不思議好き怖い話好きさん集まれ!!

This is a truly strange story that came to mind when talking about a fire. It's a story that seems too coincidental to be true, but it's a real one. I'm stating this upfront to avoid any 'what ifs' later. I'm writing it because I genuinely find it strange. This happened in the dead of winter, in December. When my mother lived at her previous address, she went to the senior welfare center every day, and on this particular day, she was on the bus to pick her up. She said they passed a fire truck with its siren blaring on the way. When she returned home, my mother told me, likely hearing it from the center, 'Apparently, it was a house in [location]... an old man was home and passed away.' 'They said it was a Christian household...' Hearing this, I blurted out, 'Huh?!' It was December 24th, the middle of winter... I don't know if that's a good or bad omen. I wonder what it was like for the old man? It's a true story that sounds like a lie.

This is a story from when my mother was young and commuting to work from her parents' house. One day, there was a fire in the neighborhood. It happened during the day, so my mother, who was at work, didn't know about it. She heard about it from her grandmother (my mother's mother) after she returned home. She also learned that a high school student who lived in the house where the fire started was rushed to the hospital but later passed away. That night, as she was dozing off, my mother felt a sensation as if she could see outside. Her body wouldn't move. She was experiencing sleep paralysis. Something flew in from the residential streets outside the window, beyond the curtains. A young woman with severe burns all over her body stopped outside the window. She was searching for something. What? Her parents. "I heard your mother and father are in 〇〇. Do you know the way? If you're okay, why don't you try going there?" The woman bowed once and then disappeared into the night sky. My mother, freed from the sleep paralysis, went back to sleep. ...A few days later, there was a presence outside the window again. It was the same woman, and her burns had completely disappeared. "Thank you for that time." She said this, bowed once more, and then ascended. It turned out that day was the seventh-day memorial service for the deceased woman...

I couldn't think of any other title than the one above. I don't think there's a better title than this. This is a story my mother told me about her childhood. When my mother was a child, her mother (my grandmother) used to tell her, "If you don't go to sleep quickly, Guugu will come!" to get her to sleep at night. When I asked, "What's Guugu?", she said, "Probably a 🐸 frog. It made a lot of noise." During my mother's childhood, after her grandmother said "Guugu is coming," the sound of drums would be heard, saying "Don Don." My grandmother would say, "Look, a tanuki is beating the drum, so hurry up and sleep." "We heard it every night back then. But no matter how much everyone tried to find out where it was coming from or who was playing it, they couldn't find out…" "I know now it wasn't really a tanuki playing, but I often wonder, where and who was playing that drum?" my mother used to say.

This is a story from when my mother used to work as a nurse at a hospital. She told me about it when we were talking about night shifts... The night shift was from 7 PM to 8 AM the next day, meaning over a full day of work. Apparently, it was an extra hour until 8 AM due to handover. I listened, thinking it must be tough even with scheduled naps, but it seems that day was even tougher. Even though she had finished her night shift, a day shift nurse suddenly called in sick. Since they were short one person, my mom had to continue working. As she was about to leave, she saw an old man standing behind her colleague who she was close with! It wasn't a ghost within the hospital, but an old man connected to her colleague. When she described his appearance, it turned out to be her colleague's grandfather. Around that time, she got a call from home saying that this grandfather had just passed away. To the grieving colleague, my mom said she'd cover the rest of the night shift so they could go see him, and ended up working another night shift. In the end, she apparently worked for 50 consecutive hours. She said it was tough, but she was glad they could say a proper goodbye... but there's so much I want to comment on. Since it was the obstetrics and gynecology department, the spirits of aborted fetuses often followed. I can understand spirits of mothers and babies, or just mothers, but what about the male spirits? This isn't the time to laugh about it... To all the nurses out there, thank you for your hard work. Please get plenty of rest on your days off.

