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| Kusatsu Onsen in Gunma Prefecture |
This is a story about a guy I know who used to be an aspiring comedian.
He’d been trying to make it in Tokyo for years, but he never really caught a break.
Eventually, he decided to give it up and head back to his hometown to find a regular job.
His hometown was somewhere in the countryside of Gunma.
But once he was back, he found he didn’t really want to see any of his old friends. After all, he’d told everyone, “I’m going to Tokyo to become a famous comedian!”
It was awkward, and more than anything, he just couldn’t mentally let go of the dream.
So he ended up lazing around at his parents’ house for a while.
Then one night, around 1 a.m., he suddenly jolted awake.
He thought:
(I can’t keep going on like this. If I do, I’ll become a total loser. I need to get it together for real.)
His parents had a connection who could help him find a job, so he decided:
(First thing in the morning, I’ll take my resume over there and introduce myself properly.)
He knew that if he went back to sleep, he’d just wake up around noon again, then put it off until the next day… and then the next…and then the next.
So he thought:
(No, I’ll stay up, write my resume now, and go straight there as soon as morning comes.)
However, he needed a photo for the resume.
As he was wondering what to do about that, he remembered a place on the edge of the shopping street— a big supermarket called “Saito Store” run by the family of his old middle school classmate, Saito-kun.
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| Supermarket in the countryside |
It was one of the bigger stores in the area, and he remembered that there used to be one of those 24-hour instant photo booths on the first floor.
So he thought: (Alright, I’ll go take the photo there.)
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| Instant Photo Booth in Japan |
He started walking through the shopping street in the dead of night.
But looking around, he couldn’t help but notice how run-down the area had become.
Many of the shops had gone out of business because of economic recession.
There used to be brightly lit signs, vending machines glowing in the dark, fluorescent lights lining the arcade…
Now, the lights were flickering or completely out. The place felt eerie, abandoned.
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| Shopping Street (See Shotengai, Shotengai (Wiki) |
(Man, this place is really falling apart… it’s kinda creepy…) he thought as he kept walking.
And the deeper he went, the darker and more desolate the shopping street became.
Eventually, he reached the Saito Store—but it was completely shut down.
Not only that, but it practically lay in ruins.
(This used to be the biggest store in town… now look at it. Pitch black…)
But then he noticed that inside the collapsed store, the 3-minute photo booth was still there, glowing faintly with a greenish light.
(I’ll just take the picture and get the hell out of here.)
He headed toward it.
As he approached, he noticed someone was already using it, despite the late hour.
The curtain was drawn shut.
(Who can be taking a photo at this hour? Well, I guess I can’t be the one to complain —I’m doing it too…)
He looked down and saw beneath the curtain the hem of a bright red skirt, pale slender legs, and shiny red high heels.
(A woman…)
He figured he’d wait until she finished, but it was dark and creepy, and there wasn’t really anywhere decent to sit in the ruined building.
He was just standing around awkwardly when he looked back — and saw the curtain wide open.
No one was there.
(Wait, what…? She was just in there a second ago…)
Weirded out but determined to get the photo, he stepped inside, closed the curtain, adjusted the seat, and put in the money. The camera started automatically.
(Okay, let’s just get this done and over with.)
But then —
“Am I beautiful now?”
“Am I beautiful now?”
— suddenly he heard a woman’s voice.
When he looked down, there were those red high heels and pale legs, right outside the curtain.
(WTF…!?Who the hell is she…!?)
He was freaked out, but he’d already paid and didn’t want to waste the money.
So he tried to ignore it, faced forward, and composed himself.
But the voice kept coming in through the curtain:
“Am I beautiful now?”
“Am I well-dressed now?”
“Am I beautiful now?”
He gritted his teeth, took the photo, and threw open the curtain—
No one was there.
Just darkness in every direction.
(What? Who the hell was that woman? Is she nuts or something?)
He wanted to get out of there, but the old-style photo booths didn’t spit out the photos right away.
Maybe it took a bit of time to develop or dry the photos — anyway, he had to wait patiently until they came out.
So he stood outside of the booth, waiting, glancing around nervously.
Eventually, with a thunk, the photos came out.
(Alright, time to go—)
But then—again—from the darkness, he heard the voice:
“Hey… am I beautiful now?”
“Hey… am I well-dressed now?”
That was it. He bolted—sprinted full speed out of the shopping street.
He reached the entrance just as a car was coming down the road and honked at him.
(What the—?) he thought.
Turned out, it was an old friend from middle school—one he used to be really close with. He was so relieved.
“Whoa! Long time no see!”
“Hey! You were in Tokyo, right? You back for good?”
“Yeah, I just got back! The town’s really changed, huh?”
They started catching up.
“Oh, speaking of changes… that Saito Store—did it go out of business?”
“Huh? You haven’t heard? It was a huge deal. Made the news.”
“No, I haven’t heard anything. What happened?”
“Well… where to begin…
Remember that girl from middle school, Yoshida, in our class? The fat one?”
“Oh yeah, her. She was gloomy, hardly ever talked. Wore glasses. Super serious.”
“Yeah, that’s her. Turns out she fell for Saito.
And Saito, being the womanizer he was—he hooked up with her a few times, even though he had a wife.
But Yoshida was serious about it, you know?
When the wife found out, all hell broke loose.
The couple ended up saying some really cruel stuff to her.
Rumour has it they called her ugly, a pig, told her to look in the mirror before falling for someone.
Said she should try wearing something besides those drab gray clothes.
That apparently broke her. She developed some kind of mental illness and shut herself in—didn’t come out for a long time.
Saito, meanwhile, patched things up with his wife and went back to work like nothing happened.
Then about a year later— it was a boiling hot summer afternoon—
Yoshida suddenly burst into the Saito Store screaming.
She poured gasoline all over herself and set herself on fire right there.
Burned to death on the spot.
After that, of course, no one would shop there anymore.
Saito’s wife left him.
The store went out of business.
Saito disappeared.”
“…Wait, that happened? I… I’ve just been to the Saito Store and… saw a woman there in a red dress…”
“Oh so you know about it!
Yeah! A red dress! That’s what she was wearing.
She stormed in wearing a red dress, doused herself in gasoline, and went up in bright red flames.
Died right there.”
Panicking, he looked down at the photos he’d just picked up.
But those weren’t photo of him.
It was the ones taken just before his.
There were four identical photos —
of a woman’s face, completely charred and blackened.
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Links:
⭐️Gunma Prefecture
JAPANS BEST HOT SPRING Town: Kusatsu Onsen - 4 Days in GUNMA, Travel Vlog
Comments
I hope everything is going well for you!
I posted a few pictures of the Photo Booth above and I guess it looks like that in every country but just in case you don’t have it in your country 🤣
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