Otherworld - Episode 35: Woman in the Bath

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Cindy was on vacation with her husband in Japan when he asked to go hiking in the Aokigahara Forest. This forest has become a destination of sorts for people hoping to end their life, earning it the nickname "The Suicide Forest". Things take a turn for the worse when a ghostly presence seems to follow Cindy home from the forest. To see photos related to this episode, click here Subscribe to Otherworld on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus interviews Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter  If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your full story at [e-mail] Original Score by Juice Jackal To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. What you're hearing in the background right now is a train station in Kyoto, Japan. I was just visiting the country on my honeymoon. Even though I was taking a break from all things spooky while on this trip, I did the interview you're about to hear right before leaving, and I found myself thinking about it quite a bit while I was here, and I think you'll understand why. this story comes from a person named Cindy.

From what she's told me, Cindy has seen a lot of strange things on and off throughout her life, but from what it sounds, I don't think the people around her have taken it very seriously or realized how intense these things were for her. This takes place when she was on vacation with her husband in Japan, and the one thing he wanted to do

was go hiking in a place called the Awaki Gahara Forest, which some of you may know by its nickname, The Suicide Forest. Now, Cindy's going to explain the history of this place a little bit more on the episode, but I'm very excited to have the first other world story from Japan, and I can't wait to continue doing more stories from all over the world as the show continues to grow.

This is episode 35, The Woman in the Bath, and you're listening to Otherworld. Hello? This is a story about. Yeah, let us know when you're ready. Okay, okay. Um... Sajafo in the Pacific Island.

It's pretty superstitious. This is a story about... My name is Cindy. I'm from Alberta, Canada. My experience with the paranormal, I guess I've seen it for my entire life. So when I was young, we used to live in this house, and I would see things in there. would see things in there and I would sleepwalk there as well. And it's kind of escalated over the years, I feel like.

I remember, I don't know, being, I think, six years old. This would happen on a nightly basis where in my house it's a four-level split. And so my room is at the very top in the corner of the house. And every single night I would hear like heavy footsteps going up. the stairs towards my bedroom. And for some reason, I always slept with the door open. And I always, like, visualized or saw someone, like, at the entrance of my room. They just scared the crap out of me every single night.

I don't know why I didn't close the door, maybe because it'd be dark, and I think that would be even worse. And then I would also sleepwalk in the house. So my brothers, they lived on the third and fourth floor, like in the basement. And somehow I would make it all the way down to the basement without even knowing. And I would stand at the foot of my brother's bed just like staring. And it would scare him so much until he got used to it until it started happening quite often. And then he would just tell me, oh, Cindy, like go to bed.

bed when I would do that and then I would be like, okay. And then I would just make my way up back to my room, go to sleep, and that's it. I would have no memory of this at all, but it happened quite often. I'm nervous because this story, like typically I don't tell anyone, any of my stories I've experienced, it just stays within, like, my family, like, my cousins, they're believers. So I feel comfortable. I don't feel like I'm being judged when I'm telling them my stories. And then, like, close friends as well, I'll tell stories.

So it's a bit nerve-wracking to be this vulnerable on something that will be on a podcast that a lot of people will listen to. So just a little nervous. So I met my husband or my partner at the University of Lethbridge. He is a super skeptic. He is always thinking with his logical brain. He doesn't believe in any spirits, ghosts, nothing. Whereas for me, I am a believer.

I think at this point, we've been dating for like 13 years now, so it's been a while. But when I started to get more comfortable with him, I started opening up more, and I told him about some of the things I was seeing. And then pretty much the whole time, he's been very consistent. He's always joking about it, saying, like, oh, don't be afraid. Like, if you see anyone, like, I'll punch them in the face for you. He's always trying to make a joke out of it. But I think in the moment that I see things, it's quite scary.

When my partner and I travel, I usually do plan the entire itinerary from start to finish. And he's just happy to show up and take along and just be in the moment. I always do ask him for his opinion of the locations or activities. that we're doing. And his answer is usually always the same. He says, whatever you want to do, I'm sure it will be fun. So I'm like, okay, great. So this is going back now to March of 2017.

I'm planning a trip to Japan. So I ask him again, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go? This time, though, he told me that he wanted to go hiking in Aaukikahara forest. Since he never asked to go to any specific spots when we travel, I felt like I had to schedule the forest in.

I did understand the reputation of the forest prior to going. I know that the translation of Aalkiqahara means blue tree meadow or sea of trees, And it was created after Mount Fuji had erupted. And then back in the 1960s, there was also a book that was written. It translates to Tower of Waves. The story romanticized suicide. It was a story about lovers that had committed suicide in the forest.

So my understanding is that after, After the book was released, there was an influx of people that started going to the forest to end their life. And that's kind of where the name of suicide forest came from. I think after the Logan Paul incident, it became a lot more popular. I had gone to Japan before. I have family there that I visit. It was never my intention to go hiking at all in the forest because I knew. the reputation of the forest. The closest I would have ever gotten was either to go to Mount Fuji

or go to places like Fuji-K Highland, which is an amusement park, or go to the ice caves or the back caves that are kind of on the border of the forest, but I never, ever, ever wanted to go inside. my partner's job is to plan the hike. That's the only thing he has to do in this entire trip. He did not do that. So we ended up just aimlessly walking in the forest with just a picture of the map. We were in there for over five hours.

