TOKYO- Taxi drivers have many stories to tell about the strange, crazy or eccentric passengers they encounter in their whole day but this story is a creepy one. Taxi drivers complain about having Ghost or say Phantom passengers in their fares.
According to the details, about a half-dozen Japanese taxi drivers have claimed to have had not just odd but ghostly customers. They report that all seems like a normal fare until the phantom passenger mysteriously vanishes from the back seat before arriving at their destination.
As per the story on MSN.com, “At least seven taxi drivers in Ishinomaki, northeast Japan, have reported experiencing a ‘phantom fare’ in the wake of the devastating 2011 tsunami and earthquake. In each instance, the story is similar. A taxi driver in northeast Japan picks up a passenger in an area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
He starts the meter and asks for the destination, to which the customer gives a strange response. Either then, or sometime later, the driver turns around to address the man or woman—but the passenger has vanished. This is because, it is claimed, it was a ‘ghost passenger’ who was, in fact, killed in the disaster five years ago.”
In some cases the ghostly passenger is reported to have strangely inquired from the back seat, “Am I dead?”
Predictably, the taxi drivers who claim to have encountered the Japanese ghosts are anonymous, and therefore can’t be questioned further. If what they say is true and some of the thousands of tsunami victims in the Ishinomaki prefecture continue to hail cabs from the afterlife then proving it should be as simple as installing inexpensive video-cameras in the taxis.
Either way it’s a fascinating look at modern folklore and how an old urban legend can be adapted for new generations.
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