Ancient Little Ghost Boy

Taki was 6 years old when he died. No one knows where he was going but legend has it that he was on his way to find a healer for his mother who was sick at the time. Traveling through the merciless winter of Japan all alone in centuries past Taki fell ill on his journey and took shelter under an old shrine where he closed his eyes never waking up again.

Fast forward to now, it is said that Taki haunts the shrine and the building surrounding it which is a traditional Japanese inn called a ryokan.

Throughout the years, countless guests have shared accounts of sightings and strange encounters at the inn. Some have said that they have seen the boy appear before them as they’re drifting off to sleep. Others say that they see him running through the grounds around the shiner and some have even said that they wake up to the boy sitting on their chest while touching their face.

There is one group in particular where the boy is reportedly supposed to show up nearly every night. It is a quiet serene room with a shrine dedicated to the small boy. Toys are laid out across the shrine as gifts from previous guests who wish to pay the boy respect.

It is said that if respect is not paid to the young boy’s spirit that they will be cursed and will face a terrible future.

I have decided to go and see for myself. I’ve flown all the way to Japan to stay at this inn in hopes of meeting little Taki. I have been needing a break for a long time now and I figured this was the right time.

A few friends offered to come with me but I would much rather just do this alone. I know a lot of my friends and family worry about me. They worry about the things I get myself into, the places I explore.

I don’t think I’m lonely but I know the fact that they give me. It’s sad and helpless like I am in need of something that they have but I won’t accept.

I’m honestly fine and I wish they knew that. Going to see a small Japanese child ghost just happens to be on my bucket list. I don’t get scared easily and maybe that is something I need help with?

Either way, I don’t scare easily. I once stayed in a haunted bed and breakfast that was supposed to be the most haunted in all of the US. It was a disappointing evening, to say the least. I mean I got a great night’s sleep, can you believe that? So much for haunted, either that or the ghosts seemed to tiptoe around me.

A long thirty-six-hour journey had me feeling tired and in need of a shower. I had another long day of travel tomorrow before I actually got to the inn itself and then I would spend three nights in total at the inn just to relax and hopefully see something that was centuries old and still active.

I got to my hotel which happened to be the cleanest hotel room I had ever stayed in. Complete with a bidet in the bathroom I already knew that this trip was going to be amazing.

The shower was perfect, everything about it from the temperature to the water pressure was just right and once I was dressed and in bed, I can’t remember what happened from the moment my head hit the pillow to me waking up at exactly 5:00 in the morning.

A bullet train, local train, and a bit of walk and then I would be at my old haunted accommodation. I had already sent some pictures to my family and some of my friends who promptly responded with “be safe!” And “oh looks so pretty! Doesn’t look haunted!” And of course “Are you okay? I wish you had taken someone with you. Let me know if you need anything.”

I was greeted by the innkeeper who was a very kind Japanese elderly man. My little bit of anime Japanese only got me so far but we were able to get things done in the end.

My booking was found and I was able to pay. He showed me the meal schedule and a pictograph of the hot spring rules which were written in some English that would have made google translate laugh. I understood though.

I got my stuff ready and the elderly man gestured me over to follow him. As we were walking down old narrow corridors we started to pass a large room that looked like it was used to hold tea ceremonies. He stopped abruptly.

“This…” he said gesturing at the whole room “otokonoko no heya. Taki desune. Taki no room!” He nodded in the direction of the shine that was covered in toys from today everything from a soccer ball to a light-up toy car littered the shrine-like a pop-up toy store.

I was struck by the sheer amount of stuff that had been left for him. I couldn’t imagine what an ancient child ghost would do with a light-up toy truck but in this case, I think the respect being paid was what was most important.

He shuffled his way to my room sliding the old paper door along revealing the room I’d be staying in for the next three nights.

He smiled at me and nodded “enjoy!” Then shuffled his way back out and down the corridor.

First Night

I had dinner and explored a bit outside where the shrine was. The atmosphere felt like I was trapped in the dead space of a parking garage. The sound and the wind seemed to be stuck with nowhere to go.

Standing for quite some time outside the shrine I scanned the area to see if I could catch anything ghostly running around. It seemed like a good 15 minutes and before I decided to go back in. On my way to the inn, I saw a mom and her small boy walking in the opposite direction.

The mom had her camera phone out and was recording a video. Maybe to show the family where they had visited. I hardly thought this place was an appropriate vacation spot for children though.

