Aokigahara - Suicide forest

[mollyringle]

It isn't like me to post something creepy and sad with pretty much no hint of "cool" or "funny." But this is bizarrely riveting, and, initially, scary enough to make "The Blair Witch Project" look like the silly little joke that it is. As the clip's info explains: "The Aokigahara Forest is the most popular site for suicides in Japan. 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."

Yikes.

So. These are two segments of a short Japanese TV documentary, each about 10 minutes. (Warning: not highly graphic, but certainly disturbing content.)

When I watched the first section -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CK1KdAha78
- I was mostly just creeped out.

But after moving on and watching the second section -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1eXOXYI3bc
- I settled down to a general sadness, and a great fondness for the kindly geologist with this strange and vital job of sweeping the forest to prevent suicides when he can, and find the ones he couldn't prevent.

Since we're on the subject, I'd like to share the wise words of Ed Chigliak from "Northern Exposure":
"Suicide's not the Indian way. Don't go where you're not invited. Know what I mean?"
A good rule. Make it yours too, my friends.

Edit: For further reading, this blogger traveled to Aokigahara and wrote a detailed account of his journey, complete with some photos and videos. A very chilling and sobering place indeed, and a brave traveler.

Comments

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

A quote (from memory, may not be precise) from a Zenna Henderson book that I've always loved: one of the characters describes suicide as "going back into the Presence with the weight of unfinished years dragging at your feet".

I like it because it conveys the sense of sorrow and loss, the waste of time that was gifted to the person, all the things that they could have been and weren't; but it never doubts that they will, indeed, be back in the Presence.

[shusu.livejournal.com]

This is very interesting.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

That was fascinating; thanks for posting. The protagonist is sort of an anti-Grim Reaper in people's lives, appearing when they are at the end of their tethers and trying to guide them gently back into this world.

Everything in these documentary snippets breathes of otherworldliness to me. I am a huge pushover for the trope of the forest that is the bridge between this world and the afterlife/Otherworld (the Narnia books, the dark wood in the Divine Comedy, the cedar forest of Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh) and this is more unsettling than any of those places.

Every single detail is so much like a ghost story writer's invention that you couldn't put it in fiction without people saying, "Oh come now, surely that wouldn't happen?" The crucified doll, the strips of plastic tape leading off into the woods, the nooses dangling from the trees. The sheer fact that the place exists at all. Even allowing for sensationalism on the part of the documentary makers, it's pretty extreme.

I may have to link to these myself, with the same warnings, of course.

Aokigahara

[(Anonymous)]

Hey there, I thought I’d comment as I recently visited Aokigahara forest and spent 6 hours exploring it with two friends and three cameras. I compiled most of the video footage + photos along with bits and pieces from my journal to construct the story of my experience there. Please check it out and let me know what you think! (follow the link)
http://endofthegame.net/2012/02/20/aokigahara/

update

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! Thought I'd let you know I added 5 more videos, they're all very creepy!