, they realize the stack of fan mail and gifts in the corner of the room.
"Hey! Let's look at the letters!" One of the girls said.

"I have so many of these. I forgot all about them!" Yui replied as she reached out to the letters.

The girls started to open the gifts and letters from the fans. Many consists of videos made by Yuis' fans.
They decided to watch some of the videos, just to get some laughs.
Some were normal, where a man might be talking about how he wanted to meet Yui. Some were funny.
One video was a little weird, where there is a old man dancing in a middle of a room in his underwear. All the girls laughed, except for Yui.

The other girls noticed something weird, so they stopped and turned to Yui to see what was wrong.
Yui looked up, and pointed to the T.V.

"This man is dancing in my room!"

Lucky

The day my mom was weird

The boy who was in the bathroom.....

A group of boys who played in the school soccer team went on a field trip with the coach. The destination for trainig was a near by temple. (In the past, temples in Japan offered space for shelter to help cut cost of field trips for schools)
Kaiki, one of the boys, notice that there was a grave yard right next to the temple. He wasn't scared, but didn't like the feeling of spending the night next to the grave yard.

The boys went out hiking that day, and did some muscle training. That night, during dinner, one of the boys mentioned the stories involved with the temple.

"I heard that people saw weird things around here, like ghosts."

Kaiki and the other boys laughed and made fun of the boy who seemed scared.

"But it's true! Look at all these grave yards!"

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That night, Kaiki had to go to the rest room. Being his age, he was not afraid of ghost, but he was certainly uncomfortable with the chilly hall way. He left his futon, trying not to wake all the other guys around him.

When he went to the rest room, he notice that there was a window. Outside, he could see the graves in the dark night.

Creeped out, Kaiki tried to finish as soon as he could, when something caught his eye.
There was a woman, over a grave.
At first, Kaiki thought the woman was crying over the grave. It was past mid-night, so that didn't seem too logical. Soon, he realize that she was eating something. As he looked closer, he notice she had bones in her hand.

"wha....!!!" A gaspt escaped Kaiki's mouth...

The woman, looked up as soon as possible. Her pale and ugly face started up.

"How dare you see me!!"

The woman got up and started running towards Kaiki.

He got out of the bathroom soon as he can...

"What is she? What was she doing? Why is she eating bones?"

He kept on telling himself.
As he ran into the room where everyone is sleeping, he got into his bed. Now that he was with his team mates, he felt safe. "The "woman" was surely just some person who was a nut case. she didn't see me." Kaiki told him self....

But he hears foot steps out in the hall way, fallowed by a song.
"The boy who was in the bathroom has cold feet... the boy who was in the bathroom has cold feet...."
He turns to the closed door, and sees a shadow walking towards it.



He turns back into his bed, hoping she doesn't come in. Unfortunatly, the door opened.
Kaiki can hear the woman opening up the futon, and

Red room

WARNING!: This story is based on a prejudice that Japanese people had in the past towards birth defects.

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Kenzou walked through the mountains, trying to find a good story about the missing girl in the area. He is a well known journalist, and he knew if he worked hard enough he could get something out of the people living in the town.
As the dark night filled the sky, Kenzou stopped by to have some dinner at a near by bar. He talked to the owner of this "izakaya" (Japanese Bar) and asked about any information about the missing girl. The owner shook his head, and told Kenzou to search somewhere else for a story.

As Kenzou left the bar, he picked up a taxi.
He decided to go back to the closest city, 20 minutes drive from the town, to get his sleep back in his hotel.
While the taxi was driving in the dark woods, he could see rain drops hitting the windshield.

"The weather wasn't that bad earlier. I guess the rain season is coming."
The driver said, with a faint sigh.

Kenzou asked the driver to stop, since a woman caught his eye.

"Could you stop here for a second? There, next to that woman ahead of us."

Kenzou saw the woman, drenched in rain. He asked her if she wanted a ride with him in the taxi.

"I live a few minutes ahead of here by car. It is very kind of you for giving me a ride."

