Asahikawa’s paranormal stories anthology

■A night in the hospital

In the caretaking room during my night shift at the hospital, just a few moments before a patient’s death, I heard a weird sound:
« Shan, shan »
It sounded like someone with a Khakkhara was getting closer and closer.
Then a white-clothed group of people came in.

From Mr. Takeshi

■The lady from the dam

One day my underclassman brought with him, to my house, a long-haired woman ghost:
My junior spent the night in my house, during which he had a sleep paralysis and saw a long-haired woman running around his bed.
Apparently, the ghost stayed in my home until a friend sensitive to ghosts came to my house. The ghost pulled her hair few times while her stay.

This time, the ghost went with my friend...
After that, she went to my senior’s house and the two of them felt uneasy around my senior’s houseplant.

Few days later, my seniors’ young nephew came to play to my senior’s house…

He pointed his fingers at the houseplants and said:
« There is a long-haired woman here… »

After this, the ghost moved on and on and I don’t know where it went.

My friends’ stories and mine seemed to be connected and ,even now, I get goosebump when I think about this ghost.


From Mr. Shigeaki

■Who flushed the toilet ?

I am a worker in nursery homes, and one day, at dusk, as the hall went darker and darker, I was alone.
I heard some noise coming from the men’s toilets. The urinals are equipped with an human presence detector that activates to flush down the urinal. As you can expect in this story, this day, the urinal’s water ran off when nobody was around.
I ran away from that as fast as I could.

From Ayapi

■The unknown visitor

The 2nd floor dancehall, I felt like I walked past someone.
I thought that person was a customer, so I told my parents about it and asked if they were waiting for a client.
They told me that no one was supposed to come today.
As I told my parents what the man looked like, they went pale.
« That, that is the former owner of this house who used to live here »

From Yuzu

■The school at night

When I was in high school, I returned in the school building with a friend to take my wallet. It was around 20:00.
I saw the silhouette of someone on the 3rd floor, so I simply thought that my seniors were still there.
I looked for my wallet in the classroom, on the second floor, without finding it.
« Now that I think about it, I saw a 3rd year earlier, it’s already past 20:00 but the seniors are not coming down, don’t they have to go home ? Do you want to take a look ? »
As soon as I finished my sentence we heard a loud sound coming from upstairs.
Scared, we ran away as fast as we could and asked the janitor:
« Is there still anyone in building except us ? »
« No, everyone went home already »
…Just who was that person I saw earlier ?

From Yochi

■The 5th floor window…

When I was little, my aunt was hospitalised.
I often visited her during night.
Once, in the hospital room, I looked out the window and saw someone's face.
The room was on the 5th or 6th floor.

(Mr. Takayuki)

■A strange occurrence in my home

A wandering ghost was bound to my house.
If we let some tablewares outside, it would turn it over ,and sometimes, during the night, the security alarm would go on and ring.
It was so scary that we had to call a spiritualist to get rid of that ghost.
Fortunately, after the spiritualist’s intervention the ghost seemed to be gone.

(Nobody believes my story)

From Yuubinya (the postman)

■The brass band club's door

When I was still a junior high school student, I was a member of the brass band club.
During the band usual practice, the door which was supposed to be closed opened.
Then the door closed again, and swung open and close by itself several times.
I first thought it was someone’s prank and looked for the culprit, but this was vain.
After asking everybody, it was clear, nobody touched the door.
Few hours later, at lunchtime, when eating our bentos (lunch boxes) a lot of people spilled their tea or miso soup. All of the students who were reciting in the classroom this day got involved in a « water »-related trouble.
After everyone got involved in a « water »-related trouble, nothing happened anymore.

From Tiara

■Midnight Hospital

I am a nurse and, once, during the break in my night time shift, I went to the little shop on the first floor. As I was going back to the ward when I heard a dripping sound followed by a clatter. A white-haired grandma was walking toward me.
Panicked, I fast-walked to the elevator, and repeatedly hit the « close door » button.
After collecting myself, I thought about the possibility that the grandma was actually a patient.
But a grandma hooked up to an IV can’t possibly be hobbling in the corridor at 03:00 a.m., right ?

From Pagu

■Horror Camp

For a school event, we did a campfire near the forest, when I saw a light, coming from the back of woods and gradually approaching our campfire until I lost the sight of it.
When I thought it was gone, I tried to take a picture of the campfire with my camera.
On the picture, the fire took the shape of an human being.

