Original Posted By PART1
Ok, so here's the thing. I'm an American who's been living in Japan with a host family for a study abroad.
Last Sunday, my host sister Akane told me about a game she wanted to play called "Hitori Kakurenbo", or Hide-and-Seek Alone, I think.
Anyway, Akane said it was fun and some girls in her school tried it, and it was actually a way to play hide and go seek with ghosts, but she didn't want to do it alone. For someone who's a skeptic, it seemed pretty harmless, and I was curious. Of course, I regret this now. No matter how skeptical or curious you may be, DO NOT play this game. In any case, Akane got a doll from the 100yen store, named it Erina, and I watched her tear out the stuffing and replace it with rice.
"Now I need two drops of blood, one from me and one from you," she muttered, trying to remember the rules her friend had told her. She pricked her finger and I pricked mine and we rubbed the blood into the rice. She then sewed it up with red thread, continuing to bind the doll with the red thread.
"Why are you doing that?" I asked, confused.
"The red is supposed to represent blood vessels. We'll sever them tonight at three."
"The afternoon three or the morning three?"
"Morning, you idiot." She smirked at me.
She also made up the cups of saltwater, and made salt lines around her parents room.
"What's that for?" I asked, curiously.
"Apparently, it stops the spirit from going into the room to find you.
"So are we going to hide in here?"
"Nah, that wouldn't be any fun, would it be! I just don't want their room to get destroyed."
Destroyed. In retrospect, I wish we'd stayed in there, even if it had been "no fun". Or even better, I wish I'd never done this without knowing fully what could happen.
Anyway, we went into the bathroom at 3 AM. The rest of the family was out visiting the aunt and uncle who'd recently had a new baby. We put the doll in the bathtub with water, and shouted together,
"Akane and Sarah are the first it! Akane and Sarah are the first it! Akane and Sarah are the first it!"
Then we ran out of the bathroom, turning out all the lights and switching on the tv in our hiding room to a static channel. Akane grabbed a knife and left the salt water on the table. We went back into the bathroom, and sure enough, the doll was there, in the bathtub, smiling serenely up at us from the bottom.
"Erina, Akane and Sarah found you!" we yelled. We yanked it out, Akane stabbed the heart and made sure to sever a lot of the red thread before dumping it back in the tub.
"Erina is the second it! Erina is the second it! Erina is the second it!", we chanted, then ran back to the family room with the tv going. We each took a gulp of salt water, making sure not to swallow it, then held our cups firmly before settling in the closet. Akane left open a krack of the door because she wanted to watch what would happen to the tv. It was a terrible, terrible idea. To this day, I wish we'd left the door closed.
For the first five minutes, we were just waiting. Nothing was happening, and I felt relieved. Then, I heard the static of the TV begin to change. Without any of us touching the remote, the tv began to switch channels, fast enough that sentences began to form from the words of different channels.
I
Will
Find
You
I shrunk back into the closet, terrified. The air seemed to be getting colder. Akane still stayed with her eye pressed up against the krack of the closet, quietly.
I could hear footsteps and thumping.
Where
Are
You
The footsteps changed and stopped in front of the closet.
Are
You
In
Here
Then I heard the most chilling words of all,
Found
You
Akane screamed and fell back on the ground. The kitchen knife we had used to stab the doll was protruding from her eye, the eye she had used to peek through the krack of the closet door. She had swallowed her water by accident, she told me. Luckily, as terrified as I was, I managed to keep the salt water in my mouth, clutching the stupid cup as well. I waited until the static returned to normal on the television screen. Akane was sobbing quietly, the knife still in her eye, but she whimpered,
"You need to end the ritual."
I did what she had told me to do. I wandered around the house, looking for the stupid doll. It was no longer in the bathroom. I found it, sitting upright on Akane's bed, grinning. I dumped the salt water and spat the salt water on it, then shouted,
"I win! I win! I win!" loudly. Then I grasped the doll firmly and went to the neighbor's trashcan and put it in a bath of gasoline before torching the motherfucker. It was now five AM.
I came back into the closet, and told Akane it was over, so she came out of the closet, knife still embedded in her eye and we called an ambulance. After surgery, it was determined she would be blind in that one eye, unfortunately. Akane lied and said she tripped on the knife after getting up early to make breakfast.
The scary thing is, even though I ended the ritual and burnt the doll like Akane told me, I don't think it's ended. Akane says she can still see "Erina" walking around the house when only that eye is open. I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye as well. I don't know what to do, we thought we did the ritual right, but maybe it's still going on.
Some weird stuff has been happening lately, footsteps outside of my door at three in the morning, tv changing channels and sound warping. I keep incense burning and salt in my room to keep me safe, as does Akane. But if someone comes up to you and asks if you want to play Hitori Kakurenbo, save yourself the hassle and just don't do it. Looking up the real directions now, we did a lot of wrong stuff, I guess from hearsay. Putting blood in is wrong, it can curse you. We were supposed to put in fingernail clippings instead. Akane and I are going to a shrine in a couple of days for help this Sunday. And if anyone has any advice as to what to do in case of a haunting in Japan, let me know.
