Today, we will dive into the classic Japanese urban legend of Kisaragi Station that was posted on 2chan.

Be careful when you are on a train. Before you know it, you could be lost in a world you don’t know…

Kisaragi Station (きさらぎ駅) is a popular urban legend in Japanese creepypasta culture/the name of the station in the story.

The first appearance of Kisaragi Station was in 2004 when a woman arrived at the station and broadcasted live messages about the bizarre events that occurred nearby on the Japanese message board 2channel (often shortened as 2chan).

One day, near midnight, a user called Hasumi posted a strange message on a 2chan thread.
“Something is wrong with the train I’m on now”.

The train eventually reached a station named Kisaragi Station, but other users on 2ch checked and found that no such station existed on any Japanese map. She started trying to return to the world she had been in, but from there, she got caught up in various creepy events…

Would she be able to return to the original world?
The story is told in a thread-based format, which gives an even more realistic sense of impending horror and scares.

At midnight, Hasumi arrived at a station named Kisaragi Station.

As soon as she shared the station’s name on 2chan, other users started researching. However, nobody could find Kisaragi Station on any map.

The station was surrounded by mountains and grasslands. No person was found. When she called her family to pick her up, they also said they didn’t know such of the station at all…

Having given up on help from her family, Hasumi decided to walk home along the railway line.

At that time, she heard a drumming sound and the tinkling of a bell somewhere in the distance. The sound seemed to be getting closer and closer.

There, she heard a voice behind her saying, “It’s not safe to walk on the train tracks”.

She thought it was a station attendant and turned around to see an old man with only one leg standing there. However, the old man disappeared in an instant.

When she went through a tunnel, another man stood at the end of the tunnel. He said he would drive her to the nearby train station where there was a business hotel. Seemed like a nice guy!

The other 2chan users, however, were indeed suspicious. “Wouldn’t it be strange for a person to be standing there this late at night?”
They advised her not to go, but Hasumi got into his car.

The further the car went into the mountains, the more silent the man became. He eventually started mumbling to himself.

Then, the battery on Hasumi’s phone almost ran out. She posted a message, “I’m going to run away if there’s a chance. So this will be my last post in case of an emergency”

She didn’t come back again afterwards…

What could be the origin/cause of Kisaragi Station? Here are two typical theories.

We’ve got a word in Japanese, Kamikakushi (神隠し).

It refers to the phenomenon where a person mysteriously disappears, seemingly taken away by supernatural entities such as gods, spirits, or demons. This concept has been depicted in various forms of Japanese literature, folklore, and media, including movies, anime, and manga (like the famous Ghibli film Spirited Away).

As you can feel a bit of malicious intentions from the story, Hasumi might have had Kamikakushi then taken away from some evil spirits.

Another theory is that Kisaragi Station may exist in a parallel world.

In the story posted on 2chan, Hasumi called her parents, and it worked. So, it would seem that there was a small connection between the world of Kisaragi Station and the original world.

However, the fact that the station does not exist on the map in the original world could indicate that she has wandered into a completely different world in a parallel dimension.

As Kisaragi Station became more and more popular as a Japanese urban legend, people also shared other similar mysterious station experiences.

To pick up the most famous ones from other stations

• Hitsuka Station (ひつか駅): A pure white station said to exist near Tokyo.
• Yami Station & Katasu Station (やみ駅 & かたす駅): Stations said to stop before and after Kisaragi Station.
• Sutaka Station (すたか駅): A station in Kyoto with a torii gate.

In Japanese, another world is called “IKAI (異界)”, and the stories of these mysterious stations are widely known as “Ikai Stations (異界駅)”.

In 2011, 7 years after the original messages from Hasumi were posted on 2chan, a user who claimed to be Hasumi came back on the Internet. Then she shared a sequel to the original story.

When the driver stopped his car in the forest, she saw a light. Then, one man walked up to her, and the car was shocked.

As she realised the driver had gone, the man told her “You should walk towards the light.”

When she opened her eyes in the dazzling light, she found herself at her nearest train station, where her parents were calling her from the car. Hasumi also said she has no recollection of the last 7 years…

We are not sure if the came-back Hasumi is the same person as the original Hasumi. But what’s sure is that Kisaragi Station became even more popular through this event along with the popularity of Twitter at the time.

In addition to the “Ikai Stations” mentioned above, people began to post stories on Twitter about their own visits to Kisaragi Station.

A film about Kisaragi Station was also released in 2022 and became a hit. So you can say its popularity continues to grow!

The scary thing about Kisaragi Station, as I personally feel, is that you are suddenly lost in a strange world for no particular reason. This is insanely irrational and a fear that can happen to anyone in everyday life.

Anyway, what would you do if you arrived at Kisaragi Station? What if there is no way to return… Oops, let’s not think about that here at least.

↓Check out this related article as well to find out more about Japanese creepypastas/urban legends!