Hiking the Suicide Forest
Despite its infamous reputation for being ‘the perfect place to die’, I found Aokigahara, the suicide forest, to be quite peaceful and serene. Aokigahara is the 2nd most popular place to commit suicide in the world, and more than 100 bodies are removed annually from the forest. The japanese government has stopped publishing the forest’s death toll to try and lessen the popularity of the forest as a last resting place. As I was hiking through, I kept checking the woods for signs of people, but I really didn’t feel like there was an air of depression.
The forest is extremely dense. You can’t hear anything except the sounds of your own footsteps. I could even hear my own heartbeat in my ears. I can’t imagine how much quieter the forest would be if it were full of foliage in mid-spring. I doubt much sunlight would get through the trees. In fact, the forest got really dark around 2pm, once the sun slipped below the tree line.
Ice Cave
I hiked around Aokigahara for about 10km yesterday with my friend Ed. We started at the Ice Cave and began trekking at the forest entrance to the left of it. Narusawa, the ice cave, would be a great place to visit near the end of winter. It really wasn’t that impressive this December, but I am definitely going to venture out again in March to see all of the ice accumulation throughout the whole winter.
The ice cave has some really interesting features. I almost didn’t fit into the entrance-way! Some of the areas of the cave require a bit of limbo-action to maneuver.
I’m actually really excited to do this hike again and see how much ice has built up over the winter!
From the ice cave, Ed and I walked about 20 minutes to the Wind Cave, which was unfortunately closed for maintenance until Tuesday. We thought about trespassing, but could barely make out the sounds of construction, and decided not to risk it. From the Wind Cave, we made our way another 2.6km down the road- and took a detour through the woods. We came upon a lava cave!
Of course I had to photo-bomb……
This cave was quite small, and wet, but had a cute little shrine. Many people had left offerings there, including eggs, drinks, yen……..and cigarettes?
From this cave, we finally accessed the Bat Cave, only to be told that the bats were “sleeping” and we couldn’t enter that day. Bust!!!
One of the more entertaining parts of the trip was finding an “American Idiot” Greenday CD strewn in the ‘suicide forest’. I guess it’s only fitting that terrible music was left behind in a place supposedly filled with dark thoughts.
