Last night we explored the haunted Kiyotaki Tunnel

So last night (17/7/2016), me and my two friends decided to explore the infamous Kiyotaki Tunnel. If you guys don’t know what’s the deal with this tunnel, you can read the background story of this tunnel [here](http://www.hidingfromjapaneseghosts.com/kiyotaki-tunnel.html)

**tl;dr is available on the end of the post ;D**

So, a little introduction about the three of us. I’m currently studying here on Kyoto on an exchange program from Indonesia. The other two were my friends from the United States and Georgia, both are also exchange students.

It started when my friend went to the kitchen of the dorm, and asked if anyone’s up for a little ghost hunting. I decided to join, since I missed Gion festival that day, and I need to fill that gap of regret. We decided not to spoil the surprise by not doing any research about the place. We only looked at some pictures so that we’d know it when we find it.

At exactly 1:45, the party left. I was a bit concerned because it was only the three of us. It wasn’t the spirits that I was afraid of, but the potential existence of psychopaths and/or rapists that might roam the area, since according to the pictures, the place was pretty remote.

According to google maps, it was a 1,5 hour walk from our dorm. We decided that we can walk that far, so we did. We spent most of the trip there taking turns telling scary stories from our hometown. It was a great way to set the mood. Most of the walk was uphill, since the tunnel was on the side of a mountain (or perhaps between mountains?). The only major problem that we had was that I needed to pee, and there were no konbinis close by (which is quite a surprise). I’m afraid of large bodies of water in the dark, so I was quite freaked out when we passed by a large pond on the way up, but that’s it.

20 minutes from the tunnel, we noticed that there were no longer houses on the side of the road, and they were replaced by bamboo trees, and the road no longer have sidewalks. Soon enough, we found [this](http://imgur.com/rdYqsRB) on the side of the road ([here](http://imgur.com/eRbhREc) is a zoomed in version of the pile). My friend was especially freaked out by the dog on the bottom left of the pile. We weren’t sure if someone set them up there to set the mood, or if it was only there by coincidence, but we approved its being there. It’s something to tell people about even if you don’t really find anything in the tunnel. A freaky pile of doll in an abandoned van is already creepy enough for a “ghost hunting trip” story.

It was dark, and the tunnel was approaching. Bamboos were looming ominously above us from each side of the road, and streetlight only lit up several parts of the road that leads to the tunnel. It was then when we heard rustling from somewhere between the bamboos. We stopped to listen, and another rustling were heard, a little bit closer this time, but that was it. We were only scared that it could be an actual person in the woods. Whether it was a nice old man who was just trimming the forest or an bona fide psychopath, we wouldn’t know what to do, since we haven’t seen anyone for the last 45 minutes. We then decided to keep walking, ignoring it. It could’ve been the monkeys, because the place was kind of close to Arashiyama, and we saw monkeys in some of the pictures.

Finally the tunnel was in sight, and [this](http://imgur.com/euqw7rm) welcomed us. The only scary thing that we noticed was how the lighting inside the tunnel is red, but when we see it with our eyes, it was clearly orange-yellow. I thought it was only on my camera until I saw that it was red on every one of our camera. There’s probably an explanation for this, but back then, it was just another weirdness for us. We took our time before we decided to do some Nancy Drewing into the tunnel. Before entering, though, we did what all millennials would probably do – we took a selfie. Nothing popped up, though. Not even an orb.

Inside, it was really humid, damp, and sound of water running can be heard throughout the tunnel. We tried not to speak too loud because it would echo, and we were trying our best not to disturb anything that *might* be there. There was thin fog inside the tunnel, and it was a bit colder than how it was outside.

When we were inside, cars passed through. The echo made the noise the cars made sound like roars of something inhuman. I imagine that it would actually be scary if you stand up outside the tunnel and hearing the roaring echo on the mouth of the tunnel.

On the walls, there were some scribbles. Names, dates, and some random kanji here and there. There were nothing demonic, and I was pretty certain there was no salt lining up the side of the road. It looked quite normal.

We managed to walk through to the other end of the tunnel without encountering anything. When we were walking back, though, a group of motorcycles were passing through, and the echo they made was crazy. It was just like the sound the alien ships made in War of the Worlds.

Near the tunnel was the temple Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji. We decided to sit and rest in front of it, and the two Nio statues that were usually scary kind of gave us a feeling of protection. We talked for a good few minutes before all of us, out of nowhere, smelled strong scent of sulfur. We all immediately decided to leave, and bolted away. Any smell was good enough sign for us to leave the place. There might be a rational explanation for the smell, but in the end, we decided just to leave it as it is, just for fun.

The way back wasn’t as bad as the dark, perilous way up. The sun was already up when we reached the [pond](http://imgur.com/Ll1Bc7w), and it looked nicer than how it was when it was dark and perilous.

**tl;dr** : We decided to explore a haunted tunnel, but didn’t really find anything. We left after we smelled a strong scent of sulfur that came out of nowhere.

I’ll try to upload some videos of us walking inside the tunnel tomorrow.

More Pictures
[a bus stop with a lone chair we found on the way up](http://imgur.com/FlMP5sb)

[More pictures of the tunnel](http://imgur.com/a/aOiiQ)

[More pictures of the dolls](http://imgur.com/a/F3ENv)

by tyranniumopus