There's various interpretations of ghost around the world, I think you're thinking of those jolly ghost that live in a house or something and are happy.
Most cultures however depict ghost as eternally tormented, or not even the person but emotional traces of their torment. In other words, only a part of them, the part that suffers and is bound to this world remains. The rest of the soul is caught in limbo, which most cultures treat as a sorta' Hell somewhere between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Kinda' like all that ails you in life is all you feel anymore, all the negative energy bound to this world because the whole of your being, all that's left as the rest of you becomes trapped in limbo.
In even US culture ghost stories, ghosts are often created from unwilling victims, IE people who were murdered or were killed on cursed land where they were tormented before they died. In Asian cultures, ghosts often aren't really the person but their lingering emotions taking on a form.
It's a good thing it's not glamorized, and I think most ghost stories make it pretty clear ghosts are not having a good time.
