Aokigahara Suicide Forest

I bet some of you have read about the Aokigahara forest before on various blogs but this was the first time that I've seen actual footage from the place and at the same time hear a local talk about it. Sad stuff.

The Aoikigahara Forest

  Quote

The Aokigahara Forest is the most popular site for suicides in Japan. After the novel Kuroi Jukai [The Black Forest, written by Seichō Matsumoto in 1960] 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. The site holds so many bodies that the Yakuza pays homeless people to sneak into the forest and rob the corpses. The authorities sweep for bodies only on an annual basis, as the forest sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is too dense to patrol more frequently.

the sight of those 'Ariadne threads' sends me shivers down the spine.

very apt soundtrack too.

Yeah, plus the guide seems like such a sympathetic guy.

I got curious and found a site that has lots of pics of the place, including some of...discoveries. I'll leave it to you to figure out how to find all of it on there.

http://jukai-deep-ice.com/top.html

Lovely music. Really liked the guide, so kind and mild-mannered.

Great avatar, Squee.

that was really great...though the person i watched it with started scratching her scars (which i was unaware of)... bad choice there i guess

You should check out these other Vice documentaries

The Radioactive Beasts of Chernobyl

The Vice Guide to Film 1/3

The Vice Guide to Film 2/3

The Vice Guide to Film 3/3

^They track down Gaspar Noé (the director of Irréversible, I Stand Alone, and the upcoming Into the Void) who is filming in Tokyo, and they end up the most fucked up places in the creepiest parts of Tokyo.

EDIT: Added the rest of links

Got eerie chills down my back throughout, then got happy chills at the end when it says the guy was brought to the hospital after spending a month out in the forest.

Really worth watching though, its amazing how this guy stays so calm and positive even after finding over 100 suicide corpses over the years.

What a beautiful forest and a deeply poignant veiw of it.The guide seemed to be a very gentle,loving man,when he kind of put his arms up at his discovery,I let out an audible sigh.

Thanks for posting this,Squee.

Really sad and sweet. Thanks for sharing.

By the way who is the buddhist monk that lives in the forest?

  On 10/30/2010 at 3:04 AM, Bramsworth said:

I got curious and found a site that has lots of pics of the place, including some of...discoveries. I'll leave it to you to figure out how to find all of it on there.

 

http://jukai-deep-ice.com/top.html

I had real difficulty looking at some of those pictures,especially the personal stuff,the tapes,a kewpie make up bag,the purse and the nail varnish,seemed to be far more disturbing than the other pictures.

  On 10/30/2010 at 7:21 PM, Scrambled Ears said:

By the way who is the buddhist monk that lives in the forest?

I'm not sure, but I think he was talking about the buddhist monk who started all of it.

  Quote

A Buddhist monk named Shohkai installed himself in one of the forest’s caves in order to perform nyujoh, a fasting ritual meant to purify and, eventually, kill oneself. Other monks followed his example. The popularity of the Aokigahara Jukai as a place to die grew such that, in 1971, local officials and residents established annual patrols for bodies.

Check out this website:

http://canopycanopycanopy.com/8/the_sea_of_trees

The ambient is by Jacob Kirkegaard

  On 10/30/2010 at 6:14 PM, Squee said:

You should check out these other Vice documentaries

 

The Radioactive Beasts of Chernobyl

 

That guy is so fucking stupid and annoying.

  On 10/30/2010 at 8:23 PM, Yegg said:

  On 10/30/2010 at 6:14 PM, Squee said:

You should check out these other Vice documentaries

 

The Radioactive Beasts of Chernobyl

 

 

That guy is so fucking stupid and annoying.

Yeah, I'm not a fan either but I've learned to ignore him.

I think the Buddhist Monk could possibly be there in spirit. Perhaps why people stay up there for prolonged amount of time. Maybe guidance is what they are looking for.

Staying for a month in a tent with only liquids. It makes you think what these poor souls have had to put up with in reality.

A good insight.

well shit whats crazier that or the guy that treats a plush doll like its his real girlfriend?

xxx, try the firefox extension flashgot.

this was very interesting and the forest looks utterly beautiful, i would love to visit it and find no bodies. I was also happy there wasn't some vice person walking along and talking to him cos I still yet to see something on vbs were the vice person is likeable.

  On 10/30/2010 at 8:23 PM, Yegg said:

  On 10/30/2010 at 6:14 PM, Squee said:

You should check out these other Vice documentaries

 

The Radioactive Beasts of Chernobyl

 

 

That guy is so fucking stupid and annoying.

what a couple o' grade-a fuckwits him and his she-bitch are!

hopefully they both get ill from their tasteless endeavour.

I would really like to watch the vice film doc but have managed to get through my life thus far without seeing the rape scene in irreversible.

Could someone tell me if its contained in this please?

  On 10/31/2010 at 3:36 PM, sine said:

I would really like to watch the vice film doc but have managed to get through my life thus far without seeing the rape scene in irreversible.

Could someone tell me if its contained in this please?

You see the part where the rapist holds up Monica Bellucci and then a very short clip right after the rape has taken place.

  On 10/31/2010 at 3:42 PM, Squee said:

  On 10/31/2010 at 3:36 PM, sine said:

I would really like to watch the vice film doc but have managed to get through my life thus far without seeing the rape scene in irreversible.

Could someone tell me if its contained in this please?

 

You see the part where the rapist holds up Monica Bellucci and then a very short clip right after the rape has taken place.

Thankyou Squee,youre a star x