The Enshū Railway Line, the setting for the urban legend of Kisaragi Station.[1]

Kisaragi Station (Japanese: きさらぎ駅, Hepburn: Kisaragi Eki) is a Japanese urban legend about a fictitious railway station.[1][2][3] The station first came into the news in 2004, when the story was posted on the internet forum 2channel.[4]

Plot

On 8 January 2004, a person calling herself "Hasumi" (葉純) posted on the internet noticeboard 2channel a cry for help in the thread "Post About Strange Occurrences Around You: Thread 26", she recounted how she awoke in a train carriage with all other passengers asleep. As Hasumi struggled with the mystery, she would constantly have exchanges with users at the message board, advising her and sharing the confusion. It was her routine commute to work, but the train was barrelling to a destination without stopping in the usual places. The conductor and driver were both inaccessible.

Finally, after an hour, the train went through a tunnel (later nicknamed the "Isanuki tunnel") and stopped at "Kisaragi Station" late into the night – a lot of no discernible activity. Her GPS did not pick up her signal. Consulting with users online at their thread, Hasumi was advised there is no such station listed online and she should exit immediately. As Hasumi wandered outside the station, and took advice from people on the message board, she tried to locate a taxi. Defeated, she dialled her parents and requested they collect her, but they were unable to determine where she was. Her parents urged her to contact emergency services as "lost" – this would prove futile when the responder became angry at her and accused her of lying.

Hasumi's experience soon became more ominous – bells ringing from the station, a drumbeat intensifying "comparable to that of a festival" and the overall location completely unidentifiable. Terrified to return into the station with an otherworldly situation transpiring, at 1:30 AM, she climbed onto nearby tracks and walked into the long tunnel in an effort to follow the tracks home. Abruptly, about 20 minutes later, somebody screamed, "Hey! Don't walk on the track, that's dangerous!" Turning around, Hasumi witnessed a one-legged old man about 10 metres away, not an attendant, who immediately vanished into the tunnel. She then noted she was too scared to move. She had broken her heel and was bleeding after only 5 minutes. At 2:35AM, her father reportedly called the police. 10 minutes after this, she told the forum users the tunnel was named "Isanuki".

She soon reached the end of the tunnel and was welcomed by a friendly man who offered a ride to safety – unusual for this hour and also at such a location. Without any other choices, Hasumi accepted and accompanied the man into his car and headed back via the station. He told her they were near Hina (of which there is a train station with that name in the prefecture) but she doubted it was possible. After passing the station they headed off into the mountains.

The man was chatty at first, but later the man became quiet and later began talking gibberish and Hasumi was unnerved as her surroundings became increasingly unfamiliar.

Hasumi's last message board post was at 4am: "My battery's almost run out. Things are getting strange, so I think I'm going to make a run for it. He's been talking to himself about bizarre things for a while now. To prepare for just the right time, I'm going to make this my last post for now."

References

  1. 1 2 吉田史弥 (Yoshida Fumiya) (9 January 2018). 遠鉄「きさらぎ駅」？　消えた「はすみ」さん、都市伝説１０年超 [Enshū's "Kisaragi Station"? The disappearance of "Hasumi" and an urban legend over 10 years old]. Shizuoka Shimbun (in Japanese). p. 3. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  2. ↑ 吉田悠軌 (Yoshida Yuuki) (2 November 2018). 禁足地巡礼 [Pilgrimage to a forbidden place]. Fusosha Shinsho (in Japanese). Tokyo: Fusosha. pp. 183–202. ISBN 978-4-594-08083-9.
  3. ↑ 朝里樹 (Itsuki Asari) (17 January 2018). 日本現代怪異事典 [Encyclopedia of Modern Japanese Legends] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kasama Shoin. pp. 42, 116–117, 241, 386. ISBN 978-4-305-70859-5.
  4. ↑ 身のまわりで変なことが起こったら実況するスレ26 [Post About Strange Occurrences Around You: Thread 26]. Kakolog (in Japanese). Retrieved 17 September 2023.


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