Ghost Stories and Spooky Encounters

[LittleGaijin]

Ghost Stories and Spooky Encounters

So over the last few days, Jembru, Bokusenou and I have been trading ghost stories over at Gaiwa's fabulous "Staff Lounge". After reading everyone's spooky ghost encounters, I wondered why we weren't sharing these stories with the rest of you guys! So I decided to create a thread for everyone to read and share... if you dare.

Feel free to share your own ghost stories, and other spooky encounters, here in this thread―or even share the stories you heard from friends! Bigfoot, aliens, pink unicorns with sparkly eyes that prance upon glorious rainbows in the sky... anything goes!

　　　　The internet counts as a friend, no worries. I got yo back. 

[LittleGaijin]

Personally, I only have one ghost encounter (I consider myself lucky!) but I have several other stories from my coworkers from the haunted university campus that I used to live and work at. I'll share those stories here sometime, so keep this thread alive and you'll see them soon!

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So when I was last in Japan, back in 2011, me and my dad were visiting Osaka for the day. When we got out of the main train station in Osaka, we stood outside in the heat waiting for a taxi. There were several other foreigners waiting outside on either sides of us, but I was convinced that this was not the place to wait for taxis, and I was acting really bitchy about that. I wasn't in a good mood.

Suddenly, a taxi came out of no where, and made a b-line straight for us! And then out pops a little man who looked like my Filipino grandfather (my mum's father) who died several years ago. 

Here's the thing. Japanese people and Filipino people look very, very different. But this guy looked just like my grandfather did. Dark brown skin, frail and dangerously skinny, with long, thin pure-white hair that stood up. He was wearing a white, short-sleeved polo shirt with black slacks, and although this is what typical Japanese taxi drivers seem to wear, these are the clothes that my grandfather was never seen without. The only thing different was that he was wearing a white sick mask, but you could tell that he was smiling when you looked at his eyes. This guy, and my grandpa, never stopped smiling. (Point is: this guy didn't look even .1% Japanese.)

Me and my dad were both so shocked the entire time that we didn't talk, or even look at each other, after seeing this guy. We got into the cab and stared at him. I also don't remember the man saying much at all. I got in, mumbled something about the mall I wanted to go to, and we were off. Occasionally, he would cough really loudly into his skinny arm, and then he would chuckle, look back at us and say "ごめん、ね". Here's another thing. His Japanese did not sound right. He had a heavy accent, and at first I didn't think he was speaking Japanese. And yet, he could understand me perfectly.

This sounds like it was a very awkward experience, but it was actually anything but. I felt so comfortable, and almost cheerful, in this guy's cab. I forgot why I was angry with my dad instantly. This is very strange considering the fact that I have never, not once, felt comfortable in a Japanese cab other than this time. I'm always nervous when dealing with taxis in any country, because I'm scared that the driver will try to talk to me. (Lol! No offence to all you taxi drivers out there.)

When we got out of the cab, I looked at my dad and said, "was that Lolo ("grandfather" in my mum's language)?" Eyebrows raised, he turned and said, "you thought so too? I thought I was going crazy." This is coming from my dad who doesn't believe in anything paranormal/supernatural. Not even a little. I was like that before this too.

After taking out our bags for us (he waved my dad off, and always insisted on handling the bags himself which is very much like my grandpa), he waved at me, got into the cab and drove off. He drove around an artsy pillar in the middle of the street, and didn't show up on the other side...

When we returned to America, we told my mum about this. She got chills and said that she thought she sat next to him on a plane to the Philippines. He apparently calmed her down during turbulence. She's convinced that my grandpa is watching over this family during our traveling, since she was his favorite daughter and I was his favorite grandchild. I'm planning on sharing this story with the guys over at Mysterious Universe Podcast to see if they ever heard anything similar.

[Jembru]

Great idea for a thread. The poll probably needs an 'undecided' box though. I find most people aren't fully one side or the other, unless they're aggressively insistant it's a load of old rubbish, or deeply into all things esoteric. I personally think an open mind is best, whichever side you lean towards (one of my bug-bears about the new-age moment is that people accuse non-believers of being closed-minded, while themselves ignoring the fact that their beliefs could in fact, be groundless and there really is no deeper meaning to life than that fact that life exists at all!)

Not sure if this is scary, or just strange, but here's one from a few weeks ago that happened at work;

I work night shift in a supported living house (basically a rented house shared by 5 people with disabilities who require support). At the moment, one lady is in hospital following an illness. It's not unusual to hear footsteps, voices and tapping during the night, and there have been more than a few people refuse to work the night shift, even as a one-off favour, because they feel so scared. When this lady went into hospital though, I heard footsteps on the stairs and then the distinctive sound of her keys (lots of plastic keyrings clattering against metal). I thought to myself, 'ah, here comes M', and was about to go and check if she needed me for anything, when I remembered she wasn't here.

My colleague on sleep-in duty came down early and we sat in the dining room together. I told her about what had happend. She's open-minded, but took my words with a pinch of salt, as anyone would. We were then talking about how ghosts aren't necessarily the spirits of the dead, and I joked that maybe it was M coming home for a biscuit. The lights began to flicker then and my poor colleage went white as a sheet. I reminded her, 'flickering lights can't hurt you', and she calmed herself down. Just then, the sound of the keys I'd described happened again. So I triumphantly yelled, 'See? You tell me that wasn't M's keys!'. She was very spooked, and agreed that it sounded exactly like her keys. It was all very odd (and naturally, everyone who works here knows the story now ^^).

It never happened again, so we never did find out what it was. The lady in question is fighting fit and due to come home tomorrow. This is not my first experience of being haunted by the living!