In 2008 I went on an exchange to Japan. My host family was fairly well off, having several businesses and a large plot of land for Japan. They ran a batting center, rented shipping containers, had a small apartment block made from refurbished shipping containers and sold kelp and karp at the local markets, all of these businesses they ran from home.

Whilst they were well off, they had 4 generations living in their house(Grandparents, Parents, children and their children), so unfortunately there was no room for me to stay in the house. I stayed in one of the refurbished containers that was about a 2 minute walk from the house.

It was around 7 o'clock, the time we had dinner every night, so I left my room and started walking to the house. In order to get to the house I had to walk past the batting center and the ponds where they kept the carp and kelp. I did this several times a day and I had been there for a few months, so while at first it was a bit unsettling, I'd gotten used to it.

This night, on my way to the house, it was very cloudy and subsequently very dark, but as I was walking I could make out the silhouette of one my host sisters standing in the area with the ponds, she was only 5 years old so I knew she shouldn't be outside by herself at this time of night so I called out to her.

She didn't respond at all so I walked up to her and asked her what she was doing. She was crying. I put my hand on her head and she was oddly cold, but as I did, she stopped crying. I told her that she shouldn't be out here by herself and that we should go to the house together for dinner. She wouldn't take her eyes of the pond, but she said "Do you want to go for a swim?". I told her that she was being silly and that even if it were warm and daytime, she shouldn't want to swim in the pond! I squatted down to scoop up some water to show her how cold and dirty it was, but as I did I felt her tiny hand on my back and she pushed me. I almost lost my balance and my leg ended up in the water, the water was icy cold. I pulled my leg out of the water and turned around, ready to tell her off, but when I turned around she wasn't there.

I called out to her a few times and she didn't answer, I assumed she must have ran back to the house by herself. I was a bit annoyed, but kids will be kids, so I walked up to the house for dinner. I went in through the front door and went and sat down at the table. Everyone was there, all 10 members of the family, including my 5 year old host sister. Everyone was talking and laughing and my host sister was sitting at the table colouring in a picture.

I sat down at the table and asked what she was doing outside at this time of night but both she and her Mom looked at me strangely. "She has been here colouring in pictures for the past two hours.. What do you mean?". Now I was really confused. I told her how I'd seen her near the ponds, how she'd asked me if I wanted to go for a swim and how she pushed me when I was standing near the water, but as I finished my sentence the entire table went quiet. Everyone was exchanging awkward glances with each other and I couldn't quite work out what was going on.

My Japanese still wasn't very good back then, so I asked if I'd said something wrong, they just shook there heads and stayed quite quiet. My host Mom then told me that I was to come a different direction when I was walking to the house. It didn't bother me which way I had to walk, but I was confused as to why she was telling me to do so, she was being very short with me and before I had a chance to properly ask why, she began serving dinner and the mood began to lift again slowly.

Everyone finished their dinner, I said my goodnights, put my shoes on and opened the door to head back to my room. As I did, my host grandmother, a tiny 80 year old lady grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Everyone was still in the kitchen and the living room and she wasn't able to walk well by herself, so it was odd for her make the effort to come to the door. She pulled me back and told me to listen closely.

She explained to me why I'd been told to walk a different direction to the house. They had been running all of their businesses since she was a teenager, the batting center, the shipping containers, the karp and the kelp, but she told me that they used to run another business as well. In the ponds where the kelp and karp are kept, they used to run a small fishing business, where people would pay $5 or so to fish in the ponds and take home the fish that they caught. They stopped that business 30 years ago. She told me that they were forced to shut it down after a young girl had drowned in one of the ponds. She had come to fish with her older brother, a boy that was well known around the neighborhood for being a brute and having a particular distaste for his little sister. It was only them and one other child, no older than 7 who were fishing that day. My host grandma told me how the 7 year old child had come running up to the house to tell her that the small girl was drowning. By the time that she got there, the girl was floating face down in the water, her brother was nowhere to be seen so my host grandmother yelled and made the 7 year old explain what had happened.

The 7 year old told her that the young girl's brother had pushed her in after saying her "Do you want to go for a swim?"

I made sure to take the other path to the house from that night onwards.