The short but scary stories that actually happened in Asahikawa...!

The Businessman on the crosswalk

During a cold winter afternoon, on my way home from high school...
It's been a long time since I didn't had after-school club activities and I was happy to be able go home early.
It was a freezing cold afternoon...

I was waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to turn green at the 4jo Street intersection. I shrugged into my then-popular Burberry scarf.

As I was looking down the only thing I could see was my feet. I felt the presence of two people right beside me, waiting for the signal. On my right, I remember seeing a pair of leather shoes, the kind of shoes a businessman would wear. This is why, I’m positive, a man was standing here.

After waiting for a while, as the traffic light was about to turn green, the man wearing the leather shoes on my right started walking on the crosswalk. I took a step forward with my left foot to match his.

Honk !! HOOOONK !!!! A car horn was honking loudly when I came back to my senses. There was a car coming from the right. Moreover, nobody was around me at the traffic lights, not even the businessman on my right.

The pedestrian walkway literally saved my life.
Sometime, I wonder if that Mr. Leather Shoes wanted to take me to the other side.
It was a horrible experience that I will never forget...

(Pen name: 17 years old at that time)

The hospital basement toilet...

My mother used to work in a city hospital.
As she finished her business in the basement bathroom and was about to leave, she could clearly hear:

"Ohhhh...ohhh..."
She heard a low, muffled, but loud roar.

Thinking that a patient was screaming in pain, my mother panicked and rushed out of the toilet stall to check on the patient, but...

But she was alone in the bathroom.

She hadn't heard the bathroom door opening or closing, and rushed out of her toilet stall as soon as she heard the voice. It would have been impossible to not see someone if someone was there.

After that... no matter how much she wanted to go to the toilet, she never used the basement's toilets again.

(Pen name: Fumidori)

March in the park in the centre of Asahikawa

When I was still a teenager, I was staying at a friend's house near the heart of Asahikawa.
One night in summer, I felt into a sleep paralysis-like state, I couldn't open my eyes, and could only hear the sounds around me...

I was able to hear sounds so clearly that I thought it was a real sound, not a dream’s...
The sound of many people marching and walking together got closer and closer...

The closer the sounds got, and the louder they got, I really wanted to cover my ears. As the sound seemed to be getting closer, I had the conviction that the sound I was hearing was actually the sound of an army marching...

I could hear the "zap zap" sound of their clothes and the cheering-like shouting of the troops. “Wait-They're right here, in front of me! They will bump into me !!"
And then... it stopped.

Rather than feeling scared, I felt sad. It was a very strange feeling.
Since then, every summer, when the Bon Festival draws near, I vividly remember that sound.

(Pen name: Kiyorin)

A ball rolling in the same direction

When I was in primary school, we went on a field trip to a big square in Takasadai. We were all playing with a ball, but balls we couldn't catch always rolled in the same direction.

Even if you throw it in a different direction, it rolls in the same direction.
In that direction there was a rusty of playground equipment left in an old park. Of course, both were not longer used.

When I was a high school student, I heard from my seniors that this disused park was still standing and that the old and rusty playground equipment had still not been removed yet. Moreover, a spooky rumour about this park being a haunted spot was spreading in the high school and the town. “Children playing with the old park's rusty equipment had died", and there were rumours that people would get injured if they tried to remove the rusty playground equipment...

When I heard this story, I remembered my elementary school’s field trip.

The ball rolling in the same direction...

I wonder if a dead child wanted to play the ball with us.
Some time passed since I first met the “ghost,” but whenever I think again about this field trip, I get goosebumps.

(pen name: Ruka-pyon)

Kamuy-Kotan’s white ghost

One night, when I was still a student, I went to Kamuy-kotan with 3 of my friends. We crossed the bridge, but, afraid to go further, we turned around and started to return from where we came.

On our way back, two of my friends, who were behind us suddenly shouted:
"Something is following us ! I can hear footsteps behind us!”
We got scared and immediately drove back home.

Sightings of a long haired woman dressed in a white kimono are usual in Kamuy-Kotan, but were the footsteps hers?
Is that spirit still there now ? Will she always be there?

I would like to know more about that ghost.
Like, for what reason did she die and why is she still there?
Can someone call a medium to verify this ?

(Pen name: Chacko)

A radio that plays by itself

It was something that happened to me before I retired from teaching primary school.

I was sitting alone in the classroom after school.

I heard the door of the bathroom opposite my classroom rattle. It’s just the wind, isn’t it ? But after that, the door of the classroom also rattled, and suddenly the CD radio-player was switched on and the volume was turned up.

I switched it off the loud CD player, but it switches itself on again.

