Kōfu is the capital city of the Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The city is located between the city of Nagoya and Tokyo, and is known as a peaceful and attractive place to live. But it is known for something else, as well.
This beautiful city was the site of an encounter of the third kind, aliens. Two little boys witnessed two UFOs and a strange, terrifying alien they never forgot. What was the Kōfu Incident, and what did the boys see?
The Kōfu Incident
In February 1975, two 7-year-old boys, Masato Kawano, and Katsuhiro Yamahata, were roller skating near the Hinode Housing Estate in Kamimachi, Kōfu, when they saw something strange in the sky. The boys said they spotted two “glittering orange UFOs frolicking in the sky above” as they put it.
Like anyone who just saw not one but two unidentified flying objects, the boys stood transfixed, watching the glittering UFOs dance across the sky. One UFO took off and flew towards Mount Atago in the distance, and the other began to lower to the ground before finally landing amongst rows of grapes in the vineyard behind the estate.
One strange thing the boys said was that the UFOs made a strange crackling or ticking sound. Apparently it was just like the sound a Geiger counter makes when reading a radioactive environment.
As soon as the second UFO landed, the boys kicked off their skates and took off running to the back of the estate to get a closer look at the mysterious craft. The young boys said that when they got closer to the UFO, they realized it wasn’t orange like it appeared in the sky; instead, it was a domed silverish disc-shaped spacecraft.
The children claimed the craft was around seven feet (2 m) high and almost 15 feet (4.5 m) in diameter, with “strange characters” engraved onto the ship’s hull. While the boys were getting a closer look, they saw a hatch open up on the side of the UFO open and a ladder extended onto the ground.
According to the boys, one humanoid creature descended the steps disembarking the craft. Then the shocked kids saw a smaller humanoid creature that looked like a little version of the first creature that remained in the craft, sitting in a control room for the ship.
