Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories 3

A young man walks home from work when he stops by a bathhouse he never went in before. After getting his shampoo, a bucket and a bar of soap from the elderly check-in woman, he realizes he's the only one there, so he settles in as he prepares to bathe. Later, he hears footsteps enter the bathhouse. On the other side of the dividing wall that separates the men and women's bathing rooms, he hears a woman's voice ask for a bar of soap. He complies and tosses his soap bar of the wall. Later, while he's bathing, the woman asks for a bucket since the others are in use. The man complies again, and tosses his bucket over, but he is curious as to how there are others since they are the only people. Later, as the man showers, the woman asks for a razor. He says he didn't bring one. She asks for some scissors. Again, he says he didn't bring a pair. The woman starts to mumble to herself about cutting something, much to the man's confusion and growing fear. Then the woman asks out loud if she could have his hair. Now scared, the man quickly showers all the while ignoring her constantly growing and insane demands for random body parts. As she demands more and more, she shouts, "Lend it to me! Lend it to me! Lend it to me!" The man finally is about to run away when a monster with a melted face, long and stringy black hair, a soap bar in its mouth and carrying a giant pair of scissors leans over the wall and says in a calm voice, "Actually, let me just have all of you." The story ends with the man's feet being dragged over the wall.

Two men are driving their car to a hot spring, only they are lost, low on gas and getting nowhere fast on the mountain road. Eventually, they come to a fork in the road; one path leads to a tunnel that doesn't appear on their map. Eventually, the car runs out of gas forcing the men to push the car, but it seems the tunnel goes on forever. They stop to take a breather, but the driver notices trails of slime on the road and on the tunnel ceiling. As the men wait for another car to pass by, the passenger notices two smiling kids looking in through the window. However, the kids move strangely and don't even speak. Then it's revealed that the kids are nothing more than a pair of heads, but even worse, they are the feet of a giant spider with peoples' heads for feet that leaves a trail of slime as it walks. The men then notices one of the windows is barely open and try to close it but the spider manages to squeeze two of its legs into the gap and into the car... Some time later, a driver is going through the tunnel when he stops, thinking he hit something. He goes to check but only finds a trail of slime leading towards his vehicle. When he gets inside, he notices an abandoned car in the middle of the road. Then, he finds two smiling men in the back of his car, only to realize they are nothing but heads that are the feet of a giant insect. To make matters worse, he sees, to his horror, that the tunnel is a nest of giant insects with peoples' heads for body parts.

A young couple, Kenta and Machiko, moves into an old apartment for cheap, finishing moving the boxes into their new home. They realize they have an unwanted roommate: a rat. While Machiko is scared, Kenta claims that it's no worry and that they'll have to get used to them. That night as the couple sleeps, a rat scratches Machiko on the finger, making her bleed. She hears squeaking coming from the walls, and wonders if they would be able to live with the rats. Some time later, after Machiko gets her wound treated; complete with a bandaged finger, Kenta goes out for two days on a business trip but not before placing a rat cage trap to calm down his worried girlfriend. But as soon as he leaves, Machiko hears squeaking, but she tries to convince herself that Kenta is right and that she'll get used to them. That night, she hears more squeaking, but again, tries to ignore them, despite her growing fear. As she sleeps, rats surround her bed... Two days later, Kenta returns and calls out to Machiko letting her know he's back. Machiko replies in a creepy voice, "Welcome home." A clawed hand opens the bedroom door and rats scurry out. Kenta screams in horror as a giant rat with a humanlike face and braided pigtails exists the threshold and says with a giggle and a toothy smile, "You were right Ken-chan. They really grew on me."