It became a craze among the kids a year younger than me, and they were playing with a Ouija board with vague knowledge. The school teacher said, "If ghosts really appear, no one can handle it, so you shouldn't do it." But the younger kids wouldn't listen. I was pestered into playing with a friend, and I ended up watching from behind. As I watched, there was one person whose movements clearly indicated they were moving the planchette. ksgk asked. "Ouija board, Ouija board, who will get hurt today?" The 10-yen coin slid and moved to『Friend's Name』. ksgk was grinning at my scared friend, and when I asked again, "What should we do?" it moved to『Impossible』. My pure friend looked like they were about to cry. I got unreasonably angry and reached out from behind, placing my finger next to my friend's finger, and said, "Then I'll be the substitute for ksgk." As soon as I said that, ksgk got really mad and let go of the planchette. Then, they suddenly stood up and their foot got tangled with the chair? Or caught on it? They tripped and fell. They hit their face on the floor and split their lip. This was definitely not because of a ghost

Sometimes in my dreams, I realize I'm on a train. I don't know why I'm on it, but I panic about being on it and then panic more about needing to get home. This isn't a scary story, but I'm writing because I have a question. In my dreams, the train is sometimes in a tunnel, or sometimes emerging from underground. But what's common is that we pass through 'stations'. The train in the dream is a normal train with a decent number of passengers. An ordinary car interior. 'Stations' that are passed normally. Lately, I've been thinking… maybe if you look in places like this? Or worlds like this? You might find it… you might discover the 'Kisaragi Station'. Though I can only pass by and never get off (lol)

So, our graduation project was a tile mosaic (where each student made an original tile, and we'd put them together to make a big picture). Then, about two weeks before graduation, a girl named Y from the next class passed away. On the day of the graduation ceremony in March, as we were walking back to our classroom after it ended, Y's tile fell off the wall in the hallway... It was *her* tile, and *only* hers. I remember everyone – students, teachers, even the parents attending – freaking out. Even now, thinking about it gives me the creeps.

This is a story I heard from my mother about her uncle. My mother's uncle was in what is now China during the war. According to my mother, he was the type of person who would 'walk around with his chest puffed out,' as they used to say. Like a yakuza type? I'm writing this because it's a story my uncle said he actually saw in China. There's a common 'bell story' in Chinese ghost tales, but my uncle's version goes like this: 'Long ago, a craftsman was ordered to make a bell. He kept failing, so he consulted a fortune teller, who said, "The bell wants the blood of gold, silver, and bronze…" The craftsman had three daughters. When they heard their father's words, the daughters jumped into the furnace to help make the bell. And so, the bell was completed.' My mother asked, 'Did you see the bell?' My uncle said he saw it there. When my mother asked, 'Was it different somehow?' he replied, 'It was different. You could tell immediately. There were clumps of blood everywhere.'

I'm writing this knowing I might get laughed at. Because it was genuinely terrifying!! This happened when I was in middle school. That night, I was so sleepy but really had to use the restroom, so I stumbled my way to the toilet while half-asleep. After I finished and washed my hands, I headed back to my room... On the way, there was a mirror, and I glanced at it. Standing under the dim hallway light was a woman with long hair... I almost screamed, but When I looked closer, it was me. My eyes were half-open from sleepiness, with a vacant expression. Back then, I had hair down to my back, and it was all messy from just waking up. I was so startled by my own reflection that I almost screamed... My family laughed when I told them in the morning, but it was really scary.

Do any of your homes have strange rules? In my house, Hatsumode (first shrine visit of the New Year) is forbidden. Not just for the first three days, but for the entire month of January. This is because it's believed that going to pay respects brings bad luck. In elementary school, the year I went for Hatsumode with friends late at night, my father had an accident and was hospitalized with a ruptured Achilles tendon. The year we went for Hatsumode to pray for my older brother's high school entrance exams, my grandfather passed away. Two years later, the year I went for Hatsumode for my own high school entrance exams, I was in a traffic accident. I had to use crutches from the very beginning of the school year. When my younger brother was taking his high school entrance exams, my father had an accident and ruptured the Achilles tendon on the opposite side, leading to his second hospitalization. Ever since then, the Hatsumode ban has been in effect. I think it's just a coincidence, but since we don't have any trouble not going for Hatsumode, we follow the rule.