This is What's Trending Today.
Nearly 19,000 people were killed when an earthquake and powerful tsunami struck Japan in March of 2011.
A Japanese university student is working on a project in Ishinomaki, a coastal city affected by the disaster. She recently spoke with over 100 of the city's taxi drivers. And some of the drivers say they have offered rides to passengers who turn out to be ghosts.
These spirits ask for rides to places that were destroyed by the huge waves, and then they disappear.
The quake and resulting tsunami waves killed an estimated 18,000 people and triggered the meltdowns of three nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. (S. Herman/VOA)
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported the story last month, but it is trending today on Facebook.
The blogger Perez Hilton, who has over 6 million Twitter followers, wrote a story about it. A number of other websites also have the story.
One taxi driver told a story about a young woman he met in the summer of 2011. She asked for a ride to an area that the tsunami destroyed.
The driver asked if she really wanted to go there because very little was still there.
Then the woman asked, "Have I died?" and disappeared.
Today on Facebook, people are writing about their own experiences with the spirit world, and talking about the ghosts in Japan.
The student says the drivers were not making up the stories, because they started up their taxi cab meters, drove off, and have the records to prove it. They had to pay the "ghost" fares themselves.
And that's What's Trending Today.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Have you ever seen a ghost? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on 51voa.com.
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Words in This Story
ghost – n. the spirit of a dead person thought of as living
blogger – n. a person who writes and publishes articles and commentaries on a web site
tsunami – n. a very high, large ocean wave that can result from a powerful earthquake