Obake Story: Rocks Kitchen

This one isn't as scary; it's actually kind of boring except for the fact that it's the most solid sighting I've ever had. Still, Keith shouldn't read this at night. After all, he was a regular here. See also the Scary Stuff Disclaimer.

Centuries ago I worked in a popular sports/karaoke bar called On The Rocks, which was located in a midpriced Waikiki hotel. Like many hotels, this one had had its share of jumpers & hotel room suicides (1. You don't have to pay the room service tab. 2. The maids will clean up the mess.). Our large, well-lit kitchen was quite busy producing huge piles of nachos or sizzling platter steaks with mushrooms & onions (which we served only after circling the room once, provoking subsequent steak orders) & had only 2 doors: the back door leading to the loading dock, which was locked from the inside, & the huge swinging doors which led into the loud, busy customer area. Within the kitchen were our walk-in fridge & freezer, each about 10' x 6'.

There had been some spooky stories about the kitchen from before I started working there but I hadn't paid attention. During my time there, one of our cooks took to sitting outside in the bar whenever he wasn't cooking. When I asked him why he said he refused to be in the kitchen alone unless he had to, because he sensed a presence in there & pots had flown off shelves from across the room. I thought that was pretty cool. Later one of my co-workers mentioned that 3 of them had been talking story in the kitchen when they heard someone pounding on the door from the inside of the walk-in fridge. They had immediately opened the door thinking someone had gotten locked in there, but it was empty. Again, coolness.

I worked nightly untl 4am. At 2am I would start grabbing cases of beer from the walk-in & begin my restocking (if I waited until 4 I would be there forever). One night as I was in the walk-in making a pile of beer cases, I looked up to see male figure, dressed in black, strolling right past the door. The fluorescent lights in the kitchen were very bright, & I was completely sober. The dude in black was as clear as a live person; no smoke or blurriness or music or anything.

Immediately I knew I'd seen something paranormal. The kitchen had closed at 1 & the back door had been locked since then. I'd been in & out of this kitchen to grab ice & knew it was empty. The music & noise from the bar area would have loudly & clearly announced even a fractional opening of the swinging doors.

So, that was a ghost.

"Cool," I said to myself, & I went back to my stocking.

Obake Story: Benizuru/Kagami's

Hey, this is going to be a firsthand ghost story so if it's late at night & you get spooked easily, save it for tomorrow. I'm talking to you, Keith. See also the Scary Stuff Disclaimer.

In 2002 my then-husband (Dean) & I opened a small bar in Kaimuki called Pub Kagami. This was the same spot which Dean & I had frequented for years before we became the new owners; back then it was Benizuru, run by husband & wife team Derek & Rika. I had commented to Dean how nice it would be to have a bar just like this one, & when a few years later Derek & Rika moved out, we jumped at the chance to move in. We (well, Dean) spent 5 months remodeling the entire interior, opening in March 2002 with great hopes & a bit of exhaustion.

I was there every day, the happy bar owner, as early as 2pm, & often while I sat in the bar doing paperwork late afternoons I would see a young man with brown hair standing in a certain spot of the bar, just in front of the hallway leading to the restrooms. He simply stood there; he never looked at me or moved, although he would be gone once I blinked.

He didn't bother me, so I never thought much of it.

In 2003 Dean & I split up, amicably, & I left my marriage & my bar, taking only the Playstation with me (I had just bought Qbert). I did come back, after a year, to help out once a week, & that was when Dean told me about the Glass O' Beer tradition. Apparently the bar had a paranormal visitor who could make the tvs & speakers go crazy, who, according to the janitor, made regular rounds to the other businesses in the building. As had been suggested to him, Dean would pour a glass of beer & set it in the corner of the bar, & amazingly (it had been witnessed by others as well), that seemed to calm the electronics down.

I was skeptical, not because I don't believe in ghosts, but mainly because I don't believe in people. But I humored the new bar tradition. I ended up leaving again, but when I came back in 2006 to help the new owners who had bought the bar from Dean out, I was informed that the Glass O' Beer was still observed, although sporadically.

