The ghost of little girls in Japanese schools

In Japan, the schools contain an infernal secret. If you go into the girl's bathroom on the third floor of the building, and walk to the third stall, you might find it.

You have to knock the door three times and call the girl's name. When you open the stall door, a little girl in a red skirt will be there.

The little girl with the bob haircut is Hanako-san. She wants a friend to play with, maybe. Or perhaps she wants to drag you to hell — through the toilet.

Depending on which part of Japan you live in, she may have a bloody hand and grab you, or she will turn into a lizard that devours you.

It is not just a made up story, it is the legend of Hanako-san.

Hanako-san, or Toire no Hanako-san is a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako-san who haunts school bathrooms. Like many urban legends, the details of the origins of the legend vary depending on the account.

Different versions of the story include that Hanako-san is the ghost of a girl who was killed while playing hide-and-seek during an air raid in World War II or was murdered by a parent or stranger, or that she committed suicide in a school bathroom. The legends about Hanako-san have achieved some popularity in Japanese primary schools, where children may challenge classmates to try to summon Hanako-san.

But Hanako is not the only school girl who haunts Japan's school bathrooms. Kashima Reiko, another young girl, was said to have been cut in half by a train. Now her disfigured spirit inhabits bathrooms, asking children who enter the stalls where her legs are. The legend goes that if Kashima Reiko is not satisfied with their answer, she will rip their legs off.

To summon Hanako-san, it is often said that individuals must enter a girls' bathroom (usually on the third floor of a school), knock three times on the third stall, and ask if Hanako-san is present. If Hanako-san is there, she will reply with some variation of "Yes, I am." Depending on the story, the individual may then witness the appearance of a bloody or ghostly hand; the hand, or Hanako-san herself, may pull the individual into the toilet, which may lead to hell; or the individual may be eaten by a three-headed lizard.

The Hanako-san character has appeared in films, manga, anime, and video games. She made her first cinematic appearance in the 1995 film "Toire no Hanako-san," directed by Joji Matsuoka.