At 2:15 AM in a local hospital, a patient walks down a hallway, past a window where a truck outside is carrying what look like blank mannequins. As he walks down the hall, he hears what sounds like people laughing coming from a lit up room. When he opens the door, he sees himself reaching out while lying on an operating table, prepped for surgery and surrounded by laughing surgeons. The man then wakes up, and realizes it was just a dream upon realizing he's back in his hospital room. In fact, it was the same dream he's been having for a while despite the fact that he's only there for tests. Upon realizing that he's sweating, he tries to call a nurse to change his clothes, but the button does not work. He goes to the front desk, only to read a sign that says, "On rounds." Muttering at his bad luck, he sees a nurse with a flashlight walking down a dark hallway. He chases after her, but loses sight of her when he bumps into an older patient. Then he realizes he's in the same hallway from his dream and he sees the same clock telling the time: 2:15 AM. He looks out the window, and sure enough, there is the truck carrying the blank mannequins driving past the window. He runs down the hallway even further and sees the same lit up room with people laughing on the other side. He then recalls what a nurse told him the other night. "Don't go near that room. It's this hospital's rule." His suspicion fueled by what she said, the patient opens the door slightly for a quick peek when the door opens suddenly, pushing the man onto his back. Inside, he finds nothing. The lights are out, there are no people inside and the operating table is clean. He returns to his room to try to sleep, but hears people laughing outside his door and sees a flashlight passing by the door's window. He hides himself under the covers until the noise stops. But when he takes a peek to make sure they're gone, he finds himself on an operating table surrounded by four monstrous surgeons with huge mouths; their eyes and noses hidden under their caps. As they laugh, tools at the ready, the man tells himself it's just a dream before laughing himself. Outside the operating room, the old man from earlier hears the noise coming from the other side of the door. The nurse asks if he's lost and escorts him to the bathroom, telling him, "Please don't go near that room. It's this hospital's rule." Outside the hospital, the truck carrying the blank mannequins drives away...

One rainy evening, a young couple rushes down the street, the woman is a little annoyed that the weather has gotten bad. Along they way, the man spies a "Museum of Taxidermy" and decides that they should take shelter there. At the front desk, the desk clerk greets them in an almost robotic tone. As the couple explores the museum, the woman gets an uneasy feeling from the way the other guests just stare at the exhibits with full concentration and the way stuffed animals look almost as if they are alive, but the man brushes it off and even scares her when she stares at a stuffed dog. Annoyed, she leaves the museum and goes back to the hotel where they are staying. The man follows, but she locks the door on him. The man digs in his pockets for his room key, but can't find it. Believing that he dropped it back at the museum, the man rushes back despite it getting late and that it must be closed. To his surprise, it's still open and there are still people inside. When he goes to the front desk, the desk clerk from before is still there and repeats his greeting. Suddenly, his voice slows down as if he were a toy with its batteries running down. Frightened, the young man rushes inside and finds a guard, but upon closer inspection he sees that the man is a stuffed corpse along with all the guests and the desk clerk. As the man backs away in horror, he bumps into the desk clerk, who tips over and repeats the greeting until his batteries run down. The young man screams one last time as multiple pairs of eyes pop out of the darkness... The sounds of animals fill the museum as the shadows of said animals surround a new exhibit: the young couple, stuffed and sewn together.

During the night of a festival, two girls: Miki and Asako, enjoy themselves at the stands, playing games and eating candy. Miki says that she wishes they could stay forever, though Asako says that's a little bit exaggerating. Asako then comes across a mask stand, and calls out to Miki to have a look, but Miki disappears and wonders where she went. One of the masks, a white geisha mask sitting amongst the oni masks suddenly darkens and says in a deep voice, "That side." Asako wonders if she was imagining it, but puts it aside as she has to find Miki. As she looks around, she sees that the people are all gone and the lights are dimming and turning green, all the while a deep, booming voice says in the distance, "Go to that side". Fog starts to roll and laughing ghosts come parading in with the sounds of bells and a monstrous float resembling the white mask with lanterns hanging from it and saying with a huge second mouth, "Go to that side." Terrified, Asako flees and runs into the goldfish game stand where she asks the man attending the stand if he's seen Miki. To her horror, the man now resembles a goldfish. She runs to the man at the cotton candy stand only to find him wrapping his entrails around a cotton candy stick. As she flees, Asako runs past distorted versions of the people and calls out to Miki. Suddenly, she hears and runs into her friend. Miki takes her hand and they run, but Asako asks where are they running to. Miki suddenly stops and her face turns into the white mask and says in a deep voice, "That side." Asako screams in horror as the sounds of laughter and the distant "Go to that side" echo throughout the dimly lit festival...

