おばけの友達と公園でサッカーした話

What does “おばけ” (obake) mean in Japanese?

おばけ is the catch-all Japanese word for ghosts, monsters, and anything supernatural that goes bump in the night — friendlier and more playful than 幽霊 (yūrei), the more specific word for the spirit of someone who has died. Kids reach for おばけ constantly around Halloween, as in this clip, where the storyteller’s “ghost friend” turns out to have brought along an even scarier companion.

おばけ literally comes from 化ける (bakeru), “to transform, to take a different shape” — so an おばけ is, at root, something that has changed form. A friend “with no face” is a classic beat straight out of Japanese ghost stories: the calling card of のっぺらぼう (noppera-bō), a yōkai whose defining trick is exactly that blank, featureless face.