Goosebumps of Aokigahara Forest, Japan

Preview About the Forest

Featuring the AOKIGAHARA FOREST, JAPAN. 

Also known as the Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees (樹海Jukai), is on the northwestern flank of Japan's thriving on 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) of hardened lava laid down by the last major eruption of Mount Fuji in 864 AD.   

The forest has a historical reputation as a home to "yurei" or ghosts of the dead in Japanese Mythology. In recent years, Aokigahara has become internationally known as one of Japan's most popular destinations for suicide, and signs at the head of some trails urges suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.

About Suicide Cases

Statistics vary, but there were around up to 105 documented suicides a year.

In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, the police recorded more than 200 people having attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. In recent years, local officials have stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to decrease Aokigahara's association with suicide.

The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry, written in Japanese, urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and attendant journalists since 1970. (Aokigahara Forest, Wikipedia.) 

Though, beautiful landscape has sign boards on the trees everywhere that say;

"Your life is a precious gift from your parents"

"Think about your children, about your family"

"Please consult the police before you decide to die!"

The signboards have not been successful to stop determined people. The forest is very dense and thick inside and so sounds from inside cannot be heard. It is said that there are huge underground deposits of iron in the forest that interferes with the direction compass and the travelers get lost.

According to the custom, an elderly relative was carries to a remote place like a mountain or a forest and was left there to die. People believe that the forest is haunted by the Yurei, the angry spirits of those who were left there to die. Spiritualists say that the trees there are also filled with evil energy that has been accumulated from all the suicides of the past.

Some say that frustrated or depressed people who want to die are mysteriously drawn to Aokigahara forest by a supernatural force. The force signals them to come. Some of them who were saved have reported that they had a vague feeling of being pulled towards the forest; someone was compelling them to come and end their journey there.

The unfortunate bodies are cleared from the forest by the forest workers there. The bodies are taken to the station and kept in a spare room. Here the bodies are not left alone. Some workers sleep on a bed next to them. It is said that if the corpse is left alone the unsatisfied and angry Yurei screams all night and the dead body moves on its own.

Many other ghosts and demon stories are heard about the forest. It is said that visitors sometimes see spirits in white slipping in between the trees. (Mysteriousfacts.com) 

AUTHORS NOTE: There have been maybe a lot of stories written about Aokigaraha Forest, but, I'm here to contribute what and how my imagination pictures the mysterious events taken place in the popular Suicide Forest of Japan. 

References: 

*Aokigahara Forest, Wikipedia

*Myterious Facts -- Mysteriousfacts.com