I Had a Very Strange Experience, Listen to Me

An exchange on a Japanese internet message board. It begins with a post about a strange event that happened more than 10 years ago.

This is my first time writing something like this, but I had a strange experience more than 10 years ago and I want someone to hear about it. Is it okay if I write it?

• [300]You’re obviously itching to write it, so just do it without asking

Thanks. The conversation details might not match exactly, but please understand this is the general sense of what happened. It was more than 10 years ago, around mid-February. I had just started working as a temp at my current company and was heading to my local station to go to work. In front of the ticket gate, there was this homeless-looking old man who stood in front of me and mumbled, “Don’t look down on the platform. Don’t look down.” His voice was soft but audible enough for me to hear. I decided to ignore him, thinking he was just a strange old man talking to himself. I went through the gates, climbed the stairs, and headed toward the far end of the platform where there was an ashtray. (Young people might not know this, but back then you could smoke on the platform.) While I was smoking, my hands were cold, and I couldn’t hold my cigarette properly, so I dropped it. Naturally, I looked down to pick it up, but the cigarette I dropped wasn’t there. I thought “Huh?” and glanced around, but instead of finding my cigarette, I saw a mist-like thing (white smoke or something, I don’t know, but I’ll just call it mist) gathering around my feet. When I looked up, all the people who had been on the platform were gone, and mist was hanging in the air. I was completely confused and started walking toward the stairs I had come up from, looking toward the opposite platform. I say “looking” but I could barely see anything through the mist. Then I heard, “Even a child can follow instructions, why can’t you!” Someone was talking to me, and when I turned around, that homeless-looking old man was sitting on a bench. I was still trying to understand what was happening and couldn’t say anything, just thinking. The old man said, “Well, can’t be helped now that you’re in. You’ll be able to get back, so next time do as you’re told,” and when I nodded with a bewildered face, he smiled with his dirty face. Seeing that smile made me calm down a bit, and I asked him where this place was, but he ignored me. I was getting irritated with this old man when I heard a train whistle and turned to see a normal-looking train arriving. I was really relieved, but something was off about it—there was no sound of it running. And despite it being rush hour, nobody was on board, the mist was still hanging in the air, and it was really creepy. I didn’t feel like getting on even though the doors were open, so I looked back at the old man, and he was talking with a conductor who had come out of the train.

The conductor was saying “It’s been a while, sir” to the old man. The old man replied, “Sorry, but I need you to take this guy with you. Drop him off at a good spot.” The conductor said, “Ah, we’ve been getting a lot of these lately. Is something going on?” to which the old man answered, “The other side probably won’t last much longer. I might need to catch a ride with you too soon.” And the conductor responded, “That’s fine. My son will be happy to hear that.”

That was roughly their conversation, and as I was staring at them, the old man yelled, “What are you eavesdropping for! Get on quickly!” I got scared and immediately boarded the train. The inside was exactly like the regular train I always took, but without ads, and it felt lonely with no one on board. Well, there was one boy sitting, and I was heading toward him to sit next to him when the old man said, “Not that way. You go over here. Stand right there,” pointing at a hanging strap near the door. I obediently followed and looked out the window as the train started moving without a sound. I could hardly see anything outside because of the mist. The old man had said it would be okay, so I wasn’t anxious, but as I calmed down, I started thinking about where this place was. From the conversation with the conductor, I was wondering if I had come to a different dimension or if this was just a dream. Then the old man came over to me and said, “You’ll probably forget about this for a while, but try not to think about it too much. It makes it easier for you to come back, and I might not be able to help you next time!” He pushed me toward the door, slapped me hard on the back. I felt pain, and at the same time I had that sensation like when your knee jerks while you’re sleeping, and suddenly I was on the normal train I usually take. I’m really sorry for the long and probably confusing post. There’s a bit more, so I’ll continue posting.

The protagonist makes a mistake at work that same day and ends up working overtime.

