The suicide forest of Japan is eerie!

The suicide forest is called Aokigahara, the Sea of Trees, located at the base of mount Fuji. 

After the novel Kuroi Jukai was published, in which a young lover commits suicide in the forest, people started taking their own lives there at a rate of 50 to 100 deaths a year since 1971 making it the second-most popular suicide spot in the world.

Japan has a long tradition of suicide and one of the highest rate of suicide so far. In 2014, around 25,000 Japanese people, mostly men, committed suicide. 

In the dim suicide forest, it is said the trees are so dense that no wind can pass through and so thick that it is so easy to get lost. So to avoid getting lost, you have to use tape to map your way.

 The eerie forest has no wildlife. The ice in the caverns never melts. Compasses mysteriously malfunction in its depths. It's dark, ominous and eerily quiet.

Along the many trails of Aokigahara you will see signs that say: “Your life is a precious gift from your parents. Think about them and the rest of your family. You don’t have to suffer alone.”

Then scattered around the area are phone boxes that connect to helplines for free. 

 But not every one who comes to the forest comes with an intention to commit suicide. Some just come for sight seeing. 

Even before records were kept on suicides within Aokigahara forest, the area had long been steeped in spooky lore and mythology. Aokigahara is also said to be haunted by ghosts (or yurei) and demons who prowled the landscape and terrified travelers.

The ghosts are said to be victims of ubasate (a custom in which a sick or elderly relative was allegedly abandoned in a desolate location such as a remote mountain or forest and left to die).

Another cause for the surge in suicides in the Sea of Trees may lie in Kuroi Jukai (meaning ‘Sea of Trees’) a 1960 novel in which a pair of young lovers take their lives in the forest.

In 1993, someone wrote a guidebook for those looking to kill themselves (The Complete Suicide Manual). In it he praised hanging (the most common method those who perish among the Sea of Trees employ) as a “work of art” and called Aokigahara the ideal place to die, saying your body will be impossible to find and “you will become a missing person and slowly disappear from people’s memory.”

The items left behind, range from straightforward suicide notes and abandoned camp sites to trail markers.

Apart from hanging, poisoning and drug overdose were the next common suicide methods. 

There are put up signs that suggest you stay on the path because going off the path can lead to ghastly discoveries like abandoned personal effects snared in the undergrowth, human bones and even more grisly remains strewn across the forest floor or dangling from branches.

 A horror movie titled 'The Forest', set to be release this year, was said to be acted in this suicide forest.

 Isolation from modern society and financial failure are common causes of suicide.

Photo credit: mysterious universe

*LOVE...it can save a life. So many people are emotionally sick. All that could heal them is your love. God help us to love more.