From Double

■The hospital's unused toilets

I work in an hospital and the incident took place during my night shift.
There is a ward in the back of the hospital where old and unused toilets are.
Since the toilets are unused, the door is usually closed.
I do my night patrol, as usual, coming here every hour until heard a watery sound, for the first time.
The restroom’s hand-washing faucet was open to the maximum and water was coming out.
I was alone, troubled and this whole situation made me feel uneasy as I turned off the faucet.
Then I heard a high-pitched voice right behind my back:
« Aaaah…. »
I turned around but nobody was there. Long strands of hair felt on the floor…
And I was sure that those hairs it weren’t there earlier.
My whole body and voice were trembling with all their might.

From Momimomi

■The bathroom mirror

When I was a child, I went to my grandparents' house in the countryside and took a bath.
The bathtub was cold and made with a silverish-metal, the bathroom floor was also cold, made with stones. The lights were not very bright. Everything about this place was simply frightening.
I just took my bath as fast as possible, and, when I was finished looked at the mirror.
The mirror was black.
So black that I couldn’t see myself in the mirror.
I rubbed my eyes, thinking that something were wrong with me, but even so, the mirror was black. I jumped, naked, out of the bathroom.
I calmed down and returned to the bathroom to collect my body towel.
The mirror was back to normal but the towel was icy cold.
Scared, I couldn’t sleep that night.
Even now, as an adult, I still don’t like taking bathes.

From Yumi

■My customer…

When I was still a salesperson, a customer that looked like my grandfather went in my shop.
At this time, my grandfather was hospitalised so it couldn’t be him.
I offered my help to the customer but he didn’t say any word, he was just smiling gently.
Another customer called out for my help, so I went to help.
When the customer were done, I looked for my grandpa lookalike. But he was gone.
One month later, my grandpa died.
The customer who came this day, was definitely my grandpa.
I didn’t get to meet my grandpa lookalike since that first encounter.

From Nocchi

■The closet

No matter how many times I close it, when I get up in the morning, the closet is open.
My ghost-sensitive friend said there is a doll’s spirit in the room.
Nobody sleeps in the closet’s room anymore.

From Aichi

■The spooky trash bag

I woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t move a finger, I was in a sleep paralysis.
Something was standing near my bed. Something wearing a trash bag on its head was there, making a rattling noise while shaking his head from the left to the right.
The thing, standing around my feet, came up and stood right next to my, still immobile face.
The trash bag thing was looking straight into my eyes.
A cold sweat slid down my face.
Then… I woke up. Although I felt like I woke up. I want to think that was just a dream.

From Winter Futon

■All started at the cemetery

When I was younger, I went to a cemetery, well-known for being haunted.
I can’t see ghosts nor have any spiritual powers. So I didn't felt or saw something out of the ordinary that time.
Then I went home and slept.
Usually, when I’m asleep, I don’t dream. But that night, I dreamed that I was in a graveyard.
Scared, I woke up and tried to sleep again. However when I tried to sleep again, I ,for the second time, dreamt of the cemetery. I woke up several times, and every time I saw that graveyard in my dream.
Even today, I still remember this dreadful night.
Since that I never went to that cemetery again.

From Miruku’s Mother

■The two stalls

About 10 years ago, I went in a certain restaurant’s ladies’ toilets.
There only were 2 toilets and I entered randomly into one of them, when I heard a lound sound coming from the next stall. It sounded like someone punched the wall in-between the stalls.
Surprised, I rushed out and checked the other stall, which was empty.
2 months later, I went to that restaurant again and, when I wanted to use the toilets, one of the 2 stalls had a notice on the door, on which « Do not use » was written.
When I saw the sign, I remembered the sound and a chill went down my spine.
Since that day, I can’t use 2 stalls toilets anymore.

From Mayu

■Floating body

One night, my body got stuck as I was sleeping.
Then my body began to ascend toward the ceiling.
When I thought about this some times later, the day it happened was my grandfather’s death anniversary.
I think he came to see me.

From Natsu

■The white lady

When my son was in kindergarten, he was very ghost-sensitive.
He often spoke about a white, young lady.
When we went on a drive he once asked me:
« Moooom, when did the white lady got in the car ? »
When we were a my grandfather’s house he talked, more often than usual, about the white lady:
« Oh, look the white lady is watching us ! »
I got used to my son talking about her.
But one day he even said:
« The white lady is asking me to come there. »
And I got really scared.
My son is now a high school student and he can no longer see the white lady.
But sometimes, I remember the things my son said when he was still very young.
I believe that the white lady is still here, watching us…

From Ran