Saturday, April 30, 2016

Japanese Cryptic: The old man who sits in front of me

Translated from Japanese by Shishou(師匠)


Cryptic Story

There is an old man who always sits in front of me in the train when I return home from work.
For some reason, he looks at me and grins.

He does this everyday and it has started creeping me out. So, one day I asked my co-worker to go home together with me. We both boarded the train together.

But even then, the old man looked and grinned at me. I got really creeped out by him, so when
we (my friend and I) both got off the train, I asked him, "Wasn't that old man creepy?"

My friend replied back with this.

"The old man who was looking at you?"
"Actually, that person was not looking at you. He was looking and grinning at the ghost behind you."

I think it was just a poor joke by my friend, but I get a bad feeling for some reason.




  1. Sorry but I don't get the cryptic message, it is more like a creepy story. But scares me enough not to look behind with the eye corner ! Some people says that if you blink fast enough or look behind you with your eye corner you could see "something". Is it real?? :O

    1. Yeah, it feels more like creepy story than cryptic. But the original was under the cryptic category, so I decided to do the same. Maybe it's cryptic because it tell us that the friend can see the ghosts.
      I tried it but couldn't see anything, so maybe it's not real:(

  2. well, the friend is the ghost.

    1. Eh maybe that was true! But I found it funny, because it seems like the "friend" was really wanted to be noticed that he was the one the old man smiling at him. Really, like stupid jealousy haha ^^

    2. Nah, friend is not the ghost XD
      The narrator encountered the old man even when they traveled alone.

    3. Or...the narrator, the friend, and the old man were ghosts? The old man looked and smiled at him cause it's funny how the narrator hadn't realized yet that he died. And the train? You know the train which took dead people soul to the other side?? Like that ghost train in Final Fantasy VI (IIRC)

    4. What if the narrator is a reaper? And the coworker is also a reaper. Like hemu hemu-san said, the train itself may be the vehicle to the dead world (like the boat in Jigoku Shojo when she deliver new souls she always use the boat right?) And the narrator every day after work (after reaping souls) always bring the reaped souls with him behind him. And maybe the old man in front of the narrator just greet every different souls that the narrator brings. You know, just because being polite and nice? XD. The narrator could be confused because he was not a human and do not used to humanly greetings. That is why he feels "awkward" after the coworker explained things.

    5. Winda-san, yours and mine theories makes this story even more cryptic lol

  3. Your theories are interesting, hemu-hemu san and winda san! But I have one too! I think the MC had killed someone and nobody knew (accidentally or not) but the victim kept haunting him :"


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