That day, I couldn’t focus on work at all because I kept thinking about what happened. I couldn’t convince myself it was a dream, and I still had 19 cigarettes left (I had opened a new pack and smoked one at the station). Then, just when work was about to end, I made a mistake and had to stay overtime. Normally I would have been really depressed, but since it was my own mistake, and I wanted time alone to think about what happened that morning, I thought it was perfect timing. After my seniors left and I was the only one there, I was working while drinking some alcohol, but I started getting sleepy and decided to take a short nap. As I was lying face up on my chair, right before falling asleep, I was thinking “Maybe it really was a dream,” when the cigarettes in my chest pocket fell to the floor. When I looked down to pick them up, I heard “I told you not to think about it. You just don’t listen, do you?” I turned toward the voice, and there was that old man. And somehow I was back on that train.

When I said “You’re the old man from this morning!” he replied with irritation, “I don’t know anything about your time. From my perspective, you came back right after you left.” I didn’t understand at all, but I asked the question that had been bothering me: “Where is this place? Why am I here?” The old man laughed mockingly and said, “You’re here because your mother gave birth to you,” and started laughing.

Of course, I wasn’t satisfied and told him not to dodge the question. Then he asked, “Where is this place, you say? Where were you?” I said I was at my company, and he replied, “Then this is a train.” Seeing my unsatisfied face, he continued, “I understand what you want to know. But how can I answer? You’re asking me to explain a world that isn’t yours. How would you explain your world? All you could say is that it’s not this world. I can only tell you the same thing. It’s not the world you were in.”

I asked if my world and this world were connected, and he answered, “They must be connected if you could enter. A house without an entrance doesn’t exist, right? It’s the same. Anywhere you’ve entered must have an entrance. I don’t know how you came here, though. I warned you earlier just based on a hunch. It was nothing more than intuition. I told you not to look down because you’d peek into this world. Entrances to this world aren’t like normal doors. When I saw you earlier, I sensed something like a haze or mist from your neck down. That’s why I told you not to look. But you looked anyway, haha! It’s been happening a lot lately. I don’t know what’s happening in your world, but entrances are forming more and more. People come in when they look at their phones, tie their shoelaces, look out the window while on transportation, clean, and even when washing their face. …Well, don’t ask any more questions. We don’t know much either. The answers you seek won’t come from me.”

After hearing that, I didn’t feel satisfied but stopped asking questions. As I started thinking to myself again, the old man said, “Geez. Because of you, I missed our stop. We’ve gone too far. Hey, you, come here.” When I turned around, there was the boy I had seen in the morning and another pudgy man in a suit with a large mole-like growth on his chin, sweating and looking at me. This man asked, “Are you from the same place as me?” but I could only say “probably.” I really wasn’t confident since I had been considering that my world might not be singular. Then the old man called to the conductor, and the train stopped with the doors opening. I hadn’t been paying attention when I first got on, but the outside was different from the morning—there was no mist. Actually, it was so dark I couldn’t see anything.

The old man said to us, who were staring blankly at the open doors, “Come on. Get off.” We approached the door and looked down into pure darkness. I turned back toward the old man in disbelief, but he pushed the other man off. I looked in the direction the man fell, but I couldn’t hear any voice or see him. There was no sound of him hitting the ground. With a face that said “What the hell are you doing?!” I looked at the old man, who said, “Don’t come back,” and pushed me off too. I couldn’t make a sound, just a muffled “Mmph!!” as I flailed my arms. The old man’s face got smaller as I fell, I could feel the wind, and there was nothing to grab onto. I really thought it was the end, but then I had that jerking sensation again, and I woke up at my company.