Back at the inn, I had my dinner and a nice hot shower. I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to join strangers naked in the hot springs so a quick shower was just fine. Back in my room, I sent some more pictures to my loved ones back home. By this point though they were probably asleep or at work maybe? I always forgot what the time differences were.

11:00 p.m.

I started to nod off when I heard footsteps out in the corridor. All of the lights were off except for my reading lamp so it cast a large shadow on the paper door. I’m sure whoever was out there just saw a large black blob of a silhouette. There was no mistake that a foreigner was lodging in this room.

Suddenly, the paper door started to slowly slide open. I could see a small hand pulling it open and then a face peeking over at me. Then some larger footprints soon followed. My heart would have nearly fallen out of my pale cold body if I hadn’t realized it was the little guy and his mom from earlier.

She grabbed the little boy’s arm and started to tell him off in Japanese while simultaneously smiling at me and apologizing in English.

“So sorry!....Very sorry!” She kept saying in the middle of her lecturing the boy. She promptly shut my door with a few thousand more apologies and off they went to their room.

I was exhausted and hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, I figured I might as well get some sleep since the ghost seems to wake guests up in the middle of the night I thought I would wait my turn.

Nothing came. I opened my eyes and again it was 5:00 a.m. if there was anything I hated more than waking up early it was jet lag.

As I got to breakfast the other guests were already well into their meals chatting away about who knows what. One couple seemed especially excited as they quickly gobbled up their miso soup and rice. As expected I was the only foreigner there, the rest seemed to just be Japanese people enjoying their holidays away from school and work.

The couple kept showing each other photos on their phone and the woman kept nodding her head and padding her chest. If I could guess, they probably got some footage of the ghost and maybe had even experienced the weight of the boy sitting on them in the night.

Second Night

I had a long day of exploring the beautiful area around me. I found a walking trail that ended up leading me to some creepy dark tunnel, I found a lone shrine in the woods, and of course, I had to go to a Japanese convenient store further into the small village in order to get my anime snack fix.

I wasn’t planning on visiting Tokyo on this trip as I wanted to get a taste of all of the more rural parts of Japan. Tokyo could wait though, that’s when I would bring friends with me. I know my friends and family say they want to come but I don’t think they’d enjoy the more traditional stuff anyway.

It was about 4:45 p.m. when I got back to the ryokan. I could see some of the guests having tea on the outdoor benches. It was that couple from earlier this morning, and again they were talking excitedly to each other.

I was so curious to know what they were talking about and I knew that my very basic Japanese was going to get me nowhere so I just decided to nod and say “hello” in English.

“Oh!” The man said looking a bit surprised “Hello.” He bowed at me.

“Hello,” The woman said also bowing at me.

“Do you guys speak English?”

The woman began to laugh a little bit, covering her mouth in what looked like embarrassment.

“A little.” The man said pinching his fingers together and holding them up to his face.

“Are you here to see Taki?” The couples’ eyes widened as though they had coordinated the look. In unison, they made a sound of shock, and again at the same time, they both said in their excited tone. “Taki-kun!!!!!”

“Yes, yes, yes, Taki-kun!” The woman said quickly scrolling through her phone. “We have shashin of Taki!” She looked at the man for reassurance that her English was okay.

“Pictures. We have pictures of Taki-kun!” He said handing me the phone. What I saw on the screen were pictures of an empty room. It was the large room with the shrine full of toys. I scanned it for a little bit longer.

“Do you see?” The woman asked. “Taki-kun do you see?” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be looking at so I just nodded and smiled.

“Yes! Wow. You got pictures of him that’s cool!”

“Yes! Very cool!” The man said, “Has Taki-kun met your room yet?”

“No, he has not been in my room.”

“We have!” The woman started to spew out a whole story in very fast Japanese. I’m assuming she was telling the same story from earlier that morning. She was padding her chest again and moving her hands all over. I got from context what she was trying to tell me so I just smiled until she was done.

“Well, it was nice to meet you both!” I said moving my awkward self from the situation. They both nodded and bowed to me again telling me more things in Japanese I didn’t catch at all.

Again, I skipped the hot springs. I know that my Japanese friends back home would be pretty mad at me for doing so but I just can’t muster up the confidence to do it just yet no matter how relaxing they make it sound.

