Aokigahara the Suicide Forest

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Aokigahara (青木ヶ原) is a forest located in the base of Mount Fuji, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. With an area of trees covering 35 square kilometers, this forest is very dense, so dense that it prevents sunlight and shutting out sounds. Called as "the perfect place to die", visitor will hardly to encounter anyone inside the forest. Also known as The Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees (Jukai, 樹海), a lot of people believes that this place is haunted by ghost or demon.
Legend says that those who are engaged in this forest will never return. Even in these days, many hikers lose their way because compass and GPS often not working(it believed due to the high iron deposit in forest's soil). To navigate within the forest, they must mark their way through the forest using plastic tapes or ribbons.

Suicide Site

Japan has a long tradition of suicide. Self inflicted death, or Seppuku - was tought to be honorable by samurais. Even this tradition is no longer the norm of today's Japan, it still left the mark to it's people. Japan is one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Given the name of the most popular suicide sites in Japan, Aokigahara is among the top three of most popular place to suicide in the world. Around 100 people have succesfully comitted suicide every year. The number reach it's peak during March; the end of fiscal year in japan. The most common method of suicide is by hanging and drug overdose. Because of this forest density, a lot of corpses can go undiscovered for years.

Aokigahara Suicides 1998 - 2003

Haunted Forest

Aokigahara is considered to be haunted by demons called tengu (天狗) in Japanese mythology. A lot of people believes that this forest is haunted by the ghost of the suicidal and person abandoned by practice of ubasute. Ubasute (lit: abandoning the old woman) is an old Japanese custom of leaving relatives or elder in a remote place to die. It's sounds cruel, but it's important during rough time. This custom still practiced until around 19th century. People believes that the victims of ubasute and the suicidal are turned into yūrei or angry ghost. The yūrei wants nothing in particular, they just want to have their curse removed or conflicts resolved. People believes that these ghost will lure people into the forest to meet their fate. When the forest worker found a body in the forest, the bodies are put in a special room used specifically to house the suicide corpses. The forest workers then play jan-ken-pon (rock, paper, scissor) to see who has to sleep in the room with the corpses. It is believed that if the corpse is left alone, the spirits of the suicide or victim's yūrei are said to scream through the night, and that their bodies will move on their own. There are several report of unnatural scream within the forest. A Japan Times writer heard a terrifying scream during his visit in Aokigahara forest. In his article, when he trying to find the source of the scream, he come across a dead body of a person curled up below a tree.

Tourist Attraction

Not all visitor that visit Aokigahara want to end their life. This forest is also known for it's natural beauty. There are several tourist attraction that popular among visitor.

Kategori : Ghost Story , Legend