When I checked the time, it was much earlier than when I had fallen asleep—it was during my lunch break that day. Thanks to that, I didn’t make any mistakes and left work on time. Since that day, I haven’t gone back there, and I had even stopped remembering it. But after more than 10 years, something happened last weekend that made me remember, which is why I decided to write here. This event happened on a train coming back from work. I had finished work and was on the train home. I was holding onto a strap and looking at my phone when someone said, “Excuse me. Were you on that train?” When I looked, there was that man with the large mole-like growth on his chin, and I suddenly remembered everything.

I was startled, and seeing my surprise, he seemed relieved and nodded slightly. He said he was going to a client and was on a train he doesn’t usually take, but he recognized me immediately and came to talk to me. I was thinking how he remembered so well when I had almost completely forgotten, so I asked him some questions, but he hadn’t been back there either and didn’t know much since he barely spoke with the old man. Then, as we were talking, the announcement for his station came on, and his answer to what I asked was really shocking.
Me: It’s been over 10 years, but you recognized me right away?

Here the biggest surprise of the story is revealed.

The man said, “10 years ago? I met you just last night.”

When I heard that, my face suddenly felt hot, and I got this unsettled feeling that was really creepy. We both were like, “Huh…?” and after that, there was this awkward atmosphere, and the man just nodded and got off. Looking back, I realized I recognized him immediately too, because his appearance hadn’t changed at all. If it had just been about going to another world, I probably wouldn’t have written about it since that’s a common story, but this exchange was so creepy that I wanted to tell someone, so I posted here. Thanks to everyone who read this. Sorry it was so long.

• [317]Maybe the other world exists outside the flow of time

I don’t know. At the very least, I think that train can travel through our time, but I wasn’t told its original purpose or where it was heading. From the way the old man talked, it seems not everyone who goes over there rides that train, so I think there must be other such vehicles or something. To be honest, after remembering this, I kept thinking about it for 2-3 days and was afraid I might go back there. I wrote this to get it off my chest, but now I’m a bit scared whether it was good to write about it.

• [320]There are stories about going to other-world towns, but the transportation is almost always a train, right? Also, it seems like there are quite a few cases where an elementary school child is on the train. If it’s a train that crosses time, maybe that kid has been the same child for more than 10 years
• [321]Plenty of people have written about this stuff, so don’t worry about it

It seems that similar other-world experiences are occasionally reported on internet message boards.

Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I was feeling a bit down. It’s true that in everyone’s stories, trains are common, but from the old man’s talk, I don’t think everyone uses trains. I mean, I don’t remember exactly what he said since it was so long ago for me, but I do remember thinking “So there are things besides trains” during our conversation. Also, there’s something that’s been bothering me about that child—I vaguely remember the old man’s and conductor’s faces, but I can’t recall the child’s face or hairstyle at all. I mean, I was pretty shaken up and didn’t really look at the child that much, but it’s more like “I should have seen him but can’t remember” which is also a bit creepy. Talking about this now, I’m wondering if worlds are living things? Maybe our minds are like food for them, and they compete for food when we peek into other worlds, and the old men are people who manage the balance of food between worlds. I’m starting to think about ridiculous things. I can’t verify the truth, and there’s no way to confirm it, so I’m going to log off now. I’m really grateful to #324 for listening to my story. Thanks for the encouraging words too. I feel a bit better now. If anything else happens, I’ll come back to post about it.

• [328]I wanna go to another world toooo
• [335]Thanks for sharing. I’m glad you didn’t get caught up in anything dangerous. If I went to another world, I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while. I wonder if the old man is some kind of administrator?

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about something similar yesterday, but I wonder what the truth is. Rather than him being an administrator, it feels more like he’s been tasked with administration, if that makes sense.

• [357]The old man of space-time, interesting. One thing I’m curious about is how the man with the mole on his chin recognized you right away. Haven’t you changed much in 10 years?

I’ve changed, though not drastically. Different hairstyle, my face has aged accordingly. So I was also wondering how he recognized me so quickly while we were talking. We didn’t discuss how I appeared to him, but he said “I saw you and came right over,” so maybe I looked the same to him.