THE MARATHON RUNNING GHOST 
(#3 in a series of 5)
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Kabaya Ghost Stories
Copyrighted Takaki Yamamoto 2004.
Originally written and created by Takaki Yamamoto.
Lego vignette version created by Patrick Yrizarry 2004.

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STORY:

The following story is a work of fiction and is not based on any actual people or events.


THE MARATHON RUNNING GHOST
In a Japanese college dorm room, a student, who shall be referred to as "O", was having a hard
time falling asleep on his futon. His mind wandered when suddenly he heard a scream coming
from the dorm room of his friend four rooms down the hall. It was followed by a scream from another 
friend three doors down and then by a scream from another student two doors down. By the time 
the student in the dorm room adjacent to his began to scream, "O" was very afraid. Suddenly a red 
shoe came right out of the wall next to his futon and attached to it was a ghost! "O" began screaming 
and watched as a ghost, dressed like a marathon runner, stepped on his stomach and continued to run 
across his small dorm room and right through the opposite wall!

Now "O" was very scared and he had a very hard time sleeping, but he managed to go about his studies 
the next day. But that night at the exact same time, the screaming began again and "O" was once again
stepped on by the spirit of the runner! This happened every night for about a week, much to the dismay 
of the students in the dorm rooms. None of them could sleep and their studies began to suffer from
it, so they decided to see if they could find some information about the ghost and they held a meeting
to discuss their strange visitor. 

At this meeting, "O" learned that according to legend, the ghost was that of a world-class Japanese 
marathon runner who had died of a heart attack mid-way through a marathon that he was favored to win. 
The five students decided that the only way to rid themselves of this pest was to make him believe that
he won the race. So that night all of the students assembled in "O's" room. Two students brought a long
piece of ribbon to act as a finish line tape. They waited for the right time and when they heard the 
ghostly steps of the runner they held the tape up across the center of the room. When the ghost 
materialized through the wall he ran across the tape and stopped! The students began to cheer and clap
and congratulate the ghost on his victory! With a very happy heart the ghost smiled and disappeared back
into the wall. He was never seen again and the students returned to their studies happy, not only for 
eliminating their own problem, but for fulfilling the dreams of a sad spirit!

The End.

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BACKGROUND:
These Lego vignettes were based on a Japanese 'candy-toy' which I found in a local Japanese grocery
store in the fall of 2004. The toys were crafted by Takaki Yamamoto, a talented Japanese artist who also 
wrote the stories for each scene. Each box came with a random toy, a piece of chewing gum and a folded 
card with the story of the ghostly vignette scene.

An elderly female neighbor originally from Japan translated the stories for me to the best of her abilities,
but she can not speak English very well and I added a bit more to the stories for effect, so I know some
parts of some of the stories were not properly translated.

If anyone can read Japanese and is interested, please e-mail me at good.fortune@verizon.net. I can 
scan and e-mail the story booklet to you and if you help me with any major problems I have in my 
translation, I can redo these read-me files and will mention your name in them. Thank you.