Travel Journalist Ghost Story 2 / Japanese Traditional House Inn – Something on the Other Side of the Corridor...

The job of a “travel journalist” is rich and diverse, often involving travel around the world and full of challenges. However, while the role may seem fun and exciting, it actually requires a high degree of independence, a willingness to try new things, and frequent experiences of staying alone in various hotels and visiting peculiar locations—naturally leading to encounters with many XXXX events. For this “Ghost Month when the Gates of Hell Open,” ETtoday E Travel Cloud specially gathered multiple online travel journalists to unveil the ghostly encounters they’ve had—stories that readers never get to see before or after the reports.

Narrated by: Chen O’O

It was a wonderful work trip to Japan. This time, instead of staying in a hotel, I stayed in a century-old traditional Japanese house inn near Osaka. Staying in such an old house was truly enchanting. The moment you step inside, the scent of hinoki wood wafts through the air, and the warm smile of the innkeeper makes it impossible not to fall in love with the place.

I remember it was a very beautiful inn, but staying in such a century-old house always comes with some inconveniences—for example, the sound insulation between rooms is poor, walking on the wooden floors can be noisy, and due to the original design of the old house, most bathrooms and toilets are located outside the guest rooms. That evening, when I checked into the inn, it was already dusk. I shared a room at the end of the corridor with three other female journalist colleagues.


▲ Illustration: The corridor of a Japanese traditional house. (Photo / File photo)

The group of colleagues on this trip were all friends to begin with. One of them, Colleague A, had a “special constitution” that was different from the others—she often accidentally saw beings or things from another world. I remember that night, A left the room first and headed to the toilet on the other side of the corridor. After using the toilet, for some reason, A suddenly came running back to the room.

Noticing the unusual expression on A’s face, although we felt something eerie, we didn’t discuss it much because we were staying at the inn that night and thought it best to pretend nothing was amiss. Just as everyone was about to go take a shower, “Can you take a shower with me?” A suddenly asked another reporter in the group. Unable to refuse A’s repeated pleas, the four of us in the same room carefully made our way to the bathroom and took showers in the partitioned areas. The bathroom was clean and had plenty of hot water. I looked around but didn’t see anything unusual. However, as soon as we finished showering, A once again dashed back to the room through the corridor.

That night, A huddled close to us and basically shared a bed with someone else to sleep. Of course, that night we didn’t ask her anything—we could only keep our questions to ourselves. It wasn’t until the next day when we left the inn...

“Last night, I saw...” As soon as we left the inn, A suddenly brought up what had happened the previous night. She said that on the side of the corridor was a storage area piled with miscellaneous items, and above those items, she saw someone hanging from the beam...