I'm a man in my 40s living in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture. Since I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve heard plenty of rumors about haunted spots around town. When I was younger, curiosity used to get the better of me, and I’d often take girls out to check them out. Luckily, I never ran into anything supernatural, so I always figured the rumors were just talk and there was nothing actually to it. But after I visited one particular place, that mindset completely changed. Let me share what happened, why we went, and where it was.

This happened about fifteen years ago, when I was around thirty. At the time, I was dating a nineteen-year-old girl who lived in Hashimoto, Wakayama. After she graduated high school, she started staying over at my place more often, and she frequently asked me to drive her somewhere late at night.

At first, I’d take her to scenic night-view spots, but eventually we ran out of new places to see. When I told her we’d already been to every night lookout in the area, she begged me to take her to a haunted spot instead.

Well, she was young and full of curiosity. Plus, since she didn't live in Wakayama City, she was probably intrigued about what kind of places were out there. So every time she stayed over, I’d take her to another haunted location. That’s how we ended up visiting Setonaikai National Park in Kada, Wakayama City—a trip I’d come to deeply regret.

Truth be told, it was my first time going there too. A friend of mine had specifically told me never to go there at night. That friend was my driving buddy, and ever since we bought our cars after high school, we’d spend late nights cruising around together.

We’d driven almost everywhere in Wakayama Prefecture together, but this was the one place he warned me to stay away from. According to him, a friend of his worked at the Kyukamura Kishu-Kada resort nearby and told him, "Seriously, stay the hell away from that place." My friend probably knew the details from his buddy, which is why he stopped me so firmly, but for some reason, he never explained why.

Since he didn't give me any specifics, I brushed it off, assuming it was just your run-of-the-mill local haunted spot despite his warning.

I’d never been there because of his warning, but my girlfriend really wanted to visit a haunted place. I thought, "Why not? This is perfect," and drove her out to Setonaikai National Park.

It was about a thirty-minute drive from my place to the parking lot just before the park. Since it was 1:00 a.m., there weren't any other cars around. Fooling around with stupid jokes like, "Since no one's here, we can make out without anyone watching," we started walking toward the park.

The moon was out, so it wasn't pitch black, and the light from my flip phone was more than enough to see where we were walking. When we got to the site, the atmosphere was insanely eerie. Everything around us was built from brick. It looked like something straight out of Castle in the Sky. The site had been built as a military fort during World War II. Back then, a lot of soldiers had been stationed there, and artillery cannons had been installed. I only learned all those details later, but at the time, it just felt creepy. This was before the urban exploration hype, and I instantly felt that this place was genuinely bad news.

When I looked at those brick fortress ruins, a chill went straight down my spine. My girlfriend's face had gone rigid, too, so she must have felt something as well. We should have turned back right then, but... we felt like we’d come too far to just turn around, so we pushed deeper inside. As we walked around, taking in the brick buildings, we came across one spot that felt exceptionally ominous.

Inside the building, there was just one large, completely empty room with nothing in it. On the far side, there was an opening like a window. I felt a chill worse than anything before. Thinking "This might be really bad," I tried to take her hand to lead her outside. But she had frozen in place, staring toward the window at the back of the room. When I asked her what was wrong, she snapped out of it, but she looked utterly terrified.

From that moment, her behavior drastically changed. When I asked if she was okay, she just nodded without saying a word. Sensing that we needed to get out of there immediately, I decided to abandon our exploration mid-way and retreat.

When I told her we should leave, she nodded and clung tightly to me as we walked out together. But even then, something about her felt off—like she was terrified of something. At any rate, we made it out of Setonaikai National Park and got back to the parking lot. Once we were inside the car, she seemed to calm down, and she started talking about what she had seen inside the brick building.

Apparently, her initial impression of the place was the same as mine: just thinking it had a cool atmosphere with all the brick buildings. But as we walked together, we entered that specific brick building.

That was where things went wrong.

Opposite the entrance was that window, and leaning out looking through it was a male soldier dressed in a military uniform. She said he looked just like an old Imperial Japanese Army soldier. He didn't seem to notice us; he was just staring outside, almost as if he were on guard duty.

There was no way a person—let alone a soldier—would be there at that hour. Realizing we had stumbled into somewhere we shouldn't be, she had frozen in terror. That was when I called out to her and brought her back to her senses, but she was terrified that if she replied aloud, the soldier would notice her. That’s why she didn't answer when I spoke to her. And the terror didn't stop there.

As we were walking back together, she said the pathway we had just come through looked wrong, too. In the alleyways between the brick buildings, there were soldiers in the same Imperial Japanese uniforms sitting along the path, or peering out at us from windows. She was afraid that speaking would draw their attention, which is why she stayed completely silent on the way back.

Once we left Setonaikai National Park, the soldiers were gone. Reassured by being back at the car, she had recovered enough to explain what happened. I felt a chill run through me, amazed since I hadn't seen a thing... when suddenly, her expression shifted.

With a terrified look on her face, she stared at me—no, she was staring right behind me. In a small, trembling voice, she begged, "Behind you... He's right behind you... Just drive, please!" From her tone and expression, I knew she wasn't joking, so I started the engine and took off immediately.

She kept trembling uncontrollably all the way until we hit the main road, so I asked her, "Was he outside?" She just nodded silently. Remembering that she hadn't made a sound when she saw them earlier either, I kept driving, wondering if something was still following us.

Once we reached a bright, busy four-lane road with plenty of traffic, she finally calmed down. Just as I’d suspected, there had been a soldier in an old Japanese military uniform. And he had been in the back seat. When I heard that, my heart almost jumped out of my chest. She told me, "He's gone now, so it's okay," but I couldn't relax at all.

I wished it had ended there, but it didn't. Scared to go straight home, we decided to pull into a family restaurant along the way. Family restaurants back then were open 24 hours, and even late at night on a weekend, there were plenty of customers around, making it pretty lively. Being somewhere bright with people doesn't necessarily mean you're safe, but being in a place like that gave us some peace of mind.

As we sat at our table, the waiter inexplicably brought out three glasses of water and three hand towels. My girlfriend and I both froze. Right—the waiter must have seen the two of us plus whatever had followed us. We had thought we were safe once we got there, but we were dead wrong. Both of us realized it instantly and turned pale. In the end, we just ordered drinks, downed them quickly, and left.

We bought salt at a convenience store and used it as a purifying agent. Whether that worked or not, no strange phenomena have happened since. But from that day on, my girlfriend never asked me to take her to a haunted spot again, and I stopped going to them myself.

My friend had warned me years ago not to go, and it turned out to be genuinely dangerous... I deeply regret not listening to his advice.