I had no choice but to unplug it from the wall and resume the tests corrections.

On the way home, the volume of the car radio suddenly went up when I passed in front of Kamikawa Shrine.

I turned the volume down, but it went up again.
I had no choice but to switch it off and go home silently.

That night, after going to bed, I heard the ceiling creaking like when someone was walking on the floor above...
But... the people who used to live upstairs had moved out the other day, so the room should be empty right now... Right ?

The next morning, while I was on my way to work, the car radio switch and volume turned on again in front of Kamikawa Shrine.
I turned it off, but this time it turned itself on again and upped the volume.

"Give me a break! It’s too loud!”
I was slowly getting irritated by all those "coincidences", but by the time I passed past the Asahikawa science Museum, it had stopped.

After school that day, while I was in the classroom marking up tests, the CD player was switched on and the volume was turned up.
“Just when will this stop ?!”
I unplugged the CD player, again.
...Again ? I thought I unplugged it yesterday, so it should have been unplugged all day right ? Who plugged it? The door to the classroom rattled, and then the door to the bathroom rattled too.

Something got into my car, stayed in my home for a night and went back home again.

(Pen name: The Busybee Pooh)

Stigmatised Property

I used to live in an stigmatised property in the city. A female spirit and many other strange phenomena appeared from time to time.

The day before I moved out, the number of weird phenomena increased.
For example, although I unplugged the refrigerator, I heard its motor running.

But more than being scary, I always felt like someone was by my side and I didn’t felt lonely during my stay there.

(Pen name: Pun)

A puzzling photo taken in a children's playground...

This is the story of a photo taken when I was 4 years old at a children's playground in Asahikawa.

That day I was playing with 5 of my kindergarten friends and their mothers.
We were gathered in a facility where we could play indoors.

The mothers saw the children playing happily and decided to take a group photo of the children.

The group photo was supposed to be a peaceful one, but it turned out to be inexplicable.

Here is the photo from that time.

Don't you think there is something wrong with this picture...?
Do you remember ? I was supposed to be playing with 5 of my kindergarten friends.
However, we are 7 on the picture.

Moreover the head of the girl in the top row on the right...

(Pen name: Melonpan)

I heard something I shouldn't have...

This is a scary story that I actually experienced.

My parents are self-employed and live in a house with a shop on the ground floor and a living space on the first floor. One night, when I was alone in my room, I heard a voice from somewhere.

It went like:
"Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.”

The sound seemed to be coming from the shop on the ground floor.

When a customer enters the shop on the ground floor, the sensor reacts and says “Welcome!” and "Thank you very much".

At first I thought it was because the sensor was old and start to malfunction. But soon, I was struck by a tremendous feeling of discomfort.

The machine kept saying "Welcome"...

I got scared and hid myself under the covers. Before I knew it I was asleep.

When I woke up in the morning the noise had stopped.
I got up and explained to my mother what happened the night before.

She said to me: "How can you hear the machine saying “welcome”? We turn off the sensors everyday when we close the store!

“It’s impossible! I heard it last night!”

I went to check, and as my mother said, the sensor was turned off, moreover, after thorough checks, we reached the conclusion that we were nothing wrong with the machine.

Then what was that noise I heard...?
Maybe something out of this world kept coming into the shop after it had closed.

That night, the machine never said "thank you" once.
Does that means that those “customers” still wandering in the shop today?

The truth remains a mystery to this day.

(Pen name: Melonpan)

The urban legend of a primary school in Asahikawa...

Did you have an urban legend in your school?

There was also an urban legend in my primary school. It was said that the Japanese doll, kept in the toilet used as a storage room, hair grows.

When I was in primary school, the teachers would get very angry if someone even tried to touch the door of the toilet...!

Out of curiosity, my friend and I decided to wait for the teacher to go away and discreetly open the door.

We looked fearfully inside. The bathroom was a mess, school equipments and various furnitures were kept here. And there was, indeed, a Japanese doll in a glass case at the back of the toilet!

My friend and I were so excited that we forgot our fears.

The next day, we decided to check again to see if the doll’s hair has grown or not.

But when we opened the door again the next day the doll we saw in the bathroom before was gone...!

We looked around the room in amazement and started to look for the doll... There it was...
The Japanese doll was very close, right beside us.

A shiver ran down our spine. Scared, we ran away from the place.

But I think about it, is there really someone who would enter a toilet used as a storage room just to move a doll ? In one day ?
Especially when usually, nobody enter this place.

After that incident, me and my friend never went near that door again.
Years passed since that and sometime I wonder if that doll is still in that place... Watching over the elementary school students.

(Pen name: Mr. Oka D)