Reminded by the talk about stalkers, I want to share a story about Masao, who became my drinking buddy last year.
Back in the day, Masao was riding his bicycle to his part-time job at an izakaya, just like he always did. Suddenly, something pulled on the back luggage rack of his bike. Startled, he looked back and saw a thin woman with long hair desperately clinging to it.
Being a night road, it was terrifying. Masao froze, unable to run or even cry out. Seeing him like that, the woman said in broken Japanese, "Ah, you feel it too. I've been wanting to see you." He had no idea what she was talking about.
Apparently, she tried to hug him, but to Masao, it looked like she was trying to choke him. He shook her off, pedaled away as hard as he could, and made it to the izakaya. While working, he was shaking, thinking, "What if she comes here?!" But the shift ended safely.
When he stepped out of the back door to go home, the same woman was standing there. Masao tried to run back inside the izakaya. She grabbed his bag. Masao was sweating cold sweat.
Crying, the woman said, "I came all the way from Taiwan to see you. Please, just listen to what I have to say."
Realizing the woman was a normal human being, Masao grew bold. Not wanting to be bothered anymore, he decided to just hear her out.
She was a 23-year-old Taiwanese woman living in Japan, making a living while sending money back home. She had hit her head in a major earthquake in Taiwan and was unconscious for three days. During that time, she saw her past-life self in a dream. In the dream, she was the daughter of a medieval aristocrat... I'll skip the details, but it was kind of like Romeo and Juliet.
After having that dream, a fortune-teller allegedly told her, "Go look for your destined person, they're definitely around here," and pointed at a map. (What a vague fortune-teller!) Taking those words literally, she went all the way to Japan to search for her destined person. And that person turned out to be Masao.
It was a super cliché story that he couldn't believe at all, but strangely enough, she accurately guessed things about Masao. For instance, she knew his right knee was bad, that he had a long, narrow birthmark on his back, that his younger brother had died when they were kids, and that he hated dogs.
Anyway, they exchanged contact info and that day ended, but that's when the horror began. The battle between Masao and the Taiwanese woman had started.
She found out where he hid his apartment key and made a spare without permission. Enraged, Masao threw oil on her, chased her around with a lit lighter, and drove her out of the apartment.
She would break into his room while he was away (since she'd get beaten up if he was there). She would cook meals, leave her own belongings around, and when he noticed extra toothbrushes and threw them all away, he found evidence that she had secretly been using his toothbrush.
Losing his temper completely, Masao threw dart flights at her, sticking them into her. A man and a woman running around screaming bizarre noises. The neighbors called the police, but since the anti-stalker laws didn't exist back then, it was just treated as a lovers' quarrel.
And what's more...
When he opened his front door, the woman would be standing there naked, acting all shy. Masao would throw her out using a tomoe-nage sacrifice throw right on the spot. (He was in the judo club back in the day and is pretty strong.)
If he slept with the window open because it was hot, she would crawl in through the window (he lived on the second floor) and he'd wake up to find her sleeping right next to him. He'd grab her by the hair and throw her out the window with a seoi-nage shoulder throw. (By around this time, he was getting close to a nervous breakdown.)
Every time she broke in, she left behind huge amounts of pubic hair. When she laughed, whether it was Taiwanese or just a weird habit of hers, she would go, "Heeeeeeeeeeh." (Creepy as hell.)
Right around the time he was thinking of hitting her with a beer bottle if she showed up again, she suddenly stopped coming—probably because she got deported.
Well, the weirdest part about all this? It's that everything the woman said might have actually been true.
Comments (-)