A while back, my cousin and her boyfriend returned from a trip to Japan. During our family gathering, aside from handing out souvenirs, she gave a full-on travelogue presentation.
She and her boyfriend go to Japan pretty often, so the popular tourist spots are no longer on their radar. This time, they went to Aomori Prefecture to soak in hot springs. Thanks to their frequent travels, their basic conversational Japanese has gotten pretty solid. So, for this trip, they planned to venture deep into the mountains, where the travel environment doesn’t require English—it’s fine either way.
With the mindset of “exploring the secluded life of Tohoku,” they booked a hot spring inn in the mountains. But because of the snow, they didn’t do much outdoors. Most of their time was spent chatting with other guests at the inn, soaking in the hot springs, and eating local cuisine. When they could go out, they just wandered around nearby scenic spots.
Then, during their five-day, four-night trip, something happened one night. Late that day, they were trudging through shallow snow back to the inn along a mountain path. They’d accidentally lingered too long up the mountain that afternoon, so it was already dark. But since there was only one path, even though the surroundings were pitch black, they weren’t worried about getting lost. She said they used their phone flashlights to light the way.
Then, up ahead beside the mountain path, they encountered a young guy dressed in a Japanese military uniform! Never mind whether it was the kind of old Japanese military outfit — the key point was he was holding a rifle!
My cousin and her boyfriend discussed it for a bit. She was super nervous and thought it was creepy, but her boyfriend figured there might be some event going on and said they could ask about it back at the inn. He even joked, “What, is he cosplaying Golden Kamuy or something?”
Since the figure was standing right beside the only path they had to take, they cautiously walked past him, greeting him loudly. The young guy just glanced at them and then went back to staring into space. That’s when they noticed he was dressed really lightly.
The temperature felt like about 2°C (36°F), and his face looked frozen stiff, pale as hell. But he just stood there, clutching his gun, ignoring them.
My cousin asked him where he was from, if he wasn’t going home, something something like that. He responded (the part she understood): “Ka ni kaeritai” (“I want to go home” in Japanese). And he kept asking, “Where’s the ‘Yodan’?” My cousin pointed toward the lights of the inn down at the foot of the mountain, but he kept shaking his head.
After that brief exchange, even her boyfriend started feeling weirded out. He took off his down jacket right then and there and forced it onto the rigid figure.
Then, in broken Japanese, he told him to wait a bit—they’d go get someone who spoke Japanese. The young guy’s expression stayed blank, no reaction.
So they hurried down the mountain. The closer they got to the inn, the braver my cousin felt. She kept asking her boyfriend if that rifle looked real.
Back at the inn, they immediately asked the staff if there was some kind of costume event. The answer was no. They explained what had just happened, and the staff looked at them like they were crazy.
Finally, at her boyfriend’s insistence, a few staff members went back up the mountain with him (wearing a borrowed coat), carrying big flashlights and shining them everywhere. When they reached the spot where the Japanese soldier had been, there was nothing—no footprints, no traces, nothing…
Super freaky.
The group trudged back to the inn, disappointed.
The worst part? Her boyfriend’s 3,000-yuan down jacket was gone just like that :) :) :).
This incident unexpectedly became the most memorable part of their Japan trip. At the family gathering, everyone kept asking questions, so my cousin ended up spilling all the details.
In the end, we all agreed they’d probably run into a “good a ghost”. It’s just a short story that quite often hear in Taiwan about encountering Japanese soldiers, but it’s rarer to hear about going to Japan and meeting one in an old military uniform.
Pretty interesting story, right?
Yo-dan, after some discussion on the PTT board, was probably “Ryo-dan” in Japanese, meaning “brigade.”
Writer : a435007 from PTT Marvel Board
Time stamp : Nov 19 17:03:36 2018
True TAIWAN Horror story 
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