Past Life Memories? My Son Suddenly Started Talking About Something Strange

[1] My son suddenly declared, “My real home is in Yamanashi Prefecture!” What could this be? Maybe it’s what they call past life memories? I got a little excited and asked him all sorts of things. He said he lived next to an aquarium, and there was a pond nearby with lots of fish. I looked it up, and there’s the Yamanashi Prefectural Fuji湧水の里 Aquarium (Forest Aquarium). And Lake Yamanaka is near there, isn’t it? What’s going on? It’s a little scary.

[2] He also said he lived on the 10th floor of a 10-story apartment building, that there was a supermarket nearby with cheap food, that they had peaches and grapes, and that he went to preschool and was in the Zou-san gumi (Elephant Class). It’s starting to feel kind of creepy. What is he suddenly talking about?

Zou-san gumi: In Japanese preschools and kindergartens, it’s common to name classes after familiar things like animals. “Zou-san gumi” (Elephant Class) is one example.

[3] He started explaining how big the room was, where the table was, and things like that. But then he also said, “We didn’t have a bath at home, so we all went to the public bath.” The time period seems a bit mixed up now. He must just be making it up, right…? Let’s stop asking him any more about this…

[4] When I asked him, “Do you want to go to Yamanashi Prefecture?” he replied, “Yeah, I want to go. I wanna go home…” And then he said, “You know, what I just told you, that’s a story from long ago!” But when I countered with, “But this is your home, right? Here in Chiba?” he insisted, “I have two homes!!” and said, “I want to go back to my home in Yamanashi…”

[5] Even though I was trying not to ask anymore, my son sadly said, “I might have to say goodbye to you, Mommy. I have to go back to my real home…” When I asked, “Do you have to go back alone?” he said, “No… I want to go with you, Mommy…” Oh dear, what is really going on? It’s making me kind of sad.

[6] When I asked, “Why do you have to go back?” he answered, “Umm, because, you know, my home in Yamanashi is really important.” When I pressed further, “Why is it important?” he replied, “Umm, I don’t know,” and he seemed troubled too. What is it? What could possibly be in Yamanashi? I only went grape picking there once during college; I have no connection to it whatsoever…

[7] Someone told me in the comments that there’s a pond called Oshino Hakkai near the aquarium, not Lake Yamanaka. Even though I was scared, my curiosity got the better of me, so I showed my son photos from the Oshino Hakkai website. He said, “Isn’t it pretty? See? My home really is there!”

[8] “At my real home, you know, we keep fish.” “What kind of fish?” “Pond fish.” “Huh? Did you catch them in the pond? Are you allowed to catch them?!” “Yeah, lots of people were catching them,” he says. Anyway, he needs to sleep soon, he has kindergarten tomorrow, but I’m too restless to get into bedtime mode, and he’s still awake. Let’s get him to sleep first.

[9] He fell asleep right away. Finally, I asked, “Okay, how about we all go to Yamanashi sometime? Mommy, Daddy, and the baby?” His face lit up, and he exclaimed, “Yay! I get to go back to my real home!” (But his real home is here in Chiba. Why is he so happy about it? What does this mean?) I thought…

[10] I thought he might have forgotten all about it by morning, and I didn’t want to upset him, so I tried not to bring it up myself. But this morning, while watching E Tele, he said, “When I grow up, I want to be like Makoto-oniisan,” so I replied, “That’s great, that’s great! Makoto-oniisan is so cool, isn’t he!”

[11] Then he said, “And then I’ll come back to this house! Oh, but I’ll go back to the other house too!” He hadn’t forgotten. I sent him off to kindergarten without probing deeper.

Many people were interested in this post, and numerous comments were received. Here are some of them. Below are reactions from other participants.

• [12] I thought it was something wonderful. If possible, please take him there. Also, having him draw pictures might be good too. Yamanashi has a place called Minobusan Kuonji Temple. I saw the scenery of its stairs in a dream. Later, when I heard stories from my grandmother about my aunt who was a psychic, it matched the scenery I had seen.

[13] Having him draw pictures might be a good idea! Seeing something in a dream seems possible too! It’s amazing that something you saw in a dream matches something real you didn’t know about. I do feel like taking him, but it’s far and not easy to go right away… But if we are going to take him, it seems better to do it sooner rather than later, right?

• [14] I think you have some kind of connection to places like that, and an opportunity to go will arise from an unexpected trigger. It’s commonly called ‘being called’ (not in a bad sense). If you go, your son might feel resolved and stop talking about his past life.
• [15] My child used to say things like that too. When we went to the original shrine site (Oyunohara) of Kumano Hongu Taisha, he said, “I was born here.” He mentioned things like the door used to be stone and wouldn’t open, but now it’s wood so it opens, or that they built a big torii gate for him. To top it off, he said, “I can see grandpa behind me,” and described features I hadn’t told him about.
• [16] Excuse me for interrupting. If it’s the aquarium in Yamanashi, it must be Oshino. Right near the Oshino aquarium, there’s a pond called Oshino Hakkai. Lake Yamanaka is too big to be called a pond, but Oshino Hakkai consists of ponds. Quite something, isn’t it? It adds a touch of truth. Please do come visit Oshino village.

[17] Oh, really? There’s a pond like that nearby? I didn’t notice it on Google Maps. Oshino Hakkai, you say? I’ll look it up. I got goosebumps…

• [18] Sorry for the late hour. I saw something like this on ‘The! World Astonishing News’ before, so I’m sharing this for reference. I’ve also seen on TV about cases where someone with past life memories went to the actual place, felt satisfied, and stopped talking about it afterwards. The Boy Who Remembers His Past Life | The! World Astonishing News #AstonishingNews https://t.co/zKYWRWAXZV
• [19] There was an aquarium near Oshino Hakkai. It’s a freshwater fish aquarium. I went there around March this year, and it still felt quite new. It was a nice place. Your son is amazing, isn’t he? pic.twitter.com/59TZ2lHOrI