In this video, we'll be exploring some of the most unsettling urban legends and ghost stories that get shared around after sundown

Several of these entries are first or second hand accounts, while others are overviews of folkloric creatures and rituals

They were all found on the Japanese website 2chan and were translated into English by my fellow youtube Phantasmal Wretched

If there are other Japanese legends you'd like me to cover or even legends from a different country

Let me know which in the comment section

Now without further ado... Ikimasho!

This is an allegedly true story that happened to my friend in Japan

He told me this story a long time ago, and the exact location escapes my mind,

but he relayed this story to me with so much conviction that I can't help but believe he was telling me the truth

What I do know is this incident definitely resulted in two deaths, and he himself had to be questioned by police over and over

It all happened when my friend and six of his co-workers at his part-time job were driving in the Chugoku region,

the westernmost region of Japan's main island, Honshu

They were driving out to see a suspension bridge

The seven of them were split up into two cars

My friend was the driver of the second car and had four passengers with him in

In the first car, which was driving ahead of them, were the manager and a couple

Although they set off in the morning, due to the many stops they had to make along the way,

the sun was already setting by the time they made it to the bridge

The suspension bridge ran across a very deep valley in the middle of a mountain

As they approached it the sky began to drizzle and fog began swirling around them

There was an open space just in front of the bridge

If the weather had been good

they would have just parked their cars there and crossed the bridge by foot then they would have come back

The other side of the bridge was a dead end and the structure had simply been left there for sightseeing purposes

The moment the first car reached the open space, however, it came to an abrupt stop

Seeing this my friend hit the brakes and the second car came to a screeching halt about ten meters behind the first

"What are they doing?" my friend asked his co-workers in the second car

They had no clue as to why the manager had stopped...

For some time those in the second car just sat there looking on

A few minutes passed, and the first car made no attempt to move, so my friend reached for his door handle

He was going to hop out and see what was going on

Right at the same time, the couple who were in the back seat of the first car suddenly jumped out in unison

Something wasn't right about their expressions

Alarmed, my friend too got out of his car and tried to walk over to them and ask what had happened...

but the couple, with their hands joined,

started sprinting

and in a flash they climbed over the guardrail at the edge of the open space and threw themselves over the other side

down into the valley...

The four of them in the second car were completely astounded

They all rushed to the guardrail and looked down into the valley below

but because of all the fog they couldn't see anything at the bottom

None of them could believe what had just happened and they all stood there in a daze

Soon they remembered that the manager was still in the car and they rushed to check on him

The manager was still sat in the driver's seat, his hands grasping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white

Under his breath he kept muttering the same phrase over and over...

"Mustn't go, mustn't go, mustn't go"

He wouldn't respond to them. There was nothing else they could do but call the police

The authorities soon arrived on the scene and the delirious manager was taken away in an ambulance

As you can imagine the couple who jumped over the side of the mountain were later found dead at the bottom

the rest of the group had to endure a seemingly endless interrogation by the police

In the end, with no evidence of foul play and nothing to go on,

the police concluded that the pair had simply decided to end their lives together

My friend later paid a visit to the manager at the hospital. Fortunately he seemed to be back to normal

He asked him what happened that day at the suspension bridge. Why did he stop the car so suddenly?

The manager told him that as they drew near the bridge a girl dressed in an old fashioned kimono

appeared out of the fog in front of their vehicle...

The startled manager immediately hit the brakes

the girl wore her hair short and was dressed like somebody from a historical drama, or maybe even someone from the meiji period

Of course this creeped him out and he wondered if maybe she needed help

but before he could react he noticed that his car was now surrounded

by a whole group of children, all dressed in a similar fashion to the girl...

Being a superstitious man, the manager sensed that he was in danger and quickly began chanting a mantra

According to him the children who surrounded the car all joined their hands together and started singing

"Kagome, Kagome... the bird in the cage"

At the same time the manager heard the children's voices in his head saying

Come with us!

Come with us!

The manager gripped the steering wheel and began chanting "mustn't go!"

"mustn't go!"

Next thing he knew the couple in the back seat behind him flew out of the car joined their hands with the children and

together they all started running towards the guardrails

"Of course the police didn't believe my story," the manager told my friend

"Well, I'm not even sure I believe it myself."

"You don't have to believe my managers experience," my friend told me

"But one thing's for certain..."

"That was indeed how that couple died, and I for one do believe him."

An interesting thing to point out is about the song 'Kagome' that the children were allegedly singing

Kagome is a children's game in which a group of children hold hands and walk in a circle around another child in the center

While doing so they chant the Kagome song

Everyone in Japan knows it

When the song stops the child in the middle tries to name the person standing directly behind them

the song itself has been a subject of much interest due to its mysterious lyrics and ominous tune

and several disturbing theories exist about it

One theory states that in olden times it wasn't uncommon for poor families to sell their children in order to survive

According to the theory they would use the Kagome game as a type of ritual to decide which child should be sold

At the end when the players finished singing the line 'who stands behind you now'

whichever child stood behind the person at the center would be the one to go

Since this was considered the will of the gods nobody could dispute the decision

I'm not sure how well-known this one is but it's one that's always tickled my fancy

The bath game, sometimes known as daruma-san, is a game that dates back a long way

The game itself carries with it huge risk, but also the potential for huge reward

According to legend, by conducting a simple ritual you can summon an entity known as daruma-san who will play a game of cat-and-mouse with you

The reward for winning is that you'll be blessed with amazing fortune

This one's not for the light hearted amongst you though

as a lot of bad things can happen to you if you decide to play the game

including death

Here are the rules:

To play, you'll need a bathroom with a bathtub

Only one person can play this game at a time, but don't worry... You won't really be playing alone

Step 1: wait until night time, just before bed

Step 2: fill up your bath with water and turn off all the lights

Step 3: take off your clothes and get into the bath. Make sure your body is facing the faucet

Step 4: close your eyes and begin to wash your hair

Step 5: as you wash your hair repeat the phrase

"Daruma san fell down. Daruma san fell down"

Make sure to keep repeating this the whole time you wash

Under no circumstances should you open your eyes...