Back in my room, my phone read 9:00 p.m., and just as I was about to check messages and texts my phone started to ping like crazy. I suddenly started getting loads of images airdropped into my camera roll of the rooms at the inn.

It was the same images the couple was showing me except this time there was a little boy as clear as day in them. One, two, three...fifteen, and the images kept flooding my phone. In each image the little boy was in a different part of the room, making different faces, and standing at different distances from the camera.

Finally, whether the images were done coming in or by happy happenstance my mom called me which may have interrupted the strangeness.

“Honey, how was your day today? Did you see anything nice?” Mom had that worried tone in her voice again. There wasn’t a whole lot I could tell her that would make her change her tone. She would worry until the day I got married, had kids, and had a really nice job. Today was not that day.

“Yeah, fine mom. I saw a lot of really beautiful places and I tried some good food today too. It was salmon, miso soup, and rice for breakfast.”

“Sounds nice honey. Well, I better get back to work, let me know if you need anything okay?”

“Okay, mom love you bye.”

“I love you to son!”

From that point, I don’t remember how I even got to my bed but the next thing I knew I was awake and unable to move or speak.

My room was full of a strange glow not yellow, white, or orange. It was a reddish color almost like an emergency light. I could hear voices speaking all around me -- voices of adults frantically speaking about something in Japanese.

The only thing I could pick up was the endings desu and masu. Then I felt like I was falling down a hole and suddenly my eyes were opened and it was morning.

The Third Night

After the weird encounter from the night before I was left feeling out of whack. It was like a hangover but weirder. I didn’t even really have feeling in my fingertips or my toes.

At breakfast, everyone seemed normal, and the surroundings seemed just as they were. Even after having my breakfast, though I was still feeling funky so I decided to just stay back and put together some of the photos I had taken for my blog.

Once I started compiling all the photos from my camera I opened up my phone to look at what I could pull from my camera roll which only reminded me of the weir occurrences from the day before. The photos were all still there.

I had a temptation to share the photos. Though they weren’t mine I had to share at least two of them and then I would give credit to the photographers and let them know afterward so that they could follow my blog (even though they didn’t speak much English).

I had written the blog in one go, the pictures were all in place and now it was just time to do the necessary edits before hitting that “publish” button. As soon as it was all said and done I published it and reviewed it once more.

As I scrolled through the blog post I had worked long and hard on I noticed that the pictures of the boy were different somehow. Something about it looked strangely familiar. It was the boy, that boy. My stomach twisted inside me.

I had already met Taki-kun and his mother. The legends said nothing about a mother and they looked so modern. I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening or what had happened.

It seemed like the entire day was swallowed by blog stuff as I looked at my watch it was already 8:00 p.m. I didn’t feel like showering or going out of my room - I was exhausted and I still felt strange.

I decided to call my friend Hanako to ask her some things. Hanako was an expert in all things haunted Japan - Hanako was the ultimate horror buff. After telling her everything that had happened she just paused on the other end.

“Hanako are you there?”

“Yep! Just doing some research real quick. Sorry, it’s hard to read in Japanese and talk to you in English at the same time.”

Silence

“Okay,” She said, “It looks like there was actually a crazy accident near the inn a few years back.”

“What kind of accident?”

“It doesn’t say what kind.” Hanako cleared her throat, “it literally says there was an accident that involved a mother and child.”

“Was it a murder or something?”

“Sorry friend it doesn’t say.” I could hear her typing away at her laptop “I found something else! Apparently, a mother took her son to the inn to sacrifice him to Taki-kun so that he could have a friend. Apparently, she had a mental breakdown and went ballistic. She killed herself before the police could get to her.”

My phone cut out just as Hanako was telling me the meaty parts of the story. Everything made a little more sense now.

My watch said 2:30 a.m. great maybe this meant I was getting over jet lag and I’d be able to sleep in tomorrow. I sent a text over to Hanako to make sure she knew I didn’t hang up on her.

Her only response back was;

You should get out of there. Come home now.

What? Why?

You’re not in friendly hands. The innkeeper and his wife were the mother’s parents and they basically drove her to it. They’re clearly crazy.

I fly back tomorrow anyway. I’m on a redeye flight back to New York.

Kk talk soon.

Just as I was about to close my eyes I saw them. The whole gang of them. A mother and two small boys staring back at me. I was ready for the morning to come. I was ready for my flight to head home now.