Although I never saw my young man of the afternoons (my shift started at 8; that might be why), I did see shadows in the bar that appeared to be more than ocular spectres in a dark room, mostly in the area of the dartboards, which were a few feet from my young man's spot. I never bothered with them much until one night I had 3 sightings, which I thought unusual, & when I asked my boss if he had set out the Glass O' Beer recently he didn't know. I checked & found it moldy. I poured a new one.

However, the spirit(s) seemed to only get bolder. In the bar one night playing megatouch I was tapped, rather briskly, twice. Both times I turned around to see that no one in the bar was anywhere near me. I found that annoying. Even more annoying was hearing my name shouted on busy nights, & having to stop whatever I was doing to scan the faces in the room for whoever was trying to get my attention.

One night in the kitchen I was startled by a large, dark-skinned man who stood by the entrance glaring at me. I went back to washing dishes, & looked up to see him again. And then again. While ghosts of themselves don't bother me a whole lot, the glaring did. A couple of customers glanced through the kitchen door at me when I said "Dammit!" the 3rd time. I finally hissed to the empty air, "Stop it!!" & marched out of the kitchen. I never saw him again.

My sister mentioned to me that she had funny feelings, like she was being watched, in the women's restroom. My friend Joy also had a minor scary moment when the restroom lights went off & wouldn't go back on for her. When I went to investigate they turned right on. Dancing Frog action.

I ran into Derek & Rika at Sorabol one night. I didn't want to sound like a neurotic little girl but I had to ask them if they had ever had any obakes in the bar.

"Oh yeah," Rika immediately said. She looked at Derek. "Remember? The young man." She also mentioned an old man who frequented the main seating area (which would have been re-modeled as our dartboard area) & a big man with "scary eyes." I told her about the shoulder tapping & she said that female customers had reported that to them during Benizuru's reign. Apparently the male ghosts in the bar enjoyed having women around. Made sense.

Last year the 808Ghosts team came by to see if they could find anything to document; recording-wise it was rather fruitless but their occult specialist/psychic had a lot of observations, including a confirmation of a presence in the women's restroom. I ended up joining their team, although since deleting my MySpace I've been out of the loop. And... I just checked out the new site; looks like I'm off the team. Meh, easy come easy go. =)

Since then it's been pretty quiet except for a few incidents that are probably coincidences. Maybe the obakes didn't like being outed. The building is still active, though... a couple of months ago I saw mounds of rock salt in the doorway of one of the other businesses.

Try beer, guys.

Scary Stuff: The Disclaimer

Over the next few months I'm going to start posting a series of firsthand obake stories, maybe a few secondhand ones. Only some of them are actually scary, but the label will be "Scary Stuff."

From the hovering purplish thing in my room when I was 4 & the "thing" in the neighbor's mango tree when I was 7 to the voices calling my name in 2008 I've never really taken these things that seriously (Well, I might take these voices seriously because it's screwing up my sleep; anyone know any good exorcists?). They made interesting stories, & that's all these will be: interesting stories.

Recently a friend & I sat down & traded ghost stories, & I found that I had difficulty remembering some details that had never eluded me before. Now, due to various aspects of my past, I acknowledge large chunks of my life have been sucked into the void of senility (I'd list them but I can't remember their existence, much less their names.). Let's not let this happen to the fun stories!

Since childhood I believed in ghosts. My imaginary friend, Hermaine (pronouced Herman) was a ghost, & he was great company. I couldn't tell you what he looked like, but my grandmother's favorite story is how I made her move because she was "sitting on Hermaine."

So I started life out with good experiences.

I also believe that there are a lot of coincidences. And on top of that I acknowledge that I probably can't differentiate the 2 accurately 100% of the time.

These are just stories. What's cool is that they actually happened to me, or to the person who related them to me. I'm just writing them down because, since Alzheimers runs in my family, I should probably write them down somewhere.