Kenzou didn't mind helping this woman, though the taxi driver seemed a little annoyed to get water on his seat that was dripping from the woman.

In the car, the woman kept silent and didn't say a word, and kept on facing down to the floor.
Kenzou found this peculiar, but assumed that the woman was in a bad mood.

"This is it. I can walk from here."

The lady said, as she opened the door.
Kenzou watched the woman get out of the taxi, and walk up a hill to a near by cottage.

"Sir, it seems like the lady made it safe into her house. Should I leave now?"
The taxi driver said, looking at the meter and the time.

"Sorry, wait for me for a second. I will be right back."
Kenzou said as he left the taxi. He found this woman quite mysterious... and as a journalist, a good person to interview. She seems like she had a lot going on, with a lot of weight on her shoulders.

Kenzou slowly walked up to the entrance of the cottage. He peaked into the eye hole, and all he saw was a red room.
He felt a chill down his spine.... Did the woman painted this her self?
Who in their right mind have red room?

He started running back to the taxi through the rain, when he heard the door open behind him.
There was the woman with a knife in her hand, yelling her lungs out.

She chased Kenzou, but he got into the car before she could get him. The driver, so shaken, drove through the rain towards back the town.

They stopped at the Izakaya, and Kenzou told the owner about what happened. He didn't want to call the police, the fault was on him for peaking into the key hole.
As Kenzou took another drink, he told the owner about how weird her red room was.
The owner, got quiet.

"You peaked into the hole... and you said she had a red room?"

"Yes," replied Kenzou. "Why? You heard about that?"

"No, but I did hear she had red eyes."

The exchange student to America

The names used in this story are fictional. Even though the representations may be real, for privacy reasons we have decided to use fictional names.
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I left Japan back in 2005 to go study in an University in Missouri. I was feeling quite home sick after a few months, and the language barrier didnt help at all. I found my self spending many afternoons in the computer lab owned by my University.

Sitting in front of the cold screen of my computer, I entered my student ID before I proceed.
I spent my time chatting with people back in Japan, or checking my emails. All the excitement I had when living in Osaka seemed like a dream right now.

I got used to using the computer near the windows in the corner of the room. One day, I arrived and realized that someone forgot to log out from the computer.
I didnt feel like logging out for whom ever was on the computer, so I decided to use the persons account.
As I did my usually web-surfing, I got curious to find out what kind of web sites the person before me have surfed.
I expected a few porn, but there was only one html listed in the search history.
I opened the html, and I got a black screen with a streaming video.
In the video, there was a women sitting down on a chair.

Weird.....

Thats all I thought at first, but I realize the writings on the bottom on the video.

"This is Susan Garrison, she will die in 30 minutes.

I felt disguested. Even if it seemed like a hoxs, I didnt care.
Some jokes are not funny.

I surfed some more, and I realized the video I saw earlier was getting the best of me.
I wanted to know what a blank home page with a video really had in store....
So, after awhile, I went on my history and found the website. The woman was still here, but she looked exhasted.
No, she wasnt exhasted, she was dead.

For some reason, I kept on going back to the website. I didn't want to go to the police since I was not certain that it wasn't fake.
After a while, I notice that there is a prediction on the bottom left corner of the page.

"Next Target: Karl Gates. Address: 326 Rose Street, MO."

After I came back 2 days later, I found a man in the video.

"This must be karl Gates...." I told my self.
This is when I realized that it might be a good idea to the tell the police.
Before I did, I decided to look at the name of the next target........

"Next Target: Yuri Katayama. Address: 615 Rockhill road, MO."

It was me.
Without going home, I went to the police and told them what I saw. They told me that my apartment was broken into, but they were not able to catch the person who broke in the apartment.

While having a police officer stick by me, I packed and left the country as soon as possible. After I went back to Japan, I never attempted to go to that website again.

Stories from Japan that could chil your spine!

So, I liked scary stories.
Especially the ones from Japan, and I thought it will be great to share some with all of you out there.
My grammar is less than perfect, but if you get the point across I am sure you will be scared and pleased at the same time!