Akifumi

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(Translated and arranged by Saya)

Food stalls at a summer festival

πŸ˜ŠπŸ’›Hello, everyone! I hope you are all happyπŸ’– This is a normal scary story but some people think it is a cryptic story. Can you guess why? ✨

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This happened to my colleague while he was on a business trip in Tokyo.

To save the travel expenses, he decided to stay in a cheap hotel. 

In the room where he stayed, he found a video cassette player that allowed you watch a video when you inserted one hundred yen coin*1 into it. 


videotapes and player

They had also some videotapes beside the player. Out of curiosity, he picked them up one by one, and read the labels. 
Among Western films and usual adult videos, he found one that was unlabelled. 

"I wonder if it's some kind of a black market adult video?" 
He decided to watch it, thinking that spending one hundred yen on it wouldn't hurt him much. 

He inserted a coin into the video cassette player, and put the said cassette into it.
The video started a few seconds later. 

The TV screen was showing a festival*2 in a rural town.

He saw a lively street lined with many food stalls.  People dressed in breezy summer clothes were strolling between them. 

After some minutes, a boy wearing yukata*3 (summer kimono) came into view, and the camera zoomed in on the boy. 

A boy in yukata

It continued to zoom in on him until the screen was filled with the boy's face from his chest upwards. 
Then zooming came to a complete halt and the video froze too. 
The next moment, at the bottom of the screen, a cold, impersonal caption appeared in white Gothic font: *4
"Akifumi was murdered that evening."

Almost instantaneously, my colleague pressed the stop button.
He told me that he vacated the room right away, and found another hotel to stay in.



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Notes: 

*1 100 yen coin ---- (One US dollar is equal to about 108 yen on 21 May 2021) See Wikipedia 

100 yen coin


*2 Festival --- "Ennich" in the original text. 
Ennichi (縁ζ—₯, "related day") is a day believed to have a special relation (縁 en) with a particular Japanese deity. Often, it is a day when a deity is believed to have been born or left the world. In Shinto, this day is encouraged to be embraced as it is in the "four affirmations" of their religious code. Japanese people generally think that visiting a temple or a shrine on these holy days related to Kami and/or Buddha will bring greater fortunes than on regular days. Therefore, temples and shrines often hold festivals. At such events, there are generally a large number of food stalls selling Japanese food such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki, grilled corn, and candy floss.

More links:




*3 Yukata --- A yukata (ζ΅΄θ‘£, lit., "bathrobe") is an unlined cotton summer kimono, worn in casual settings such as summer festivals and to nearby bathhouses. Originally worn as bathrobes, their modern use is much broader, and are a common sight in Japan during summer. Though yukata are traditionally indigo and white in colour, modern yukata commonly feature multicoloured designs, and are designed to be machine washable. They are similar in appearance to the nemaki, a unisex short-sleeved kimono-like garment worn by guests at traditional inns (from Wikipedia

More links:



 *4 Gothic font -- talking about East Asian type of Gothic font, not English one.  It embodies a "style characterized by strokes of even thickness and lack of decorations akin to sans serif styles in Western typography." I added this note because there has been some misunderstanding about it. 

Comments

Saya_In_Underworld said…
I am guessing there are people who don't know what videotapes areπŸ˜†✨ so I put that picture for reference!
Amuletyu said…
What if the colleague was the one who murdered the kid πŸ€”. Just kidding, if he did, he wouldn’t have watched it all the way to that part, unless he forgot. What a creepy, stalker video he watched. Rip Akifumi. :(
Bernardo said…
Now that was creepy.
Although I'm somewhat nostalgic for videotapes myself, it makes the story have an extra impact.
Poor Akifumi
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Videotapes are certainly scarier than DVD and Blu-ray πŸ˜†πŸŽ΅✨
Dio said…
Oh that one really gave my goosebumps!! I don’t know why but the eeriness and the visual of the shot of the child really gave me chills. Not sure why! 😱
Saya_In_Underworld said…
I chose the pictures well, then!πŸ˜†✨
I am so glad it have you that effect!πŸ’–✨ LoL
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Somehow my comment got mistakenly deleted πŸ˜†✨

That would be really scary too!
You always have great imagination! Thank you for commenting ✨πŸ’Ž
Diogo Valverde said…
Cue the protagonist posting the following review on Trip Advisor:


"This hotel has some funky voodoo murder VHS tapes that will ruin your vacation. Do not stay here. I ended up staying at a much nicer business hotel instead."
Saya_In_Underworld said…
That would be a normal response from a normal person, but you and my other blog readers would write a review saying how fantastic your stay in the hotel was and that everyone should watch the unlabelled video🀣⭐✨
Sunny said…
Killer probably brought his own jerk off material and forgot to take it home.

