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Once when I went on a trip I stayed at a certain Japanese-style hotel. *1
The food was superb and the service impeccable; I was satisfied thinking I'd made a right choice to stay there.
I was comfortably watching TV in my room when I felt a sudden thirst. I decided to go to the vending machine next to the front desk to get some beer.
But when I came out of the room I saw a steep staircase next to the room, and spotted a vending machine at the bottom of the stairs.
"Huh? Was there a staircase here? Well, it's a good thing that I don't have to go all the way to the front desk," I thought.
I went down the steps and bought a can of beer from the vending machine. There was a Japanese-style room *2 next to it and I could hear some people talking behind the door.*3
When I came up the stairs, I met an old guy who was staying in the room next to mine, and he asked me where I bought the beer. When I told him, he too went down the steps.
But as soon as I walked into my room ----
"Aghhh!"
Clang clang Crash!
He fell from the stairs!
I opened the door, but there were no stairs there.
I searched the area but there was no sign of stairs anywhere. I knocked on the next door but the old guy wasn't there.
I made an inquiry to a hotel worker but he said there were no stairs there too.
Of course it would have been no use telling him what had happened because there was no way he would believe my story.
It was creepy but I spent a night at the hotel as I had planned and went home the following day.
The old guy in the end didn't come back.
A few years later, when I had forgotten all about it, I moved into an area which I remember to be not far from the hotel. There I heard that a certain hotel named ____ discovered, during renovation work, the skelton of an old man buried deep in one of its walls.
How come did they find a few-year-old remains of a man inside a 20-odd-year-old wall?
Moreover, they didn't find any signs of the wall being tampered with....
Those were the sort of things I read in the local newspaper.
I couldn't recall the name of the hotel I stayed at the time, but I didn't have enough courage to look up its name.
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*1 a Japanese-style hotel: Ryokan (旅館) in the original text. The picture on the right shows Yokote-kan (横手館) at Ikaho hotspring resort (伊香保温泉), a famous ryokan which the bath house in the anime movie Spirited Away was modeled after.
*2 the Japanese-style room: zashiki (座敷) in the original text. In a hotel, it refers to a kind of room where people hold a dinner/drinking party. (See the second picture from the top for an example of a zashiki with shou-ij doors)
*3 the door: shou-ji (障子) in the original text. It consists of translucent paper over a frame of wood (wiki).
Read a message from Saya below:
Since it's Halloween time, I want to update more freuquently than usual.
I might have to postpone replyig to your comments until this weekend though. Please do forgive me!
Once when I went on a trip I stayed at a certain Japanese-style hotel. *1
The food was superb and the service impeccable; I was satisfied thinking I'd made a right choice to stay there.
I was comfortably watching TV in my room when I felt a sudden thirst. I decided to go to the vending machine next to the front desk to get some beer.
But when I came out of the room I saw a steep staircase next to the room, and spotted a vending machine at the bottom of the stairs.
"Huh? Was there a staircase here? Well, it's a good thing that I don't have to go all the way to the front desk," I thought.
I went down the steps and bought a can of beer from the vending machine. There was a Japanese-style room *2 next to it and I could hear some people talking behind the door.*3
When I came up the stairs, I met an old guy who was staying in the room next to mine, and he asked me where I bought the beer. When I told him, he too went down the steps.But as soon as I walked into my room ----
"Aghhh!"
Clang clang Crash!
He fell from the stairs!
I opened the door, but there were no stairs there.
I searched the area but there was no sign of stairs anywhere. I knocked on the next door but the old guy wasn't there.
I made an inquiry to a hotel worker but he said there were no stairs there too.
Of course it would have been no use telling him what had happened because there was no way he would believe my story.
It was creepy but I spent a night at the hotel as I had planned and went home the following day.
The old guy in the end didn't come back.
A few years later, when I had forgotten all about it, I moved into an area which I remember to be not far from the hotel. There I heard that a certain hotel named ____ discovered, during renovation work, the skelton of an old man buried deep in one of its walls.
How come did they find a few-year-old remains of a man inside a 20-odd-year-old wall?
Moreover, they didn't find any signs of the wall being tampered with....
