Japanese urban legend: the red light on the mountain pass

okay I wasn't going to post this but it's a story from a senior coworker I know and it's been living in my head rent free.

So this guy works at a company in Kanagawa, which means he ends up driving toward the Hakone area pretty often. One night he just... stayed out too late. Not even thinking about the commute the next morning, just driving around. By the time he snapped out of it, it was way too late.

He's stressed, wants to get home fast, so he takes a shortcut. An old road. Basically no one uses it. And it's 3am so obviously there's nobody out there.

He's hauling up this mountain pass and then, way ahead of him, he spots it. A small red light, barely visible, flickering. Looked like a car's tail light. And honestly? He felt RELIEVED. Like okay, I'm not alone out here at 3am on an empty mountain road. He sped up to follow it.

Except no matter how fast he pushed it, the distance never closed. not even a little.

"must be a motorcycle going crazy fast" he figured. and then he sees a small tunnel up ahead.

He already knows this road. You come out of the tunnel and you immediately have to curve left, then it's a series of brutal right turns after that. So he downshifts, slows down, gets ready for the curve.

and then. the light ahead of him. it just... explodes.

He felt it instantly. something is very wrong.

He pulls into the tunnel, tense as hell, and then suddenly the red light comes FLYING toward him from the front.

He flinched and squeezed his eyes shut. but right before they closed he saw something inside that red light.

a woman's face. tilted at an angle. staring directly at him with the most terrifying expression he'd ever seen.

then.

even though his car windows were completely closed, he felt a faint wisp of air brush into the car. and a voice. low and cold, right next to his LEFT ear:

"...I wish you would just die..."

I'm screaming. the LEFT EAR detail is sending me.

he made it through the curves somehow. got home drenched in cold sweat.

next morning, barely slept, drags himself into work and tells his coworkers what happened.

multiple people went "wait that happened to ME too."

MULTIPLE. PEOPLE.

turns out that stretch of right-turn curves has had accidents for years. cars going off the edge. they've had to put up concrete barriers along the entire cliff side.

if you ever drive through Hakone that way. just. don't.