So now going back, we're in the parking lot to one of the entrances of the forest. And we see a van. that's parked in the far side of the parking lot. So we're like, oh, that's kind of weird. Oh, maybe somebody's like camping or other people are hiking as well. So we take a peek and we look inside the vehicle and there's a layer of dust. That's just collected on everything in there.

So it looks like the van has been there for a while. That made me a little bit nervous because I'm thinking, oh no, what if this was like an individual who was going through something really horrible in their life and they were thinking of committing suicide. So they leave their things here and go into the forest. My mind was already spinning before. It's going into the forest. So we walk into the forest and it's about 100 meters in now.

And I noticed that there's no sound at all in the forest. like there's no wildlife, there's no birds, there's no wind, there's nothing. The only thing I can really hear is our footsteps, like punching on the leaves and there's a light layer of snow. But I also notice going in, like my fingertips start to feel a little numb and the air feels like it's vibrating. It's a bit hard to explain. like do you know those old school fans or I guess like a regular fan and you talk into it and your voice vibrates it's kind of like that like that white noise that's how I was feeling while I was in the forest it's hard to explain but I'm like maybe it's because I'm anxious because we're in this

forest and it's known for people going in and committing suicide so maybe I'm anxious and nervous. Maybe that's why. But it's like something in the air as well. As we're walking, I'm just staring at my feet because I'm afraid to look up and see anyone. I don't want to see anybody's. My intention was just to go hiking. So I'm staring at my feet and I follow the sounds of my partner's footsteps in front of me.

It's a bit tricky because the train is not. flat, there's things like hills, there's caves, of course, trees, and there's also giant folders. So my footing is a little bit wobbly sometimes. So as we're going up this hill, I trip and I catch myself from falling and I accidentally look up and I see this woman looking at me. She's peeking from behind a tree. And I can vividly describe her. She was like just a regular person. She has like medium length, like dark hair.

Her clothes were covered in dirt. But the only thing that was a bit strange is her face is blurry. Like I couldn't make out any features on her face at all. So she's there for a split second and then she's gone. And so I think, okay, I must be getting dehydrated because I'm seeing things that aren't there. So we continue to walk. I would say she's about my heights like 5'5. She has medium dark hair and her clothes are covered in dirt.

Like my intuition tells me, obviously, like it's probably, it might be someone in that needs help, But then why is she peeking and how did she get away so quickly? I don't know. I was trying not to think of any spirits or ghosts because I feel like that will make me more fearful of the situation that I was stuck in. So I was trying to think of anything else. After about like another hour in, I'm still staring at my feet, still walking. And then all of a sudden I know, just in my periphery, there's an arm. It looks black like it's been severely burned, and it's just the arm,

and it's swinging back and forth, back and forth. And as I speed up, it's keeping pace with me, and so I was like, maybe it's just like something in my glasses, something's in my eye. So I clean my glasses. I take a deep breath, and I turn around, see if anything's there and nothing's there. So I continue to walk and then eventually this arm comes back and continues to be swinging in my

peripheries. And so if I was to reach my arm out, then I would be able to touch it. Like that's how close it was. It was similar to if a friend was just walking behind me and I can see them in my peripheries. Their arm is just walking. very natural, but the color and I guess the texture of it was very unnatural. So when I turned around, nobody would be there. And then as I'm walking again, the arm would appear again. I was kind of losing it. So I stopped and I was like, okay, I'm going to just take like a grounding breath. So I stopped

and I took like a deep breath of air in. And then all of a sudden from above, there was just like a huge dump of snow, like a mixture of snow and leaves, and it just like falls on top of me. And I was thinking, what is going on? I hate this. Like, I don't want to be here. I don't know what's happening. And then my partner turns around because he hears this like huge, like heaping dump of snow fall on me. And his face, like, he looks so happy. Like, he looks so happy. Like, He told me later that hiking was one of his favorite parts of our trip. And like at the time, he was just having such a good time. So I was like, okay, I just took another deep breath in and I just continued to walk.

I'm like, could have just been a coincidence that me stopping in that spot just cause all the snow above me to just fall. Maybe it's like the vibration of our feet. I don't know. I did think about telling him how I was feeling, but seeing his face, he was just really happy to be hiking and just doing something besides eating and going to amusement parks.

He just looked really happy, and I didn't want to take that moment away from him. So I just took a breath, and I thought, I don't know, we can't be in this, this forest for much longer. I'll get through this. So getting back to the hotel, we're settling down and we're putting our things away. And I decided to take a bath because we had just been in the forest for six hours. So I wanted to kind of wash all of that away, like cleanse myself of the forest.