Those were the sort of things I read in the local newspaper.
I couldn't recall the name of the hotel I stayed at the time, but I didn't have enough courage to look up its name.
------------------------------------------------------------
*1 a Japanese-style hotel: Ryokan (旅館) in the original text. The picture on the right shows Yokote-kan (横手館) at Ikaho hotspring resort (伊香保温泉), a famous ryokan which the bath house in the anime movie Spirited Away was modeled after. *2 the Japanese-style room: zashiki (座敷) in the original text. In a hotel, it refers to a kind of room where people hold a dinner/drinking party. (See the second picture from the top for an example of a zashiki with shou-ij doors)
*3 the door: shou-ji (障子) in the original text. It consists of translucent paper over a frame of wood (wiki).
Read a message from Saya below:
Since it's Halloween time, I want to update more freuquently than usual.
I might have to postpone replyig to your comments until this weekend though. Please do forgive me!
Comments
怖いながらも日本でこのような旅館があったらとても面白いと思います。Sayaさんが載せた写真は私の想像力を働かせています。一番の写真に階段があるのに、三番の方が話の中の旅館に見えると思います。と言っても、素晴らしい所ですね。さすがに「千と千尋の神隠し」に登場した旅館です。もしいつか日本の旅館に泊めることが出来れば、きっとこの話を思い出すと思います。今日は誕生日ですが誕生日にこの面白い話が読めて本当に嬉しいです。ありがとうございます。
The staircase must have disappeared when the old man fell down the stairs thus alerting the ghosts of his presence.
I wonder whether the old man were killed by the ghosts in the room next to the vending machine or got stuck in the wall when the stairs disappeared.
And whether the beer was safe to drink.
This is a good story Saya-san.
Anyway, this is a very good story. Please bomb us with more scary stories this halloween! We will wait for your reply patiently. Thank you for the stories Saya San..
写真気に入ってもらえて嬉しいです。お話の雰囲気に合うように、頑張って選びました。実は私も、横手館という旅館が千と千尋の旅館のモデルになったことを、知りませんでした。このブログをやっていると、私自身も日本のことに詳しくなっていきます＾＾。
渚さんは、とても上品な日本語を使いますね。とても上手だし、感心します。
こちらこそ、コメントありがとうございます。時々日本語でコメントをもらうのも、嬉しいですね。では、Take care!
The only possible theory i can figure out about the staircase is this: The owners of the ryokan where the author was staying used to visit the old hotel or had some sort of relation with its managers. Therefore, when the hotel shut down they decided to keep some stuff from inside the old hotel. However gruesome events occured there and still are unknown to us. Some of these events caused several objects from the hotel to become haunted by something malicious probably (thus the spiriting away), and the owners of the new ryokan brought them with them. Thats about the best thing i can come up with, otherwise i'm pretty bumped :P. Once again thank you for updating Saya chan! :) Take care!
http://25.media.tumblr.com/14ecd8cf75c3802187a42e10503caebe/tumblr_mvgddcT0YP1qaeybqo1_r1_500.png
He just telling the inn visitor that he was buried there for years so somebody can extract his body and give him proper resting place.
...or maybe not.
Poor old man! Creepy story. I'm glad every hotel I've ever been to I'm always on the ground floor! XD
Thanks for the post!
~Kiera
What if that staircase was something like a wormhole or a teleporter?? :O
I read that dead people will keep re-enacting their death scene everyday ,at the time of death. I think the guy just happen to be there, when the old ghost is re-enacting his dead scene.
wild wild guess =P
Hmmm, initially I thought that the old man was 'fated' to die instead of the author. Since he was alright after getting the can of beer.
What im curious is, if he couldnt find the staircase (after hearing the sound), which means there is no vending machine, wouldnt his can of beer disappear too?
Or maybe, following what some fellow reader commented on..
Its probably the author murdered, and hid the old man body. But when he heard about the body in the walls, he is haunted by his guilt and decided to write it out.
Also, ~桔子~ is probably right too.
It might also be the ghost of the old man replaying that scene over and over again.
Ah, I have wrote too much. ><"