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Table of Contents
👻The Core Claim
The poster says:
She was staying in an Airbnb in Oyama (Itabashi), Tokyo, with her teenage son.
On the third night, after an emotional conversation, she went to sleep.
Around midnight, she woke up after hearing the toilet flush.
A figure she believed was her son appeared in her doorway.
The figure entered the bed with her.
She physically felt the bed move and later felt a shoulder bump when she rolled over.
In the morning, her son insisted he had been in his own room the entire night.
The Airbnb was locked and no person was found.
The paranormal interpretation: a spirit or apparition mimicked her son and interacted physically with her.
Generated by AI
👻First Impression
The strongest part of the story is not actually the “ghost” angle — it’s the level of physical realism she describes.
A lot of alleged encounters involve:
seeing something briefly,
hearing something,
feeling a presence.
This one involves:
a visual figure,
a conversation,
movement through the room,
the sensation of someone climbing into bed,
pressure/contact when rolling over.
That makes it more compelling emotionally.
However, it also puts it into a category where sleep-related phenomena become extremely important.
👻Normal Explanations
1. Hypnopompic/Hypnagogic Hallucination (Most Likely Explanation)
This is the big one.
The experience happened:
shortly after falling asleep,
during multiple awakenings,
in a foreign environment,
after emotional stress,
with a history of sleep paralysis.
That combination is basically the perfect setup.
A person can experience extremely vivid “dream spillover” while partially awake.
Important detail:
“I woke up again, which isn’t unusual for me.”
This suggests fragmented sleep.
During these states, the brain can create:
realistic people,
conversations,
physical sensations,
the feeling of someone sitting on the bed.
Many people report:
someone walking into the room,
someone sitting beside them,
someone touching them,
hearing a loved one speak.
The brain is very capable of creating a complete experience.
2. The “Shadow Person” Effect
The description of the doorway is interesting:
“The light was on behind him, the door was closed a little and my light was off so there was a shadow and I couldn’t see his face.”
That is a textbook situation for misidentification. The brain does not like incomplete information. It fills in gaps.
She already expected:
her son was upset,
her son might come talk,
her son was awake,
he was emotionally vulnerable.
Her brain had a perfect “template” ready.
A shadowy figure in the doorway + expectation of son = brain says:
“That’s him.”
3. The Bed Movement
This is probably the strongest part for believers.
She says:
“I felt the bed move when you laid down.”
People often assume physical sensations prove something external happened.
But sleep science shows the brain can create:
pressure sensations,
touch sensations,
movement sensations.
A good example is sleep paralysis. Many people report:
someone sitting on their chest,
someone lying beside them,
footsteps on the floor.
The sensation feels completely physical.
👻The Argument Beforehand
This detail is easy to overlook. The experience happened after:
frustration,
conflict,
guilt,
emotional repair with her son.
The brain is very sensitive after emotional events involving loved ones.
Her mind may have been focused on:
“I hurt him.”
“Is he okay?”
“Did he forgive me?”
Then she wakes up and sees a version of him.
Psychologically, the timing is fascinating.
👻The Airbnb Factor
The house feeling “off” is a common paranormal report.
But there are normal reasons:
unfamiliar smells,
unusual architecture,
unfamiliar sounds,
different lighting,
sleeping in a strange bed.
There is something called the first-night effect, where sleep quality changes dramatically in a new environment.
The brain stays more alert.
👻The Repeated Old Woman
This is the second part, and honestly it is harder to analyze.
She describes seeing:
the same older woman,
same green scarf,
multiple locations,
one time her son did not notice her.
Possible explanations:
Explanation 1: Coincidence
Tokyo is enormous, but certain neighborhoods are surprisingly repetitive.
If someone:
lives nearby,
shops locally,
travels similar routes,
seeing them multiple times is possible.
The scarf detail makes the memory stronger because unusual clothing sticks out.
Explanation 2: Memory Pattern Reinforcement
Humans are excellent pattern detectors.
The first time:
“Interesting lady with a strange scarf.”
The brain flags her.
After that, every similar person gets extra attention.
This is called the frequency illusion (Baader-Meinhof effect).
Once something becomes important, you notice it everywhere.
Explanation 3: Paranormal Interpretation
This is where believers would go. Some Japanese folklore includes ideas of:
spirits attached to locations,
supernatural encounters with repeated appearances,
figures acting as omens.
The scarf detail is interesting because she specifically mentions an oni-like design. However, there is no evidence from the story alone that the woman was supernatural.
👻Our Take:
The most likely explanation is a sleep-related hallucination caused by unfamiliar surroundings, emotional stress, and fragmented sleep. The timing and details line up strongly with known hypnopompic experiences.
What makes the story fascinating is not necessarily that a ghost appeared, but how realistic the human brain can make an experience feel. The repeated encounters with the woman add another layer of mystery, although coincidence and memory patterns can explain that part as well.
Whether paranormal or psychological, the experience clearly felt completely real to the person who lived it.
👻 Paranormal Rating: 👻👻👻☆☆ (3/5 Ghosts)
Why 👻👻👻☆☆?
👻 The experience felt incredibly real, including seeing a figure, feeling someone get into bed, and physical contact.
👻 The poster comes across as sincere and isn't making extraordinary claims beyond describing what happened.
👻 However, the event occurred during multiple awakenings in an unfamiliar place, and the poster has a history of sleep paralysis—both of which strongly support a hypnopompic hallucination or other sleep-related explanation.
☆ There were no independent witnesses or corroborating evidence.
☆ The repeated sightings of the older woman are intriguing but can also be explained by coincidence or the brain's tendency to recognize familiar patterns.
Final Verdict: 👻👻👻☆☆ (3/5 Ghosts)
It's a genuinely creepy story with enough unusual details to make you think, but there's also a solid psychological explanation that fits the circumstances. It's one of those cases that sits right in the middle—unsettling, memorable, and impossible to prove one way or the other.
The most interesting question I’d ask the poster is:
“When you saw the figure in the doorway, did you ever actually hear your son’s voice, or was the entire conversation based only on seeing the figure and your assumption that it was him?”
That one detail would change the analysis quite a bit.
Don’t forget to check out our other paranormal articles where we debunk and wonder about the evidence that some find authentic.
Thanks for reading our thoughts on the paranormal, or Paranormal Blah 👻
This Week in Paranormal History
July 11–19, 1973 (The Perron Family Haunting): The terrifying events that inspired The Conjuring began heating up around this time in Rhode Island. The family experienced aggressive physical attacks and vanishing household items, which ultimately led to a famous 1970s intervention by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