Jesus christ saya, hes under the bed.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
You may be right πŸ˜†✨

I hope he isn't under the bed LoL ✨
Jabbarmon said…
i wonder what is that videotape going to do with the one hundred yen coin...
*maybe when we not looking, that videotape going to some market to buy new cassette tape.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
It's just some hotels in the olden times provided a video cassette player in their rooms which people could use when they paid for themπŸ˜†✨
allucinator said…
Perhaps, 'twas some tacky murder documentary. But seeing a Gothic font in a murder documentary seems weird.

Or perhaps, it's a some sort of a "Ju-on" ripoff.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Japanese gothic font in Japanese isn't as fancy as its English equivalent. I probably should have explained that as well πŸ˜†✨
It looks more like "Sans-serif" font and is commonly used in Japan.
Anne- said…
Maybe the guy vacated the room because he assume the killer forget tis tape and was going to come back to get it?
George V said…
Hmm, maybe it is like the book where it shows you the face of the person while alive and then the next page, it shows you their face when they are dead, so you can learn to see the mark of death. Alas, we will not know, as he did not continue.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Wow a very interesting theory πŸ˜†⭐✨
Thank you for that!πŸ’•✨
Saya_In_Underworld said…
OhπŸ˜†✨ Marks of Death the videotape version? That would be interesting ⭐🌈
Saya_In_Underworld said…
πŸ’›πŸ’›πŸ’›OK everyone, I am going to write down one theory about this story which will explain why this is thought to be a cryptic story by some.

The theory says that Akifumi in the story at first glance seems to be the boy's name, but it is actually the name of the man who watches the video in the story. He realised his life is threatened and decides to run away πŸ˜†⭐
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Btw I think you already have researched about them, but Tokyo Sky Tree and Shibuya are also popular for tourists too.

I spent many years abroad so I am not so familiar with Tokyo either πŸ˜…✨ I am sorry I can't help you much.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Also Harajuku, Omotesando, Daikanyama, are all popular places in Tokyo. Oh I just remembered. Maybe you are interested in visiting the imperial palace. And there's an impressive shrine called Meiji Jingu. I believe it has a beautiful park.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
You might also be interested in visiting shops like MacDonald or Starbucks because they have different menues in there from what you have in US.
Anonymous said…
Saya, I'm sorry, really really sorry, but I found it to be hilarious and funny instead of creepy... well I guess it would have been creepy and unsettling if we never knew youtube and its memes and troll videos.. XD

It just reminds me of video from this Chriddof guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIR1sUzr_60

or maybe Cyriak's Videos, or for something actually quite unsettling, the Local58

I love found footage style mockumentary horror movies! :D

anyway thanks for making my day happier :D
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Don't be sorry πŸ˜†⭐ It's always my pleasure to make my blog readers happy! LOL ✨
George V said…
One of the things I want to do is to go the Shibuya Starbucks and watch the scramble from above.
Saya_In_Underworld said…
That sounds great πŸ˜†✨
allucinator said…
πŸ˜†

Now I get the picture.
CreanJinSung said…
What if? The man in the cheap hotel is Akifumi AND he is also the boy in the yukata?

The videotape with the festival was set in an alternate universe where he (Colleague/Akifumi/Boy) died that evening and if he stayed in the cheap hotel room, he would have been sucked into the alternate universe where that happened. So he will be dead but alive as an alternate universe man.

Or he could just be looking for a better cheap hotel with better adult films because "cursed" videos aren't really his thing :D
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Interesting πŸ˜†✨
omg pls google why i hope that last comment sent (pls ignore this if it did)
Jack said…
This makes me think that was his name. Still a creepy video to find even if it wasn't!
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Your comments are always checked by me first before they can appear on the blog.

Unfortunately, I haven't received your previous message!
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Yes, I got a chill when I first read itπŸ˜†✨ I am glad you enjoyed it!πŸ’˜✨
oh noooo. Basically to sum it up I said I've been here for a LONG LONG TIME and I just never comment but I APPRECIATE YOU SO MUCHHH SAYA-SAMA
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Thank you so much for being my blog fan for such a LONG LONG timeπŸ˜†πŸ’–
Charm said…
Am having this Ringu vibes on the 1st part. Gets me wonder what's on the rest of the video. Maybe it's not just the only boy showned there was murdered but there will be more after. 🀭🀭🀭
Saya_In_Underworld said…
Yes indeed it sounds a bit like the Ringu.πŸ˜†πŸŽ΅
Steeple said…
I guessed the man viewing the tape was Akifumi right away. Still a classic chilling tale!

i feel old now that VHS needs to be explained ;_;
Anonymous said…
I think it was just a documentary of a murder case filmed in a horror style.
However, I do admit that it will definitely creep me out if I watch it alone in such hotel in a strange place.

Nice story, Saya-san.:D. Thank you.

- nunu -
I do hope it was just a documentary film too!πŸ˜†✨Thank you for your comment!