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.