EDIT: Some of you still want to play this even after reading this. I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE IT. If that's not enough, here's the SAFEST directions: http://sayainunderworld.blogspot.com...-and-seek.htmlUse a mechanical pencil, not a knife. The spirit will hurt you with the same weapon you choose to use if it finds you.

Original Posted By PART 2
I skipped classes today to go to the temple. First off, while reading the comments, some of you guys have been asking for pictures of Akane's eye. That I can't do. She's been a bit of a recluse since the accident. I rarely see her come out of her room, and when she does, she doesn't speak, just nibbles on a corner of a rice kracker and goes back upstairs. She looks like a shell of a person. She refuses to go to classes too, I think she's worried that kids will make fun of her. Bullying is pretty bad in Japanese schools, but I can't help but feel like this is my fault. Anyway, I feel like asking for a photo would be rude, especially since my host family has asked me not to bother her, in an effort to help make her feel more comfortable. They act as though nothing's happened, which is odd but I guess it's their way of dealing with it.
But here is an earlier picture of Akane and I at Nikko-shrine: http://i.imgur.com/eEweV1B.jpg
Anyway. Today I skipped classes (bad OP, I know), to go to the nearby shinto shrine. I didn't really know what I was doing, since Akane refused to come. I've been feeling nauseated in the house, and seeing things move out of the corner of my eye. It's all in the peripherals. Last night, at 3 AM I was woken up by footsteps as usual, but after the footsteps stopped, something began scratching the door. It sounded like someone was raking their nails into the wood. I huddled under my blankets and tossed salt over my shoulder.
When I woke up in the morning, there was this symbol: 死 (death) on the door in what looked like blood. I quickly wiped it off before anyone noticed, and noticed that Akane's door was marked as well, so I woke her up and showed her.
She gave me a weird half smile, and told me,
"So it's already begun." I was so startled I did nothing but stare at her. Just then, I noticed a medium sized cut on her wrist.
"Akane, did you get hurt?"
She yanked her arm away.
"LEAVE US ALONE."
Her voice didn't sound like hers, it sounded disembodied, and I swear her eye (the one not covered by the patch) turned black. I didn't ask her what she meant by us, just let her go back into her room. I cleaned the blood off of her door. I then knocked on her door and asked her if she wanted to go to the shrine today. Even though yesterday she had been looking forward to it, today she told me no, and to go away again.
I went to the shrine, I got directions from some passerby schoolgirls (although they stared at me for being a foreigner). The closer I got to the shrine though, the sicker I felt. My head began pounding, my stomach began aching. It was excruciating. But for some reason, I kept walking. When I finally passed through the torii gate, I vomited on the ground and promptly passed out.
When I woke up, eight hours had passed, according to the priest. He told me I had been cursed by something powerful. I told him about the game, and he shook his head.
"It's too dangerous. Recently, there have been other girls, from Kasukabe Girl's High School, who have come here as well. You cannot play that game."
He paused.
"The ritual is essentially telling the spirit that if you are found, then they can have your body, as a host."
He paused again to mull it all through.
"You were not possessed. But you were cursed, and the impurity would not allow you to enter the shrine."
He told me he had spent hours praying and cleansing my soul, but it had taken a very long time. He gave me special talismans, and told me to hang them on the other side of my door in my room, to prevent any evil from entering.
After thanking him, I set off for home. I felt like there'd been a weight lifted off of my shoulders, literally, by this man, and he told me I was very lucky. I had only had a brush with the curse, but since I was not possessed, that meant that the brunt of it had fallen to Akane.
I was certain now that she was possessed. When she was "found" and stabbed, her body became the host for "Erina". When she opened her door in the morning, the salt lines that were initially there no longer were, and the incense was sticking out of her trashcan.
When I came home an hour ago, even though it was seven pm, no one was there except for Akane. There was a note on the table, in English.
"Dear. Sarah
Baby Erina is sick and in hospital. Please don't worry. Went to help out.
Love.
Mom and Dad"
Baby Erina. Akane named the doll Erina, and stabbed it. One of the previous commenters mentioned voodoo, well...Baby Erina, Akane's new cousin, is in the hospital. Akane's door is closed, the lights are off. She wouldn't answer even though I knocked on the door, just to check in on her.
I went on the balcony, to try to peek into her room to see if she was alright, but her curtains were shut, except for one eye, peering out at me.
I ran back to my room as fast as I could, closed the door, put salt everywhere, even outside my door, stuck the talismans up and started burning incense. I've stopped seeing things move, but now I'm scared of Akane. Part of me wants to call up my program and switch host families, but part of me feels bad for doing this to them. I feel obligated to stay until this resolves, but I don't know what to do at this point.