You hear about so many disturbing crimes happening these days, don't you? Fearing that I could easily be next and refusing to treat it like someone else's problem, I made sure to take maximum precautions living on my own. One thing I used to do regularly was shout out loud the moment I returned to m…
This happened back when I was attending a vocational school. At the time, I was living with my boyfriend. It was a day off, so we were getting ready to go out somewhere together, but I couldn't find m…
It must have been about thirty years ago now. I was still newly married back then, and having just had a child, my days were a blur of activity. “I have a favor to ask…” My mother, who lived nearby, c…
My dad was the type of guy who’d take a book or newspaper into the bathroom and stay in there forever. I didn’t really mind, but my mom always gave off a vibe that she wasn’t too thrilled about it. No…
I have the kind of look people usually describe as "gloomy" or "awkward." People who look like me don't tend to get the warmest reception, but I am who I am. As long as I keep clea…
This is a story about something I experienced back when I was hospitalized. When a certain illness made hospitalization unavoidable, I resigned myself to my fate and checked into a large general hospi…
A few years ago, I fell ill and had to be hospitalized. It was just a run-of-the-mill municipal hospital, and I was admitted to the internal medicine ward. My stay lasted about a month. The ward was f…
Back in college, when a friend moved into a new place, a few of us decided to crash his apartment to tease him a bit. His place was pretty typical for a college student—not brand-new, but not falling …
This is a story from back in my college days, when a few friends and I went down to the beach. Just so you know, all the names used below are pseudonyms. That day, three of us guys—my friends Tanaka, …
This happened over twenty years ago, back when I was still in middle school. It was just a few days before summer break was about to end, and my mother drove my younger brother and me to the local com…
When I was 25, I had a boyfriend I'd been dating for about a year. Things were going really well, so he decided to introduce me to his family... but that was where I ended up going through something t…
This happened during summer vacation when I was in seventh grade. Normally, my parents, my older sister, and I would spend a few days at my relatives' place out in the countryside. But that year, my s…
This happened two summers ago, when I was new to the job and working a night shift at the hospital. That night, I was handling patients in the emergency room. Several ambulances came in, and one of th…
My main hobby is fishing. My style is to enjoy it anywhere—sea, mountains, or rivers—but my absolute favorite is taking a boat out to sea, where you can really experience the true thrill of the sport.…
This is a chilling experience a college classmate of mine went through back when we were students. One night, he came running into my apartment. Pale as a sheet, looking like he had seen a ghost, he c…
I love scary stories—listening to them, reading them, watching them, I enjoy it all. Back then, I was particularly obsessed with going to dinner meetups—what people nowadays call "offlines" …
This is a story I heard from a TV producer at a popular network. There's a show where the crew approaches random pedestrians in front of train stations, offers to cover their travel expenses, and asks…
There was once a little girl named Aya. Born with a weak heart, she spent her brief life going in and out of the hospital. When Aya was in first grade, she suffered a sudden cardiac episode during cla…
"Senpai, you won't believe what happened. When I was coming back from my business trip yesterday, something really strange happened." The junior colleague sitting across from me at lunch sud…
This is a story from when I went back to visit my parents a while ago. My parents live in a public housing complex in western Tokyo known as a "Toei Danchi." I was sitting in the living room…
My grandparents' place was typical of the countryside—a sprawling house whose grounds even included a mountain and a waterfall. Lush trees grew thick in the garden, which featured a large pond where k…
Do you remember when scary URLs were all the rage on the internet? Classics like "The Red Room" or "The Homepage of Death"—proof that paranormal stuff exists online, too. Back when…
This happened during a trip a while back. I love fishing, so I used to go on out-of-state trips all the time. Taking the highway for four or five hours to somewhere new, catching fish you can't get ba…
There's a somewhat strange intersection near my apartment. I live in a rural town right now. The road here—a neighborhood access road, I guess you could call it—is so narrow that two cars can barely s…
When I was in the lower grades of elementary school, our after-school playground was almost exclusively the schoolyard. Once classes ended, we would stay right there on the grounds, playing soccer, do…
