I Suddenly Smelled Incense Whilst Fishing
1: I’m gonna go home.
2: Tell us more.
3: These things happen.
4 (OP): No, I’m scared.
10 (OP): I got lost and I wonder if I passed a grave while I was walking.
11: Keep going. Maybe you’ll fish up some long hair.
14 (OP): Stop it, that’s horrifying.
13: It’s gotta be a nearby altar.
18 (OP): >>13 You’re a good dude.
21: They do say that ghosts like to gather near water.
28: That was close, you were almost dragged away.
31 (OP): I mean, even if that happened, the water’s only about 30 cm deep.
41: >>31 You fishing for crayfish?
42 (OP): >>41 Catfish.
29: It’s okay. We’re here for you.
36 (OP): That doesn’t make me feel better.
46: When I want hole fishing once, something looked back at me from the hole.
47 (OP): >>46 What the hell!?!
51: You’re fishing at this hour?
55 (OP): >>51 Catfish are nocturnal.
54: I thought I caught a rare giant clam once, but I pulled out some trousers. Then I fished up a jumper, so I tossed everything back in the water and ran.
59 (OP): >>54 Giant clams do feast on drowned bodies after all.
65: I’m too scared to visit rivers or the ocean at night.
71 (OP): >>65 One time I was fishing alone and I heard someone call out “hey!” But nobody else was there.
69: It was probably a mosquito coil.
73 (OP): But there are still mosquitoes around.
70: One time on my way home from fishing I found a bunch of hair in my rubber boots.
75: You can often smell incense in places where no other people are around, I wonder why that is?
80 (OP): It’s probably carried on the wind.
82: That happens to me sometimes too. But it was Mother’s Day, so I guess someone was visiting a grave. I often see ghosts.
88: May I tell you about a fantastic story that happened around 15 years ago when I went stream fishing around 3 a.m. in an area not near any houses or cemeteries and yet I smelled incense on the air?
97 (OP): >>88 I wanna hear it!
106: So I drove as far as I could in the car around 3 a.m., stopped, and started climbing the mountain path, but after walking for a bit I heard some rustling in the bushes. I thought maybe it was a fox or a tanuki, but this was an area with bears as well, so I got scared and started walking faster.
So the area where I usually leave to go to the stream has a Jizo statue that I always pray to first. But this time I was so scared from the noise that I rushed right passed it without praying.
140: >>106 I’m already scared.
118: But just passed the statue I started to smell incense. I was like, what’s that? Is someone having a campfire nearby? But then why do I smell incense? And the more I walked, the stronger the smell got. By this point I was terrified, but I’d come this far, so I figured I’d be fine. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about how I didn’t pray at the statue, which I always did, and the smell of incense scared me, so I ended up going back to the statue to pray.
151: >>118 Come on man, you’re scaring me.
143: So I went back to the Jizo statue and prayed. ‘I’m kinda scared today, so please protect me,’ I thought, and then as I was about to leave, there was this massive noise. I turned in that direction and saw a massive landslide. It happened right on that path I always took after stopping to pray to the Jizo statue.
It was dangerous, so I decide to call it a night, but as I walked, I kept thinking about the incense and the statue. If I didn’t smell that incense, I wouldn’t have gone back to the statue. I would have been caught in the landslide. I couldn’t stop trembling, but also, it seemed the Jizo really did protect me. Maybe that statue let me know what was about to happen because I always prayed to it.
I returned to the campgrounds where I was staying and let them know about the landslide. After that, I went back with some offerings and cleaning goods to clean up the area around the Jizo. It really was a weird experience. I had a real brush with death.
148: >>143 What a great story. That was interesting.
152: >>143 It’s scary, but what a great story.
107: I enjoy mountain stream fishing, and I also like bikes, so I often go there on my road bike. I’ve had several terrifying experiences deep in the mountains late at night.
109: >>107 Such as?
125: >>109 Late one night, I ran into a woman walking in the mountains wearing a dirty kimono.
Late one night, some wild dogs chased me on my bike and I thought I was going to die.
Late one night, I hit a huge deer that suddenly ran onto the road and my carbon frame rod on my back broke. I also sprained my ankle, and on top of that, my phone was out of range as well. I lost all hope.
130: >>125 Wild dogs are terrifying.
135: >>125 Was the woman a ghost? How many wild dogs?
139: >>135 I don’t think the woman was a ghost. She had a light with her, but she seemed mad or homeless. And it was three wild dogs.
145: >>139 Even if it’s not a ghost, it’s still scary late at night. And three wild dogs is crazy, one mistake and they could kill you.
180: If you’re scared you’ve brought something back with you, let me tell you how to exorcise it. Fill a cup with water. Turn off the lights. Say any Buddhist chant you know. Then drink the entire cup of water.
184: >>180 What the hell is that, that’s scary, no way I’m doing it.
190: >>180 Otsukaresama.
198: Mosquito coils and incense don’t smell anything alike anyway.
201 (OP): >>198 I think it was probably a cemetery. I’m in Saitama, so they’re all around.
213: The smell of incense is harmless. But the smell of raw fish is awful.
267: I wonder why it is that you really do smell incense sometimes?
268: >>267 When I went to see fireflies one time, I smelled incense in the bamboo forest.
231: Reading this thread gave me chills.