Teke Teke – a modern Japanese urban legend

She is angry and her only purpose is to punish and kill. This vengeful Japanese ghost gets her name from the sound she makes with her fingernails while she’s dragging herself towards her victim. There are two versions of the Teke-Teke story, one that dates back to post-WWII-occupied Japan, and one that appeared around 1957.

The first story tells about a woman, Kashima Reiko from Hokkaido, who is assaulted by an American GI and then thrown onto the railway tracks. She gets hit by a passing train which cuts her and separates her legs from her torso. The story probably takes place during winter, because it says that the cold night of Hokkaido prevents her from bleeding out. In agonizing pain, she screams for help. The station attendant hears her but gets grossed out by the view and he only covers her body with a plastic bag, leaving her to die slowly.

In the other version, a young Japanese schoolgirl is being bullied by her classmates who want to scare her by placing a cicada on her shoulder. They are all waiting for the train to come and didn’t expect things to go this wrong. The girl panics at the sight of the bug and loses balance, falling onto the tracks. As this happened, the train arrived, cutting her in half.

As it is expected, violent deaths create violent ghosts. The legend says that Kashima Reiko haunts the train station toilets, asking whoever she may encounter “Where are my legs?”. Being caught in such a vulnerable moment you must try to remain calm and give the correct answer: “On the Meishin line”. This will make her leave to search for her missing legs. Fail to do so and she’ll slice you up with her scythe, a weapon she makes using a piece of metal from the tracks.

I think the lesson here is simple: don’t abuse others and be kind to everybody. You never know how things can turn around.