At the Kuchiya Inn, during a school field trip, everyone else is asleep except for three boys; one of them, Osamu, wants to sneak into the girls' room. Two of them want to back off because they want to sleep and are sure the girls are too. Osamu tells his friends it's because he's been having a nightmare recently. The two boys laugh at this before apologizing and ask what sort of nightmare he's been having. Osamu tells them that in the dream he's in class and everyone is laughing and having a good time. The door opens and a feminine figure enters the room and laughs as it walks behind the rows of desks, someone everyone knows they can't look at. As Osamu thinks to himself not to look up, a huge hand with red painted nails grabs and twists his head around as it forces him to look up at the figure's face... and that's when the dream ends. The other boys admit that that is scary, but assure him not to let it get to him. Osamu reluctantly agrees. Later, before dawn, one of the boys wakes up, and wants to go to the bathroom, but is afraid since being told that dream. He hears a cracking sound, and turns to see Osamu's whole head twist around, his eyes bugging out. As he screams in horror, the boy watches as all the other sleeping boys suffer this same fate. As he watches the boys now writhing in their beds, he wonders if this is what happened in the dream Osamu was talking about. Suddenly, a huge hand with red painted nails grabs his head and he finds that he can't close his eyes or look away as he is forced to look upward at the face of the laughing figure from Osamu's dream before his head is forcibly twisted: a woman with a twisted head, bugged out eyes and a great, muscular arm.

Two teenage couples pull over at an abandoned house for a test of courage. They find it unlocked and go inside, armed with flashlights, and tell each other that there were rumors that people who lived in the house vanished while others say they just skipped town. Entering one of the rooms, the teens come across a Buddhist altar and next to it are red carpet-covered platforms with Hinamatsuri dolls, obviously belonging to a girl. One of the boys says that the dolls protect the people that own them from misfortune. No one seems to notice that one of the three court lady dolls appears to be smiling at them. One of the girls, Yumi, points out that the empress doll is missing, probably the result of someone stealing it. As the other kids go to the second floor, the girl gets an uneasy feeling... In the upper floor bedroom, the kids come across a three-sided mirror and one of the girls, Nobuko, is dared to look into the reflections, but she knows that a ghost is supposed to appear in the reflections. Calling her chicken, her boyfriend, Haruo, decides to open it so they all have a look. The door behind them opens slowly in the reflection, but when the boy turns around, it is closed. At first everyone thinks it's his imagination until they see the door in the mirror open all the way despite the real door remaining closed. They take a look in the mirror again, and in the threshold is a giant Hinamatsuri empress doll. It enters the room, grabs Yumi and exits the room. The real Yumi collapses to her knees in fear. As they leave in fear, the couples take another look in the room with the dolls and find Yumi's body sitting haphazardly on the platforms as if she were thrown at it, her face painted to resemble a Hinamatsuri empress doll. They turn around and find the empress doll behind them when suddenly it laughs a witch's cackle as it's eyes become huge and its mouth opens revealing a set of big teeth.

At the end of class, two high school students ask their teacher if she had heard of the Handshake Men. The teacher says she hasn't. According to the girls, a man stands by the roadside at night asking people to shake his hand but you can't tell him no or he will say that you are naughty and will crush your body into a meatball. The girls also say there are three more of them, but you should never shake hands with the fourth one otherwise, he'll bite your hand off. A third student, Haruko, silently thinks that the story is stupid. At home, while she's reading, her younger sister, Naomi comes in and tells her she forgot her notebook at school. The two girls go to the school and the younger of the two finds it in her desk, right where she left it. Suddenly, they bump into the janitor, who demands to know why they are at there so late. Naomi explains the situation and he lets them go. The two girls walk back home, though the student is a little shaken by the janitor suddenly appearing. Along the way, an old man comes stumbling along, grumbling why two young kids are out this late. Haruko begins to question if the Handshake Men story is true. A while later, a man appears and asks for a handshake. Remembering the story, Haruko shakes his hand quickly and takes off running with Naomi. An officer suddenly asks to shake hands with her which she does. Then the third man asks for a handshake which she does. Suddenly, Haruko realizes Naomi has vanished. Terrified she wonders if she's run into the fourth man. Suddenly a hand grabs hers... but it's not Naomi who's now running up to her. Instead, it's a man ready to bite her hand off with his giant mouth.