And in Japan, the toilet and the like soaker tub or the bathtub, they're typically in different rooms. When I opened up the door to the tub, the bath, I saw a woman. She was lying in the bathtub with her arms outstretched. There were cut marks on her arms. I can see the blood dripping down from her arms. and she was looking towards the doorway at me. She was looking and got me dead in my eyes. She had long black hair.

She had a light blue and white, like frilly, ruffled dress, and it was like soaked in blood, like where her arms were. I knew she was not real from intuition or, I don't know, a feeling. I had a feeling though that she had followed us back from the forest where she had committed suicide. I don't know what her intentions were, what she wanted, but for some reason that's what I saw. So I was thinking like, oh, hell no, I'm not dealing with this after such a long hike. So I just closed the door. And I didn't take a path.

I just like scrub myself off in the sink because I was not. going in there. Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we will be right back. And so that night, I closed the door to our bedroom and I kept the light on all night. And then at about four o'clock, three or four o'clock, I hear the door to the bathroom open. And I hear footsteps walking to our master bedroom our room. It's like a slow shuffle I can hear every single step that she or whatever it's making, it's coming towards our door. So our door has kind of like a translucent covering on it down the middle.

So as I heard her footsteps coming closer to in closer, I eventually started seeing her silhouette. So she stopped right in front of our door, and it was just her silhouette that I could see. And so I'm laying there, just crying and praying to whatever God or gods are out there. I was like, please, please don't let her in. Please don't let her walk in here because I will lose my shit if she walks in here. Like, I don't know what I would do. thankfully she just stood there for pretty much till morning and then she disappeared. I don't know how to explain like that kind of fear.

I don't think I've ever felt anything like that before, but I was like next level. And my husband the whole time, he was just sleeping next to me. And I asked him how I was sleep was in the morning. and he said he had a really great nap, really great sleep. So our experiences were opposite. So in the morning, we made our way to Osaka. And there's this really famous castle there. It's called Osaka Castle.

So we found the shrine there. And we went through like ringing the bell. They also have this little area where you can pour water. water onto yourself to like cleanse yourself before going into like the temple. And so we did that and I lit in incense. There's like this large large like cauldron that they put a bunch of incense in. So I was standing in front of it and I was just like wafting all of the air towards me because I was thinking what if she decided to continue to piggyback and follow us. to Osaka.

And so I was really fearful of that. So I was just standing in front of this giant cul-in for like at least 10 minutes, just wafting all of the incense towards me. And so when we got back to our Airbnb in Osaka, I guess it worked because I didn't see her. I didn't feel her. after we were in Osaka, we went back to Tokyo where my brother lives.

And when we got there, his wife, she understood the reputation of the forest. So out of, I guess, just in case, like a protective measure, she like salted the doorway just in case anything was following us back. So even though she's not a believer, she still took, like, protective measures. Because I told my brother what had happened, like, what we experienced in the forest and then afterwards in our Airbnb. And so he relayed that message. And yeah, she salted the doorway.

She salted her home. Salt, I guess, is something purifying. But I didn't have any, like, relics or anything. on me for protection, which I guess is a thing that I've heard from friends. But yeah, I guess throughout my life, I just like kind of dealing with it in my own way, kind of suppressing it sometimes. But yeah, I still see spirits, spooky things. But I'm also drawn to it as well.

Like I'll always watch movies, like scary movies. these aren't really scary to me. I feel like real life stuff is a lot worse. All right. Thank you so much to Cindy for telling us that story. You know, it's interesting. I think there's a lot of people like Cindy out there who have seen terrifying things,

but for one reason or another, when they tell people, it just kind of gets brushed off or people end up not taking them very seriously. I don't think it's a belief thing. I think it's just some people, I don't know, have a tendency to get brushed off for some reason, and then people like Cindy end up kind of bottling it up

and not telling people after that. That's a big reason why I'm doing this show to get people like her to talk about these things that they've been keeping to themselves for all this time. So once again, thank you to Cindy for telling us this story. Even if it made me lose a little sleep while I was on my trip, I really like this story. And by the way, as a newly married man myself, I just have to say a word of wisdom to anyone out there with a girlfriend or wife. If they planned a beautiful, beautiful vacation for you

that you did not help with at all, don't tell them that the one thing you want to do is hike through a place called the suicide forest. It's not a good idea. If you plan the trip, you can maybe get away with the suicide forest hike. But if they plan it, it's just pick something else, I would say. That's my bit of advice. Feel free to write this down if you need to, but it's going to go a lot more smooth if you do not make them hike through a place called the suicide forest. It's bad optics. It does not even sound good. So like I said, a free piece of advice from me. And other world. And with that, this has been episode 35, the woman in the bath, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is hosted and an executive produced by myself, Jack Wagner.

Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal. Editing by Theo Krantz. Engineering by Theo Schaefer. The artwork for our show is by Coltysack Studios. This is an independent show, so please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends. If you want to hear more episodes, and support the show, you could do so at patreon.com slash otherworld. If you want to follow us on social media, we're at OtherworldPod on Instagram and Twitter. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, please send us that story at Stories at Otherworldpod.com.