Trapped in a Strange World for a Few Hours

A Japanese internet bulletin board. Are the bizarre experiences shared here true stories or fiction…?

Today around noon, I was accosted by a strange old man who may have hypnotized me or something, and I was sent to a weird world. It’s a true story, but can I talk about it?

• [3]Go ahead
• [4]Please do

**I’m a high school student, but my school was closed today because they were holding entrance exams. So I was just wandering around town when I saw an old man collapsed in a park pathway. I figured I shouldn’t just ignore him, so I helped him out. I sat him on a bench and bought him some Afternoon Tea (bottled tea) from a nearby vending machine. He had a tea-like scent, so I thought he probably liked tea. Then he grabbed my shoulder tightly and said, “Thaaaaaaaaaaaank youuuuuu,” with a really long expression of gratitude, followed by, “Oh, I shouldn’t be touching you.” **

• [22]You could smell tea despite him wearing a mask…? That’s strange

In Japan, mask-wearing has become commonplace since the COVID pandemic.

The smell was coming from his clothes. Then he started ranting about some incomprehensible conspiracy theories. The usual stuff like “China~” “Biden~” “5G~” and so on.

• [24]What was he saying about China?

I wasn’t really listening so I don’t know. I thought he had schizophrenia and tried to leave at an appropriate moment. Then the old man said, “Don’t run away, I am ○○○ (couldn’t hear clearly)” and started inching toward me. Of course, given the current state of the world, I tried to back away, but my feet wouldn’t move. My knees could bend, but it felt like my shoes were fixed to the ground. Then the old man tapped both my shoulders, and I fell asleep. It must have been hypnosis.

• [40]When was the last isekai thread? I liked that Kisaragi Station thread from about a year ago, so I’m looking forward to your story too??

“Isekai thread” refers to threads sharing fictional alternate world experiences. “Kisaragi Station” is a famous urban legend about getting lost at a non-existent train station.

When I woke up, I was in my bedroom. I thought it might have been a dream, so I tried to check my smartphone. But I couldn’t find it. With no other choice, I went to my desk to use my PC, but the PC’s texture looked really rough. The keyboard texture was extremely coarse. It felt blurry. It was like playing San Andreas in first-person view.

• [45]So what you’re seeing looks low-resolution?

“San Andreas” refers to the popular game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” In older games, 3D objects often had low resolution, described as having “rough textures.”

Only the props around me were rough. I got scared, so I put on a mask, grabbed just my wallet and keys, and dashed out of the house. Then I noticed the town looked weird too. First, cars were vertically elongated. They had space for about three people stacked vertically, and there were no buses or motorcycles. There were unusually many working adults and elementary school students walking around, and that’s when I realized it was evening. It definitely wasn’t morning.

• [50]How can you be so sure it wasn’t morning? The position of the sun?

The sun was directly overhead. That was also quite strange.

• [52]If the sun is overhead, that’s noon, not evening

Sorry, I forgot to mention that elementary school students were walking in the opposite direction from the school.

• [54]How do you know where the school is in this mystery timeline? Classic

“Classic” (“teiki” in Japanese) is internet slang indicating a common question or observation.

It would be more accurate to say that the area where I live was altered.

• [56]Please continue

Then I got really hungry, so I decided to head to a convenience store, but the way there was full of strange things: no utility poles, clouds that didn’t move, kept running into people I know (neighbors, my brother’s friends, family), roads weren’t made of asphalt, and there were trees everywhere. When I arrived at the convenience store, the first thing that surprised me was that the automatic door opened upward. It made a loud crashing sound as the glass door moved upward, which looked surreal. The inside of the store was also full of oddities. First, all products were canned. The clerk was very beautiful, and adult magazines were all digital. Only Jump, Gessan, and Young Jump magazines remained in paper form. The headline in Jump saying “Oda-kun, I’m disappointed in you” made me laugh. Since I had to eat canned food, I reluctantly put cans of mackerel, sardines, and mandarin oranges in my basket, but then I noticed that only the beverage section wasn’t canned. But when I opened the door to grab a drink, there were cans again. All the familiar juices and teas weren’t in bottles but in cans.

“Jump,” “Gessan,” and “Young Jump” are popular Japanese manga magazines. “Oda-kun” refers to Eiichiro Oda, the creator of “ONE PIECE.”

