Didn't want to know?! Fascinating and scary trivia & fun facts

Deputy Editor of RAG MUSICsasashina
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSIC. JFC-certified fact-checker. I’m Sasashina, a mom currently raising an elementary schooler and a preschooler. During my student years at Kyoto College of Science and Technology, I studied a wide range of fields including sound, lighting, and video technology, building a foundation in comprehensive stage production and creative expression. After graduation, I joined a music production company, where I still work, consistently building experience in production and engaging in a variety of music-centered tasks. Currently, I mainly handle articles for children, drawing on what I’ve learned about parenting and what I feel and discover through daily interactions with my kids. I hope my work can be of help to you, even in a small way!
Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”

Even though we think we don’t want to know scary stories, our curiosity tends to win and we end up watching or listening anyway, right? In this article, we’ve collected general-audience scary trivia and fun facts—the kind that gives you chills but you just can’t stop reading.

Some of it might make a few people regret seeing it a little, but there’s also plenty that’s good to know.

If you’re the type who wants to be informed—about the good and the bad—then follow your curiosity and check it out!

Chilling Trivia and Astonishing Truths That Will Give You the Creeps (1–10)

Matsutake mushrooms can also be poisonous.

In the autumn excursion season, it feels like we hear sad stories every year, such as “We ate mushrooms we picked while foraging and they turned out to be poisonous.” If it’s an obvious poisonous mushroom—say, pink with yellow spots—that’s one thing, but for a brown mushroom that looks like an ordinary shiitake, it’s hard for non-experts to tell.

By the way, did you know that even the beloved matsutake contains toxins? In fact, all mushrooms have some degree of toxicity.

In matsutake, for example, the amino acid histidine can spoil and turn into substances like histamine and phenethylamine, which in some cases can cause poisoning.

The watchwords to avoid food poisoning are: eat them fresh, and cook them thoroughly.

If you’re not sure about a mushroom, have an expert check it.

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Chilling Trivia and Astonishing Truths (11–20)

Drinking more than 3 liters of water in a day can lead to water intoxication.

We often hear that it’s especially important to stay well-hydrated during the hot summer months when we sweat more.

Here’s a bit of trivia that seems to warn about the dangers of doing the exact opposite—taking in excessive amounts of water.

It explains that drinking a large quantity of water at once can cause symptoms of water intoxication, such as nausea and headaches, which occur when the sodium concentration in the blood drops.

As a general guideline, water intoxication may result from consuming more than 3 liters of fluids in a day or drinking more than 1 liter of water in a short period.

It also teaches that the main problem is not merely excessive fluid intake but the decline in sodium levels, so it’s important to be mindful of appropriate salt intake and the proper elimination of excess fluids.

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Shoplifting has increased due to the spread of reusable shopping bags.

With the introduction of fees for plastic bags and the rise in eco-consciousness, reusable bags have become much more widespread.

These days, everything from cute eco-bags to very stylish shopping totes is on the market, and carrying your own bag is no longer anything special.

However, it’s not all good news: along with the spread of reusable bags, shoplifting incidents are said to have increased by around 30%.

Stores are taking measures such as installing security cameras and deploying loss prevention officers, but it seems impossible to completely stop shoplifting…

Balancing shoplifting prevention with eco-friendliness still looks difficult, doesn’t it?

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The mechanism of general anesthesia has not been elucidated.

General anesthesia is an indispensable technique in modern medicine, used for major surgeries and more.

There are even records that Hanaoka Seishū used it in 1804 and successfully performed surgery.

However, the detailed mechanism of general anesthesia is actually still not fully understood today.

Some aspects have been clarified—for example, like local anesthesia, it acts on nerves and blocks reflexes to surgical stimuli and pain—but the overall mechanism remains unclear.

It can feel unsettling to rely on something we don’t completely understand, yet this very uncertainty also inspires hope that, once unraveled, it could open new avenues in the future of medicine.

A fascinating bit of trivia, isn’t it?

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