Step 6: if everything's gone according to plan your head will be filled with the mental image of a woman standing in the bathtub

In this mental image she'll slip and fall face-first onto the tap, gouging out her right eye

She'll die in the process

Step seven: if after this mental image you feel a presence in the water behind you

do not turn around or open your eyes

Instead, ask aloud "Why did you fall?"

Step 8: there'll be no answer to your question. Just let it linger in the air for a moment

Then, with your eyes still firmly shut, step out of the bath and dry yourself off

This can be dangerous, so be careful not to slip as you get out

Step 9: you can now open your eyes

Head to your bedroom. It's time for bed

Do not turn on the bathroom lights. Do not drain the bath water until morning

Do not re-enter the bathroom after you leave and make sure to close the door behind you

Step 10: go to sleep

The ritual is now complete

As soon as you wake up in the morning the game will begin

The ghostly figure of daruma-san will follow you all day

You can tell who she is by her stained white clothes, her long black hair, and the fact that she's missing her right eye

Her left one is open and bloodshot

Throughout the day you'll occasionally feel her presence creeping up behind you. When you do, quickly look over your right shoulder

When you turn to look you probably won't see her

As the day goes on though, she'll get closer and closer

Do not let her touch you

If you sense that she's getting too close, shout "Tomare!" Meaning "stop!"

Shout this while swinging your arm in a chopping motion

Then... run. You've just stalled her and bought yourself some time. Put as much distance between you and her as possible

Use this Tomare command sparingly though. It'll become less effective with every use, so only say it when you really feel the need to

The game will only end when you manage to catch a glimpse of Daruma over your right shoulder

When you finally do see her, immediately shout "Kita!" meaning "I cut you loose!"

say this while swinging your arm like before

If you manage to do that before midnight

congratulations, you've won the bath game, and good fortune should be yours... for a time at least

Should you fail to spot her by midnight and cut her loose though, then I'm afraid you've lost the bath camera

Daruma will never stop following you

You can run as much as you like, but she'll always be close behind, and

eventually you'll need to sleep, giving her the opportunity to catch you either in person or in your dreams

When she catches you, well, that's the end...

Don't try to play this game more than once

On the second playthrough she'll start at the same distance

you caught sight of her last time, and you won't have enough time in the morning to get away

My old high school was ancient, around a hundred and twenty years old

It had had so many renovations in the past that its layout was a total mess

Even though it was a one-story building it had a staircase that led up from one end of the corridor to the ceiling, and inaccessible doors embedded into the walls for reasons lost the time...

The oddest of all of these incongruencies though was the watch cabin

From the outside it looked like a normal country house

Inside was a sleeping area big enough to fit 8 tatami mats, an old-style telephone, and a small kitchen area

I never knew why it was known as the watch cabin though, until the night of this incident...

My home was far from my school, so I'd sometimes stay overnight at a friend's house who lived more locally

One day though, I couldn't find anyone who could let me sleep over at their place

So I decided to spend the night in the disused watch cabin

Another person (a friend of mine) was going to stay there with me

We were in high spirits as we spread our futons on the floor, feeling like we were on a mini school field trip or something

We were talking and eating our dinner when,

unexpectedly, the old telephone started ringing

It made us both jump

Nobody was supposed to know we were here

I picked up the receiver

On the other end of the line was a school janitor

He was checking in on us

He said he was worried because we were staying at the watch cabin by ourselves

How he knew we were staying there was beyond us

Whichever janitor it was he must have seen us sneak in or something

He told us not to mess around too much and so on, the usual spiel

Just as I was about to hang up the phone he says "oh,"

"one last thing. Make sure to close the curtains on the west side of the cabin. You got that?"

Without thinking too much I said "sure" and hung up the old phone

When I thought about his words in more detail, however, they didn't make much sense to me

I didn't remember there being anything notable on the west side

"What's he talking about?" we asked each other as my friend and I looked out the west side window

What we saw there was a sinister looking old well encircled by a hemp rope, like the kind you might see at a shrine

Now up until that moment neither of us had ever noticed it because it was hidden away in a secluded spot,

wedged in-between the school building and the cabin

I felt a shiver run along my spine as soon as I laid eyes on it

"I don't know what it is about that well, but it's kind of creepy, isn't it?" I said to my friend

She agreed with me

We went to bed after rearranging our futon so they were side-by-side,

making sure they were closer now than before,

both of us feeling a little unsettled

I fell asleep quickly

I don't know how long I was asleep for but I awoke with chills around my shoulders

I looked around and noticed my friend was missing

The cabin itself didn't have a toilet, so I assumed she had gone to the teachers boarding house to do her business

I waited and waited, but she still hadn't returned

I opened the door and looked outside but there was no sign of her. I felt uneasy as I went back inside

Without thinking I opened the curtains on the west side of the cabin

There,

outside, I could see my friend standing in only her underwear beside the old well

Her hands were groped around her waist

It looked as though she was trying to pee

At first I felt a little shocked, but then closed the curtains and tried to go back to sleep

Still, I felt that something was off about the way she was moving