Last month I was taking a night walk with my friend (we are both girls). It was around 10:30 pm and we were walking down a one way street when we encountered a woman singing out loud in Japanese coming down the opposite end of the street. She looked like maybe in her 40s-50s. She was wearing heeled boots so you could hear her footsteps clearly. There was no one else around us.
There was a small road you could turn down onto that connected to the street we were walking down. I told my friend to turn because I didn’t want to walk past the woman since I thought she might be drunk.
We made the turn down the side street and hear the woman make the same turn and she is speaking out loud now in Japanese but I couldn’t understand her. I get a terrible feeling and pick up our walking pace. We hear her walking faster behind us after we pick up our pace—then me and my friend suddenly start running at full speed towards the main street and we hear the woman running full speed because of her heeled boots.
Thankfully she did not continue to chase us, but this was one of the most frightening experiences I’ve had in my life. I have been pushed and shoved randomly on the streets in new york but being followed by a stranger just feels so sinister.
Later, one of my other friends said she knows of this lady and says she walks around the neighborhood and has schizophrenia… I’m posting this because I read other peoples stories about disturbing incidents and I want to say you shouldn’t have a false sense of safety while living here. I think because everyone always says Japan is so safe I let my guard down, but every country has crazies!!!
by emilyxcee