I put a Coke in my basket too, and also what I believed to be an onigiri (rice ball) from where they usually are, although it was also canned, and headed to checkout. The cashier said, “That’ll be 2,161 yen,” so I took out a Yukichi (10,000 yen bill) from my wallet and paid. Except for the beautiful clerk, everything being canned, no cigarettes, and digital books, it was a familiar FamiMa (FamilyMart).

“Yukichi” refers to the portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi on the 10,000 yen bill. “FamiMa” is short for the convenience store chain “FamilyMart.”

• [73]Could you pay with regular money?

The money was normal except for my wallet having a meter on it. Also, for some reason there was no transparent sheet, and even the clerk wasn’t wearing a mask. Actually, nobody in that world was wearing masks, so I wonder if the virus wasn’t circulating there.

• [76]If you were infected, you might have brought the virus to that world, which could be disastrous over there
• [75]So what did the package of what you thought was an onigiri can say? Was there a price tag like “onigiri-130 (tax not included)” or something?

**When I got home, I first opened the Coke can, and inside were these clear, round, candy-like balls, less transparent than marbles, that rattled around. When I put one in my mouth, it was candy-like for just a moment before it burst into Coke. It was really delicious. The refreshing sensation was amazing. Like drinking beer (though I don’t know what beer tastes like). It was in a silver, square can with a Doraemon sticker on it. Then, when I opened another can with a Doraemon sticker, there was an onigiri inside. As someone who eats rice as a staple, I was grateful. **

“Doraemon” is a nationally beloved Japanese anime character, a cat-shaped robot from the future.

• [81]Sounds like a world very close to ours but with slightly more advanced technology?

Maybe so.

• [79]It’s hard to clearly imagine, so could you draw an illustration later?

Yes, sorry for my poor drawing skills. The onigiri was tuna mayo flavor. It was incredibly delicious. Like, too good to be sold at a convenience store.

• [85]I see. Onigiri with Doraemon pictures sounds nice
• [88]And then?

I was tired, so I decided to take a bath, but for some reason my house’s bathroom had been converted into a unit bath. I was worried that my mother or sister might come in to use the toilet while I was bathing, but I went in anyway and noticed the bath looked futuristic too. The toilet, however, was reassuringly the same reliable TOTO as always. First, there was no shower or faucet. Instead, there were two strange buttons on the wall. They were blue and yellow, each with some weird characters in the center. Come to think of it, there were hardly any written characters in that world. The only text I saw was on those buttons, magazines, and e-books. All the can packages just had photos. The buttons had some kind of mysterious Arabic-like script.

“Unit bath” refers to a bathroom and toilet combined in one space, common in Japanese homes. “TOTO” is a major Japanese toilet manufacturer.

• [98]This brings back memories

Did that old man do the same thing to you?

• [120]Not me, but there was someone before who got a ride in a taxi and was helped by a doctor who was laughing hysterically.

Anyway, when I pressed the yellow button, foam rained down from above. When I pressed the blue button, hot water came down. That combination felt really good. I repeated this about 5 times and then got out of the bath. At that point, I wanted to go back home. I headed to the park, and sure enough, the old man was there. I would have been stuck if he hadn’t been. When I asked him to undo the hypnosis if that’s what it was, he asked me this: “How was it? It was different from your world, wasn’t it? You had no trouble with money, right?” I answered, “It was pretty creepy.” Then the old man tapped my shoulders again, and I fell asleep. When I became aware again, I was sitting on the bench where I had helped the old man. There was no sign of him or anyone else. I tried to check my smartphone, but my phone and wallet weren’t in my pocket. I couldn’t find them anywhere… so I went to the police box and just got back home. That’s all. Anything else I should talk about?

“Game over” (“tsumu” in Japanese) is gaming terminology for reaching a dead end or becoming unable to progress. “Police box” (koban) is a small-scale police facility in Japan, serving as a community safety post.

• [114]Wasn’t there anything else?

No. I didn’t think it was a good idea to wander too far.

• [115]You just got pickpocketed

“Surareru” means “to be pickpocketed” in Japanese slang.

That’s right. Basically, my wallet and smartphone were just stolen. But I was fortunate to at least experience that world.

• [119]It’s amazing you can consider seeing another world as fortunate

It is fortunate. It’s the isekai I’ve always dreamed of. A proper isekai should involve getting hit by a truck, which didn’t happen to me.

“Getting hit by a truck” refers to a typical introduction in Japanese isekai (alternate world) novels and anime, where the protagonist dies in a traffic accident before being reincarnated in another world.