The Japanese Club’s annual Obake Night took place in the library on the evening of Friday, October 24, 2025. This event has been a long-time tradition that is hosted annually by the Japanese Club Council, coming together to spread the spooky spirit and pair it with a bit of Japanese culture. The guest speakers of the night were newly retired social studies teacher, Mr. David Hasegawa, and current science teacher, Mr. Frank Raymond. Both enjoy spending time with students and sharing their ghost stories. The night began with ice breakers and a horror movie, as most years in the past. But unique to this year was the trail walk: a guided tour around campus where students were shown Moanalua High School-specific places with an eerie backstory.
Few are aware, but “Obake Night” didn’t just start off as the “Obake Night” we know today; it first started around 12 years ago when teachers had hosted tours around the school and told paranormal stories across the campus. Then, Tateyama Sensei took the initiative to start an event where students can listen to ghost stories. Students also have the opportunity to invite their friends along to listen in.
Setting up for this event took months. One member, Noah Gurtiza (12) said, “the hardest part usually comes down to assigning the officers in charge of the event to figuring out the program details.”
The officer in charge of this event, Brycen Goo (12) mentioned how it was, “extremely time-consuming,” but finds this as an opportunity for students to become either “future officers or even future club presidents.”
To kick off this spooky event, MCs Jaycen Laguana (12) and Goo
hosted a would you rather as an icebreaker to start off the night.
(Jazlynn Degala)
Later, Hasegawa and Raymond orally presented their paranormal experiences on and off campus.
One of Mr. Raymond’s stories took place in the student center, where he and another Moanalua High School teacher stayed at school until midnight setting up the stage lights for the drama production the next day. The next day at 7:00 AM, the stage lights were shoved back and out of place.Trying to figure out an explanation as to what had happened, they realized that not many teachers had access to open the cattle gates and no one else had the keys to the student center.
Students enjoyed listening to Mr. Raymond and Hasegawa’s spooky stories. Seiha Babauta’s (12) favorite spooky story was about Mr. Raymond’s ex wife.
Goo’s favorite spooky story is the paranormal activity that Hasegawa experienced in his former classroom in I-building (currently Mr. Acosta’s classroom). Hasegawa shared that one day all the doors were flung open, and kept opening and closing loudly on their own when he started to head downstairs.
After Raymond and Hasegawa presented their spooky ghost stories to the students and teachers, the officers in charge of Obake Night had presented something new planned that last year’s Obake night did not have. They designed a trail around campus where everyone would be toured through different locations and even placed scare actors to startle students as they walked the tour.
One part on campus, the bathroom outside the cafeteria, has a ghost that lives there. Students who take pictures at night in the cafeteria might see her in the picture. Hasegawa shared that if you sense her anger, don’t look back and leave campus immediately before you anger her more. Scare actor Megan Murakami (11) stood outside P12 displaying a mysterious figure. Closing in behind the club members, Goo snuck up behind to frighten the group.
Students on the tour were told that Moanalua High School is rumored to be built nearby a heiau, an ancient Hawaiian temple. Since the school is so close to a heiau, it’s directly in the pathway of the night marchers and it also can explain the reason for so much paranormal activity that occurs across campus.
The dimly lit campus and cold October breeze set the mood for the students, the perfectly closing off this “haunted” night.
