JAPAN'S SUICIDE FOREST

My friend sent me an interesting article by Zac Davisson about a place called Aokigahara in Japan at the base of Mt. Fuji known as "Suicide Woods." It gets its moniker because so many people end their lives there. Japanese author Wataru Tsurumui wrote a bestselling book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide" in which he describes Aokigahara as "the perfect place to die."


Bodies are consistently being taken out of the woods, some found with Tsurumuni's book. Signs that warn: "Please reconsider" and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" are nailed to trees throughout the forest. The signs, however, do little to deter those who are bent on doing themselves in. There are also those who wander in, out of interest, and get lost, never to return.



An excerpt from the article:
Aokigahara is considered the most haunted location in all of Japan, a purgatory for yurei, the unsettled ghosts of Japan who have been torn unnaturally soon from their lives and who howl their suffering on the winds. Spiritualists say that the trees themselves are filled with a malevolent energy, accumulated from centuries of suicides. They don't want you to go back out.

There's also an excellent article from The Independent about it here.